It's Christmas Eve, and we wish all of our readers a Merry Christmas. Reading around the papers today, we're moved by the story of the anonymous donor who gave $1 million to the families left homeless by a fire in a Burnsville apartment complex. This works out to each family getting $17,500; many of those displaced had little to begin with. We read:
A bleak holiday grew a bit brighter this morning for residents who
returned to a fire-ravaged Burnsville apartment complex to receive
their portions of a $1 million anonymous donation.
Each family from Building A, which was destroyed in Monday's blaze,
will receive a check for $17,500, courtesy of the donor, whose only
request was that the Burncliff Apartments residents would receive the
gift in time for Christmas.
We are blessed to have this kind person living among us. There's a less dramatic story unfolding in Waseca, though the benefit to the community will persist for years. In A season of giving, the Waseca County News reports:
Paul and Sue Rosenau hope to touch as many people as possible with
funds from their lottery winnings, but they didn’t expect the
endowments to be Christmas gifts.
That’s just how it worked out, according to Sue Rosenau, because somebody had a better plan than they did.
Since
the day in May when the couple won the largest Powerball jackpot in
Minnesota history, that is how it has been, Paul Rosenau said. They
took home nearly $60 million out of a $180.1 million jackpot and set
out to fulfill the responsibility they believed came to them through
those winnings. And all along the way, they felt someone was guiding
them.
So, over the last two weeks, the Rosenaus were busy delivering news of local endowments.
The largest of their gifts was made to Grace Lutheran Church.
“It’s
a substantial gift that will be utilized to meet people’s needs,”
Associate Pastor Dan Doering said about the 11 different endowments
made to the Rosenaus’ church home, the church that sustained them when
they lost their granddaughter, Makayla, to Krabbes Disease five years
ago.
The vast majority of the endowments will go to meet the
needs of the community. That the endowments come at Christmas is to
Doering so appropriate because it is the season in the church of God’s
greatest gift.
Read the rest of the article for more of the story. A separate piece, Community groups benefit from Rosenau gifts, details the endowments:
Funds have been established at Grace Lutheran Church for Grace Garden,
Habitat for Humanity, matching gifts, pastors’ discretionary endowment,
staff development, worship endowment and youth endowment. Other funds
in the planning stage include a fund to offset costs of medical crisis
in Waseca and other communities; a scholarship fund for students
pursuing a church vocation; and a disaster relief fund to offset
recovery costs after a natural disaster. The church purchased the
former Countryside Motors showroom building and parking lot and an
additional lot with a gift of $270,000 from the Rosenaus. Future use of
the building is still undecided.
Other local endowments have
been made through the Waseca Area Foundation to Waseca area law
enforcement, Waseca and Woodville Fire Departments, Waseca Parks and
Trails, Waseca Public Schools, Waseca Medical Facility, Cally Jo Larson
Fund, Barb Penny Fund and Farmamerica.
Waseca School District
Superintendent John Rokke said a $500,000 endowment was made to the
schools: $200,000 for k-12 technology upgrades; $100,000 for
scholarships for students pursuing the medical field; $100,000 for
scholarships for talented and gifted students who don’t otherwise
qualify for scholarships; and $100,000 for the marching band program.
The funds are not for the school budget.
Grace Garden is a day care center; all of these gifts are a wonderful acknowledgment of the comfort the Rosenaus received when their grand-daughter's illness shattered their own world:
They felt alone when Makayla was diagnosed with a disease they knew
nothing about, Paul said, but the community supported them and now they
want to help others in a similar crisis.
The Cally Jo Larson Fund and the Barb Penny Fund are administered by the Waseca Foundation. A small town of about 8500, Waseca has had its share of woe in recent years, and Grace Lutheran has played a strong role in healing the town's heartaches. What an incredible story.
In other issues, Agri-News editorializes in Midwest is the place for ag policy power with Vilsack:
With President-elect Barack Obama's selection of
former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack as the next agriculture secretary, the
epicenter of agricultural policy is right here in the Midwest.
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin leads the Senate ag committee and Minnesota
Rep. Collin Peterson holds the same job in the U.S. House. The
threesome have a special opportunity to shape future agricultural
policy and establish new directions that are badly needed. . . .
. . .Vilsack, 58, has a big job ahead.
With Peterson's and Harkin's help, he might be able to push through meaningful and lower subsidy payment limitations.
Vilsack will become only the second Iowan to be ag secretary in
modern times, which is somewhat surprising because Iowa is the No. 1
agricultural state. Henry Wallace served President Franklin Roosevelt
well in the trying days of the Great Depression.
Reform, greater USDA efficiency and stronger oversight will be on his plate.
We wish him well.
President-elect Barack Obama promised change during his successful
campaign. Vilsack is in a strong position in that regards. He should
get plenty of help from Peterson and Harkin, who have consistently been
at the forefront of congressional ag policy debate.
The Washington Post explores what some of those changes might be in Targeting Obesity Alongside Hunger: Obama Administration May Look to Tie Food Assistance to Improved Nutrition:
For decades, the government has treated hunger and obesity as unrelated
phenomena. But at a news conference last week in Chicago, Tom Vilsack, President-elect Barack Obama's
choice for agriculture secretary, said he would put "nutrition at the
center of all food assistance programs," a signal that he will get
involved next year when Congress moves to reauthorize nutrition
programs that support school breakfasts and lunches as well as summer
food for children.
"For a long time, we've looked at hunger and obesity separately," said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the committee that will draft the legislation. "It's not a zero-sum game.". . .
. . .In the 2008 farm bill, Congress allocated $20 million for a pilot
program to explore how to create incentives to purchase fruits,
vegetables or other healthful foods in order to improve the diets of
food stamp recipients and potentially reduce obesity. Several nonprofit
groups and foundations are experimenting with similar incentives.. . .
Read the whole article at the Post. An article in the New York Times' Dining and Wine section takes a foodie approach to the issue in Is a New Food Policy on Obama’s List. It's the more pessimistic report of the two articles today in two of the nation's most important papers.
With the recount of Minnesota's U.S. Senate race still unsettled, it might seem too early to start thinking about candidates for Minnesota's state house and senate. A keen-eyed farmer friend spotted a GOP filing for the state senate seat now held by Sharon Ropes. Good luck to frequent LTE writer, WELS pastor and RPM official Paul Ibisch.
When we last heard from him, Ibisch was urging that people donate to area food shelves by participating in the CP's Holiday Train's stop in LaCrescent. We completely agree with him on that.
The Winona Daily News reports in Food giveaway helps feed hungry:
Approximately 350 families were helped through Compassion Winona, a
food giveaway of more than 32,000 pounds of food by Community Bible
Church.
The food came courtesy of Feed the Hungry, a Christian relief organization based in South Bend, Ind.
The church received the food Dec. 4 and gave it away Sunday through Tuesday to anyone in need.
The
Rev. Craig Hensel, a pastor at Community Bible Church, said they plan
on following up with some families in the future to see how they’re
doing.
Hensel said many of the recipients of the food were single moms or elderly.
“Most people really are really trying to make it,” Hensel said. . . .
WDN columnist Jerome Christenson writes in :
. . . It’s said the Lord leaves nothing to chance, so there’s good reason the
angels were sent to a bunch of tired farmhands stuck working the night
shift.
It was poor, tired shepherds who needed to hear the
Christmas promise: “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you glad
tidings of great joy.”
That’s a message for adults.
Adults
who, unlike children, know too much and at the same time know too
little. Disillusioned, weary, fearful of the encroaching darkness.
Buffeted by depression, recession, unemployment; by life, death and
loss.
“Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy.”
The Christmas story is truly a story for adults, with meaning for any
of us who have been turned away in time of need, faced the slammed
door, found ourselves humbled. Alone. Afraid.
In every adult
life, there is a time when the Christmas story is, painfully, our
story. The story of those moments when we need, desperately, to hear
glad tidings and remember what then happened next. For there, with the
cobwebs and filth, amid the stink of manure and nighttime chill, was
brought forth the glory of the ages with the eternal promise of “on
earth peace, goodwill toward men.” . . .
Merry Christmas, everyone, from the Bluestem Prairie.