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By Mavis Fodness, reporterNovember 25, 2025Over the decades, Thanksgiving has become my favorite holiday. It’s a day where I’ve stayed home, and Bryan and I would prepare a Thanksgiving dinner. We grew to be partners in the kitchen, each of us preparing a portion of the meal. At first, the guest list included only grandparents, but it grew to include our four children and my sister’s family. We’ve served as many as 20 people in our…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterMay 28, 2025Imagine running 437 miles across the state of South Dakota. In September my nephew-in-law is doing just that — running a relay race from Rapid City to Sioux Falls in five days. Izzo is one of 12 runners selected for the 437 Project, an awareness and fundraising event for the Helpline Center based in Sioux Falls. Izzo, a former Marine, is bringing attention to his fellow veterans and current…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterJuly 17, 2024Standing in the middle of Main Street Luverne during Thursday’s Hot Dog Night, I heard a small voice ask, “Are you a newspaper reporter?” Mary (Galagan) Arnold, LHS Class of 1972, was the voice behind the question. With an affirming smile she explained that nine members of her family came to Luverne. One, her son-in-law Kendall Rhyne, set attending Hot Dog Night as a bucket list item. He wasn…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterMay 01, 2024Mother’s Day is just over a week away, and my thoughts have turned to what to do to honor that female parent in my life. Along the way, I’ve thought about what the definition of Mom means to me, and I’ve realized I have more than one Mom. … Because Mom is more like a list of characteristics beginning with the letter “L.” To me Mom is someone who learns, listens, leads, laughs and lives in the…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterFebruary 07, 2024Attending last week’s Minnesota Newspaper Association Convention reminded me why I chose a career in newspaper journalism. Being a conduit for information speaks to my creative nature and fits my personality, and the like-minded conference attendees rekindled my news passions. They include an eagerness to tell people about exciting news, a sense that what I do actually matters and pride in a…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterJanuary 19, 2021A little bit of Rock County has found a home in Iowa. I recently toured a brand new 4,800-head finishing barn near where my daughter lives in rural Schaller, Iowa. She is the reason a part of the county she grew up in now has a home in another state. Courtney works for a company that builds those large hog confinements. Midwest Dry Cast, located south of Luverne, makes the concrete floor slats…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterMay 19, 2020My last in-person visit with my granddaughter, Jayden, was March 6. Almost 60 days later, on the bright, sunny Sunday morning of May 3, the grandmother in me knew it was time to see Jayden face to face. Unbeknownst to me, when my daughter Courtney told Jayden that MeeMaw Mavis was coming to Iowa for a visit, her response was “MeeMaw Mavis is not dead?” It’s been a long two months for my 2-year-…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterOctober 15, 2019They say that working with kids keeps you young. Now in my 17th year of teaching, I’d say that’s true. As a teacher, I hear many of the new slang terms and even know what quite a few of them mean. I’m aware of many famous people on YouTube and I have a front row seat to unfortunate trends in clothing and hairstyles. I won’t comment on the return of male perms, but my profession did allow me to…
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