WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2018
Serving Polk County’s St. Croix Valley since 1897
VOL. 121 NO. 08 www.osceolasun.com $1.00
SPORTS: Osceola girls cross country wins Chieftain Invitational. PAGE 14
‘Almost, Maine’ onstage at ArtBarn One cold, clear Friday night in the middle of winter, while the northern lights hover in the sky above, Almost’s residents find themselves falling in and out of love in the strangest ways. Knees are bruised. Hearts are broken. Love is lost, found and confounded. And life for the people of Almost, Maine will never be the same. “Almost, Maine:” It’s love. But not quite. The play, which started a two-week run at the ArtBarn last Friday, was developed at the Cape Cod Theater Project in 2002. During its premiere at Portland Stage Company, it broke box office records and garnered
critical acclaim. The play has since been performed by nearly 4,000 theater companies in the United States and nearly a hundred companies internationally, making it one of the most frequently produced plays of the past decade. Reviewers have described it as “love in the time of frostbite,” and “utterly endearing … with a faint dusting of snowbound magical realism.” Performances continue at the ArtBarn this Friday and Saturday, September 21 and 22, at 7 p.m. Tickets can be ordered through the Barn’s website, www. stcroixartbarn.org/ our-events.
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Marcia Dressel as Glory in the ArtBarn’s current show, “Almost, Maine.” Dressel also plays Marci and Rhonda in the play comprised of nine short vignettes.
SUZANNE LINDGREN | THE SUN
The Osceola Fire and Rescue crew watches the Wheels and Wings airshow, ready to respond to an emergency.
Not even a bee sting Fall events go off without a hitch BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
Osceola’s annual end-of-summer events, Wheels and Wings, Osceola Community Fair and the bazaar in Mill Pond Park, were a success on the public safety front. “It was absolutely fantastic,” Osceola Police Chief Ron Pedrys told the village board last Tuesday. “You couldn’t get more perfect weather. […] For as many people as we had in town it’s the first time we didn’t even have a bee sting, a medical, a lost child, anything. […] It was a good weekend.” Pedrys recognized the work of the village’s public works staff in making the weekend successful. “Todd [Waters, streets and parks coordinator] and the village crew did a fantastic job this weekend. As busy as we all are preparing for this, and when the event comes we’re running every which way, […]
we had some snafus and last minute changes and they had a game plan in motion. Without complaining at all they made it happen and really did what they had to do to make things run smoothly.” The village crew prepared for three weeks to be ready for the events. “The better we prep the better these three days go for us,” Waters told the village board. “Everything went really great. Justin [Schill] and Mike [Mallin] did a wonderful job. It was great to work in unity and get everything together for other entities, for the police department to help out with Wheels & Wings. […] Everything went off really well.” Speaking for the fire and rescue squad, Joey Cutts gave the event a positive review. “It was a good weekend at the fair and at Wheels & Wings from the standpoint of being quiet and safe, and no issues to deal with or responses,” he said. “It was very pleasant.”
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Sarah Vater and others in the Land O’ Lakes Global Food Challenge spent a day playing playground equipment at a children’s group home in South Africa.
Osceola grad fundraising for Africa Sarah Vater, a 2016 graduate of Osceola High School who made headlines for her fundraising efforts as a teen, is now a college student working to make life better for others. Last summer, she and four other students worked on the Land O’Lakes Global Food Challenge project. The program brought them to Washington, D.C., to discuss pressing issues facing the agriculture industry with lawmakers, and to the farms and coops that make up Land O’Lakes’ ownership. The group of five students from four universities, each studying a different subject, also traveled to Malawi and South Africa.
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“As you can probably already tell,” said Vater, “this isn’t your average college internship.” The group was particularly struck by a volunteer visit to a children’s group home in South Africa with run-down facilities, bare kitchens and inadequate funding to support the children. They spent a day painting worn playground equipment. “That night as we were talking about our day we were reminded of their destroyed, but beloved, soccer ball the kids played with all day, as well as the fact the kitchen had only six forks for the 50 children,” Vater said. As a team, they began to think, “What if we, as a group of
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interns, sent over more toys?” The idea continued to grow until they finally thought, “What if we started a large-scale fundraising campaign for this home to help them get some crucial things they need?” Before long, they’d found a company in Cape Town that agreed to match the fundraising idea up to $20,000. The group is now reaching out to family, friends, local businesses, churches and communities to help them meet the goal and secure the matching funds. To learn more about Vater’s project and experience, visit www.gofundme.com/africa-project-do-good
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