Students aid in flood efforts

By Jerry Ness | The Daily Journal

Published 12:00 p.m., April 1, 2009

On March 24 our high school students and chaperones reached out to families in Fargo-Moorhead by helping to sandbag. Most of the students spent the day south of I-94 and then west to Riverside Drive in Moorhead, in areas that were supervised and well-organized. The sand, bags, shovels and heavy equipment were all in place for volunteers to get a lot of sandbags done in a hurry.

Thank you to Ottertail Coaches for donating four buses and the Band Boosters for sponsoring two more. Three wonderful ladies — LuAnn Rudh, Mary Houg and Marcia Williams — donated close to $500 for water, food and supplies for the students. The students greatly appreciated the nourishment and felt the day was well spent.

5th Grade Patriotic Program

Congratulations and thank you to the 5th graders at Cleveland School and director Joni Wasberg for treating the citizens of Fergus Falls to a performance of 15 songs in a spirited patriotic program on March 25 and 26. A medley of armed forces songs was especially moving, with veterans in the audience standing at attention when their branch’s song was played.

Chamber Orchestra visits Pine Point School

The Fergus Falls School District’s Chamber Orchestra was featured at a special cultural event March 27 at the Pine Point School, located on the White Earth Indian Reservation. The orchestra includes children in grades 4-12 with more than 240 in the string section, including children from home schools and private schools.

The Chamber Orchestra played a selection of classical and more modern pieces in an hour-long performance after a community feast. The lunch, which followed a blessing by Mike Swan, featured “Indian Tacos” with local organic buffalo meat, tomatoes and lettuce. The lunch is part of the Pine Point School’s nationally recognized Farm-to-School Program.

The orchestra’s performance was followed by a cultural presentation and Family Fun Day workshops.

The event was a result of a recent Slow Food Dinner at Minnesota State Community and Technical College, Fergus Falls. That dinner featured shared foods from the White Earth reservation (the chef was Janice Chilton from the White Earth Land Recovery Project-Minwanjige Café) and food from local farmers. The Chamber Orchestra also performed at this event.

Orchestra director Mark Solie said he “thrilled and flattered by the request” for the students to perform at Pine Point School. He said the students played a “wide variety of flat-out classical, some ethnic fiddle tunes, a couple of jazz standards and some just plain silly stuff.”

Pine Point Principal Jason Lutsik said he was excited that “students get to see something that they don’t normally get exposed to. We’re also pleased to have this social gathering of two groups of students who might not meet otherwise.”

Pine Point School hosts a wide variety of events and will also be sharing its Farm-to-School Program, a tribal lunch program featuring local and organic foods that is one of Minnesota’s first models of this national program.

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