COUNTRY
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2016
Serving Marine on St. Croix, Scandia, May Township
VOL. 33 NO. 26 www.countrymessenger.com $.75
URBAN FOREST: Project planned for Marine on St. Croix. PAGE 7
Traveling teacher
SUBMITTED
Crazy hair at Wild Walk MARCY WIRTH
Sixth grade students Olivia Lyden, Ava Hansen, Alivia Bergeson, and Kate Larsen show off their crazy hair.
Marcy Wirth in the main square of Cieszyn, Poland.
Scandia Students do the Wild Walk Students at Scandia Elementary IB World School participated in their fall Wild Walk event during the week of Oct. 4-7. Each day the students had a special theme: crazy hair day, team jersey day, and
pajama day. On Friday, Oct. 7, the students went outside and into the gymnasium to participate in different games and activities to celebrate physical fitness and school pride. The Wild Walk is sponsored
BY JESSICA ANDERSON INTERIM EDITOR
by the Scandia PTO. The Scandia Marine Lions donated cookies and juice to all of the Wild Walkers. Scandia parent Jocelyn Leonhart designed the 2016 Wild Walk shirts.
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Shoot the Messenger
Recently a local teacher of more than 28 years returned from spending an entire year in Poland where she continued her teaching career. Marcy Wirth travelled to Cieszyn, Poland, as a missionary and taught 167 students at three different Lutheran schools. “It truly was the biggest challenge of all my teaching years!” she said, adding “I didn’t have curriculum to depend on or materials to enrich my students, so had to send many boxes with teaching books and tools to Poland. My family and friends sent me Ziploc baggies, plastic folders, puppets, brown sugar, chocolate chips for cookies, as well as many more items.” Limited supplies were not the only challenge Wirth faced during her year in Cieszyn. “I have travelled to many countries during my lifetime to learn about the history, terrain, and cultures of those countries, but that doesn’t compare to actually living in one for a year! To live among people who just spoke Polish was unnerving and very challenging.” Sometimes travelling to high tourist areas can help with the language barrier. Large cities and common destinations have, in many places, become more used to accommodating English-speaking travellers. However, Wirth explained that “Cieszyn isn’t a tourist town, but a place where people lived, worked, and went to school.” Wirth shared that teaching and traveling have been important parts of her life for a long time, both big inspirations throughout. “When I was growing up I had always wanted to teach, but yearned to be a missionary serving my Lord somewhere in the world in strange countries. Teaching for 28 plus years right here in the Scandia/Forest Lake area became my love and focus. Then after I was retired I was called to teach by ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) Global Missions.” This trip was a considerably meaningful experience to Wirth, not to mention a big undertaking. The connections she made seem to have had a lasting impact on her. “The purpose of my time was to serve others as an ELCA missionary teacher, but I was the one touched by Polish angels wherever I went!”
Renee and Dennis Arcand with the Country Messenger at the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, AZ last week.
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