Thanks to sponsorship from the K.A.H.R. Foundation, seven Luverne teachers gained key resources, tools and strategies for their classrooms as a result of attending BestPrep’s Technology Integration Workshop (TIW) this summer. 
Kari Lais, Ann Sandager, April Wallace, Bryan Snyders, Joe Stearns, Chelsie Wermager, Caroline Thorson and other educators in attendance learned how to incorporate the newest technologies into their classrooms from experienced speakers and fellow educators.
Popular breakout sessions included “Thinking Beyond the Test,” “Making the Most of Google Forms,” “Building Classroom Community” and (taught by Luverne teacher Becky Rahm) “Get the Most out of Google Classroom.”
Another key component of the tech integration workshop included a job shadow, during which each educator was paired with a Twin Cities corporate volunteer to visit their workplace.
The job shadows allowed educators to learn more about workplace culture, important skills students will need to be successful in a business environment, and how to better prepare their students for the workforce.
Educators also updated a unit plan, integrating strategies and resources they learned during the workshop, giving them a new technology-inspired plan to use in their classes this fall.
“This was a great learning experience to bring back ideas for the classroom and to better prepare our students for life in the workforce,” said LPS health instructor Kari Lais. “There were good collaboration opportunities with each other and with educators from around the state.”
Teachers interested in attending the TIW in 2023 can find more information at www.bestprep.org. Registration will open this winter, and sponsorships are available. 
 
About BestPrep
BestPrep is a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization dedicated to preparing students with business, career and financial literacy skills.
BestPrep offers seven innovative programs and has served more than 1.7 million students and teachers since its creation in 1976. See bestprep.org.

The Minnesota Department of Health launched a new dialing code to transition the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to a phone number people can easily remember and access in times of crisis.
The new “988” dialing code will serve as a universal entry point so people can reach a trained crisis counselor who can help, regardless of where they live.
The shift also includes an online chat feature and new texting option.
The Lifeline 10-digit number, 1-800-273-TALK (8255) will continue to be available and route people to the same resources.

A.R. Wood scholarships awarded
Several Luverne students have been awarded A.R. Wood Trust scholarships.
Luverne High School Class of 2022 recipients include Brenn Siebenahler, Casey Sehr, Griffen Jarchow, Brooklyn Ver Steeg, Luke Thorson, Trygve Gangestad and Madeleine Schmuck.
Six former graduates of Luverne High School, receiving renewal scholarships, are Elise Jarchow, Gracie Zewiske, Ainslie Robinson, Jadyn Anderson, Emma Verbrugge and Jordan Winter.
The total amount awarded was $8,700.
The A.R. Wood Scholarship Trust is administered by First Bank & Trust of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Fey Industries, Edgerton, treated their longtime employees to a field trip in Luverne, Tuesday, Aug. 2, to honor them for 25 or more years of employment with the company.
Dubbed as the Club Twenty-Feyve, there were 32 in the group this year with collective years of employment totaling 1,087 years at Fey Industries. 
“Each year we treat this group to an outing of some sort during one of their regular workdays,” said Cheryl Fey, wife of CEO Mike Fey.
“In the past the activities have varied and most often experience what all Southwest Minnesota has to offer with travelling to area towns.”
This year the club enjoyed a midweek morning movie at the Palace Theatre followed lunch at Sterling’s restaurant. T-shirts commemorating the event were printed by Luverne's Print Express.
Fey said a scavenger hunt in Pipestone one year led to many laughable moments caught on camera. Five years ago, their bus was pulled over by a 1955 Chevy cop car and escorted to the Rock County Courthouse for a mock trial and conviction of a Fey team member. 
“It is fun to get creative and visit some of our team members’ hometowns,” she said. “One thing is for sure with this group. No matter where we go, or what we do, it’s always a great time.”
This year’s honored Club Twenty-Feyve members and their years of service are Trent Baas, 32, Keith Blom, 28, Colette Brockberg, 38, Randy Brockberg, 37, Cindy Cauwels, 29, Vicki Crowley, 29, Vonda Danneman, 35, Angie DeKam, 36, Linda De Weerd, 32, Linda Dickman, 26, Sheri Erpelding, 35, Mark Ference, 28, Mike Fey, 29, Norm Fey, 57, Craig Haraldson, 42, Deb Homan, 33, Kim Hunstad, 27, Stacy Jolitz, 29, Deb Knapp, 42, Roxie Kooiman, 43, Charlene Kruse, 36, Greg Manitz, 42, Kathy Matson, 38, Sharon Polchow, 29, Darwin Schuld, 33, Shelly Smith, 27, Shirley Smith, 29, Perry Stoel, 29, Mark VanderWaal, 34, Diane Van Steenberg, 25, Lori Veldhuisen, 39, and Jolene Walhof, 39.
“All of our team members are special to us,” Fey said. “And the longer they are around, the more we get to experience life together.”
Mike said he looks forward to the annual outings.
“The Club Twenty-Feyve event is such a special time,” he said. “A unique chance to celebrate esteemed team members. Cheryl and I consider it quite an honor.”

The Region 13C Championship Series will be the matchup most baseball fans in Southwest Minnesota have expected all summer.
The No. 1-seeded Milroy Irish will face the No. 2-seeded Luverne Redbirds in a best-of-three series to determine the league championship and the first-round bye at the state tournament that comes with it.
Both teams have already qualified for the state tournament by winning their Final Four series last week.
The Irish (28-4) defeated the Hadley Buttermakers 2-1 and the Redbirds (27-3) bested the Fairmont Martins 2-1.
The Irish defeated the Redbirds 11-2 in Luverne on May 15. Luverne returned the favor by defeating the Irish 14-2 at Irish Yard on June 26.
Game 1 is scheduled for Wednesday (Aug. 10) at Irish Yard at 7:30 p.m. Game 2 will be at Redbird Field Friday night at 7:30 p.m.
If necessary, the third and decisive game will be Sunday at 2 p.m. at Irish Yard.
“Milroy always plays hard baseball. They have a very solid draft pick from Windom (Collin Lovell),” said veteran Redbirds player Phil Paquette.
“It will be a fun series to watch – Friday night’s game in Luverne will be the last home game of the season!”
 
Region 13C Final Four Results
(1) Milroy Irish vs. (4) Hadley
Game 1 – Milroy 1, Hadley 0
Game 2 – Hadley 5, Milroy 4 (10 in)
Game 3 – Milroy 10, Hadley 1
 
(2) Luverne vs. (6) Fairmont
Game 1 – Luverne 12, Fairmont 2
Game 2 – Fairmont 6, Luverne 5
Game 3 – Luverne 12, Fairmont 0
 
 
Region 13C Tournament
Championship Series
(1) Milroy Irish vs. (2) Luverne
Wed, Aug. 10 at Irish Yard 7:30 pm
Fri, Aug. 12 at Luverne 7:30 pm
*Sun, Aug. 14 at Irish Yard 2 pm
 
Third Place Series
(4) Hadley vs. (6) Fairmont
Wed, Aug. 10 at Fairmont 7:30 pm
Sat, Aug. 13 at Hadley 2 pm
*Sun, Aug. 14 at Hadley 2 pm
*If necessary

The R & S Seeds team won the 2022 Rock County Kids Golf Tournament Monday, Aug. 1, at Luverne Country Club. Twenty teams and 80 golfers participated in the 25th annual fundraiser for the Rock County Big Buddies and Luverne Child Guide programs. The tournament was organized by Mike Smith, Stacy Schepel and Zoe DeBates. Schepel said the event raised around $6,000.

I was sitting in my garage the other night with a couple of guys who had just finished up shooting on their trap league for the week.
They are both avid hunters and both have hunting dogs of differing ages. It seemed like only about an hour had passed when in fact more than four hours had turned off the clock.
Outdoor lifestyles and passions have always been my most vivid memories. As I recalled a few of my experiences and as I listened to theirs, I kind of turned into a fly on the wall for just a short moment.
I silently asked myself this question: “How many others hunters, in how many other garages, in how many other states were telling these virtually identical stories at exactly the same moment in time?”
I would have guessed that number would have been over 1,000. Almost all of these talks will center around a moderately short list of subject matter.
I thought I would run through that list to see how many of them would be on your list, too.
The shot. It really doesn’t matter if it was a really good shot or the worst one you ever attempted, everybody remembers those “I can’t believe I got that one” or vise versa. I guess it’s probably the same as golf.  You can shoot the worst round of golf in current memory, but you never forget that one pro-like shot that keeps you coming back to the course for another year.
My dog. My dog did this thing or that thing and it was soooo good or bad you will never ever forget.
Many of these stories will start out with all of the things a dog will try to eat or roll in. … Dead fish, a dead mammal, manure, mud … and the list goes on and on. Skunks would fall under this category as well.
I used to drive a Chevy Suburban with two dog crates in the back. Try taking home a skunked dog in that rig and you will never forget it. I had one dog many years ago that got sprayed over a dozen times in one season.
I carried all the right stuff, but in the confined space of a truck cab none of those remedies was successful enough.
The truck and assorted problems. I lost the rear end in my ride on a hunting trip to Mitchell, South Dakota. It was not a pretty sound.
I doubled up with another guy, and in three days, about when the trip was over, they had driven in the parts from 100 miles away and I got to drive my new $3,500 rear end back to the house. Memorable.
Weather-related trials and tribulations would also fall under this category.
I was with a group that rented an Airbnb, and the day before we were to leave, the destination in Kansas got 4 inches of rain and then 10 inches of snow on top of that and the roads were impassable.
The no-refund on the lodging cost five guys who stayed home about $350 each. Another memorable outdoor experience.
And one last category in the always told all over North America garage stories is “when things just really came together.”
This slot in the story index is smaller than the others, because the others always happen frequently and the “it all came together perfect” section happens far, far less often.
The weather was great, the dogs behaved like pros, the shooting was unparalleled, equipment exceeded expectation and, oh were the bird numbers amazing.
Add in the amazing scenery of a new place or a new state and the memories of telling all of the trip stories over a few beers in a local watering hole make for great garage hunting stories.
Just because a story in any category has been told before, that is no reason not to repeat that same story over and over.
All you need is one new member to attend the garage storytelling get-together who has not heard that story before and it makes telling everyone else who has heard it at least 10 times another opportunity to hear it yet one more time.
Over a 40-year history of spending time with guns and dogs, I have actually heard the same story change over time. We can call that a slight memory lapse … or as the memory becomes more vivid, you tend to embellish just a little bit more.
All of the activities behind the stories are certainly the cause of the storytelling, but as we all age and physically we cannot do as much in the field as we used to, we can live out our golden years with the memories of hundreds, if not thousands of days in the field and share those with anyone willing to stop into your or my garage and hear them.
 
Scott Rall, Worthington, is a habitat conservationist, avid hunting and fishing enthusiast and is president of Nobles County Pheasants Forever. He can be reached at scottarall@gmail.com. or on Twitter @habitat champion.

Plentiful opportunities will greet deer hunters this fall
Deer hunting licenses can be purchased starting today and the 2022 Minnesota hunting regulations are now available on the DNR website (mndnr.gov/Hunting). Print copies of the regulations will be available in early August wherever licenses are sold.
When deer hunters venture out into fields and forests this fall, they will find healthy deer populations faring well in most of Minnesota, ample harvest opportunities, and a continued commitment to managing chronic wasting disease management adaptively statewide.
“We’re excited about deer hunting this year,” said Kelly Straka, wildlife section manager for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
“Hunters in 20 percent of our deer permit areas (DPAs) will have increased opportunities for harvest, and opportunities in 70 percent of DPAs remain unchanged from last year.”
 
Minnesota has the following deer seasons:
Archery: Saturday, Sept. 17, through Saturday, Dec. 31
Youth and early antlerless: Thursday, Oct. 20, through Sunday, Oct. 23
Firearms: Saturday, Nov. 5, with various closing dates depending on a hunter’s deer permit area
Muzzleloader: Saturday, Nov. 26, through Sunday, Dec. 11
 
Changes for this year include:
•Eight more deer permit areas are included in the hunt. Hunters will also have more license options for the early antlerless season.
•Increased bag limits or lottery permits in 28 deer permit areas, the same limits in 90 deer permit areas and decreased limits in 12 areas.
In addition to deer seasons, hunters can participate in special deer hunts.
The DNR, municipalities and organizations across Minnesota offer opportunities to hunt at special times and in areas that might regularly be closed to hunting.
Participation in these hunts is limited and often requires special registration. More information is available on the DNR website (mndnr.gov/Hunting/Deer/index.html#SpecialHunts).
Hunters can get the information they need for each deer permit area by using the interactive deer map on the DNR’s deer hunting page (mndnr.gov/Hunting/Deer).
By clicking within the borders of an area on the map, hunters can access a “make a plan” link that takes them directly to the DNR’s “Make a Plan” tool, where they can view the steps deer hunters in that DPA must follow to legally harvest deer.
The tool also provides information for determining where and how to submit a sample for CWD testing and whether sampling is mandatory in the DPA.
Firearm and muzzleloader hunters who want to harvest antlerless deer in a deer permit area designated as lottery need to purchase their license by Thursday, Sept. 8.
Hunters who purchase their license by Sept. 8 are automatically entered into the lottery for the deer permit area or special hunt area they declare.
No application is needed to take antlerless deer in permit areas with either sex, two-deer limit, three-deer limit, or five-deer limit designations.

Do you know what you believe? How committed are you to what you believe?
Those are extremely important questions for us to consider.
Most Midwesterners like myself have a tendency to be stubborn. Oftentimes people think being stubborn is a bad thing, but I don’t see it that way. I believe that there is good stubborn and there is bad stubborn.
Bad stubborn is often seen in kids when they won’t listen to their parents, or it is seen in adults who foolishly continue doing what they are doing even though they know it is wrong.
There is also good stubborn. Good stubborn is knowing what you believe and why. It is refusing to give into peer pressure. Good stubborn is refusing to compromise your faith. Good stubborn is being unwilling to compromise your principles to fit in. Good stubborn is being willing to work at something until the job is done. Good stubborn is being committed to God no matter what the cost.
In the book of Jude, God warns us to be on our guard and encourages us to be good stubborn. The book of Jude describes godless men in this way. They are certain people whose condemnation was written about long ago. They have slipped in among the church. They have advanced the idea of changing the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ as our only sovereign Lord.
This should be concerning to all of us. This means there are people who are taking God’s teachings and twisting them to use for their own advantage.
We have to be careful not to be distracted or fooled by the efforts of these godless teachers. This means we have to invest our time and energy into studying the truth.  We have to focus on being good stubborn or we will find ourselves easily swayed.
It is so important for us all to know exactly what we believe and what we profess. This means we have to become everyday students of the Bible. We have to read and study God’s Word so that we can know it in our heads, hearts, and in our souls. In doing so we will become confident in what we believe and our stubborn nature will work in our favor.