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Semilla Youth Leaders Add Beauty and Community to Phillips
By CAROL LEE CHASE and MARY ELLEN KALUZA The mural nearing completion. PHOTO: Carol Lee Chase Youth Leaders collaborating, working, and building friendships. PHOTO: Carol Lee Chase Over the summer a group of Youth Leaders ages 11-15, working with Semilla Center for Healing and the Arts, painted a mural on the doors and the steps of St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church sanctuary at 2742 15th Avenue South in the Phillips neighborhood. Lynda Grafito, an active Twin Cities community artist and printmaker from Colombia, guided this project which wrapped up at the end of August. We asked Lynda what excited her most about this project: I am very excited about how much the youth have been involved in this project. I feel that they have learned a lot, have become familiar with the materials, painting, creating and installing mosaics, and memorizing each step to follow. But the most important thing about this whole experience is that they are making new friends and having [...]
Family Drama Plays Out in the Press
from the series Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery 226th in a Series By SUE HUNTER WEIR Julie Klamm’s Caveat to Stories “Your most cherished family stories are, I hate to break it to you, almost certainly at least somewhat false. I’m not calling anyone a liar, this is simply how it goes---stories degrade (or improve, depending on your perspective), details are lost, tweaked, censored, sensationalized. I don’t mean to disillusion you; I say this in the spirit of encouragement. The story only really gets going once it begins to unravel.” from, The Most Legendary Morris Sisters. FAMILY “LAUNDRY” AIRED IN PUBLICMany, perhaps most, families have secrets—stories that go unspoken. That’s what makes the story of the Westling family so strange. The dispute between Olof Westling and his second wife, Agnethe, over the custody of their children played out in the press for a period of three weeks. Each used the newspapers to plead their case. Olof [...]
September is National Preparedness Month
Are your finances ready for an emergency? By AMANDA THEISEN, Sunrise Banks A financial emergency can strike anywhere, any time. Your car or a home appliance breaks down. A fire or natural disaster damages your home. You or someone you love suffers a medical emergency or life altering diagnosis. The list goes on and on.During National Preparedness Month in September, organizations encourage us to look at our finances and see how we can better shore them up in case the unthinkable were to happen. Yet, countless surveys show most Americans are not prepared to handle unexpected finances.According to Bankrate’s latest Annual Emergency Savings Report, 27% of U.S. adults have no emergency savings. More than half say they aren’t comfortable with the amount of money they do have in emergency savings. And more than 1 in 3 Americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings.The prospect of what to do next may feel overwhelming should you find yourself in a financial emergency. [...]
