A Look Back At The Times
10 YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 15, 2012
It started ten years ago. Ms. Amy Payne, a teacher at Turtle Lake High School, began to teach a Holocaust Literature Class. Students were given specific assignments corresponding with Holocaust. One project that came to the forefront was an aluminum can tab collection. The goal at the start of the year was to collect six million pop tabs to represent the approximate number of Jewish victims killed during the Holocaust. Mr. Wayne Olson’s tech ed class built a replica of one of the concentration camp buildings to dump the tabs into. The first dumping into the building was Friday, January 31st and totalled 92,000 tabs. The last fifteen to twenty minutes of class were spent on counting the tabs. In a day, Ms. Payne’s third quarter class of fourteen could count approximately 16,000 tabs daily. By January, 2003 the class had reached 1,113,047. Realizing the vastness of collecting and counting 6-million tabs, the Turtle Lake Knights of Columbus, under the direction of Nick Cordes, stepped in to help count and agreed to continue the tab collections until the goal is reached. Currently the count stands at 3-million-plus tabs collected. Once enough tabs are collected they are donated to the Ronald McDonald House to help children cancer patients.
Students, staff, administration, parents and veteran’s were on hand Friday morning, November 9th, for the annual Veteran’s Day Program held at the Turtle Lake School’s elementary gym. The program got started with Principal Kent Kindschy welcoming everyone to the event. While the band played This Is My Country the flag was brought in by Turtle Lake veterans. The high school choir sang the National Anthem prior to the introduction of the veterans. The elementary choir performed We Celebrate America, followed by a reading of The Importance of the Pledge to our Flag, read by Kollin Horn. Noah Green and Colten Maassen held the flag throughout the reading and Pledge of Allegiance by Mrs. Zemke and Mrs. Nyhus’ kindergarten classes. Ivy Molls relater her Badger State Girls experiences. Band selections of Faith in America, by the Tone Chime Ensemble, and Fantasia on Chester, preceded the Reading of I a the Flag of the United States of America by senior class officers Ivy Molls, John Lahti, Holly Davis and Rick Neva. Retirement of the Colors closed out the event as students, staff and guests followed outside for the gun salute and playing of Taps, performed by Max Molls. Pictured above are, left to right: Noah Greene, Ivy Molls, John Lahti, Rick Neva, Holly Davis and Colten Maassen during the I am the Flag of the United States of America reading.
The Laker’s fleet-footed wide receiver, Kyle Steffen, was named to the 2012 Wisconsin Northwest All-Region Team. Steffen is a senior this year at Turtle Lake High School. Steffen helped the Lakers to a third place finish in the Small Lakeland Conference with a 4-4 record, behind undefeated Clayton and once-beaten Pepin/Alma. In ten games this year Steffen had 56 receptions for 1168 yards. He had a 129 yards per game average and 20.9 yards per catch. Steffen scored 11 touchdowns and had three 2-point conversions.
20 YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 14, 2002
Veteran’s Day is celebrated in many different ways, but Richard Swantish of rural Turtle Lake celebrated in a unique way. Richards went on what he named the “I Remember Walk”. From his home near Horseshoe Lake, north of Turtle Lake, Richard carried the American Flag south down Cty. T to Hwy. 8. He then proceeded east through Turtle Lake to Hwy. 63. From there Richard headed north until he reached Horseshow Lake Drive and then headed west back home. The entire trek encompassed approximately 11 miles. 11 miles on the 11th.
At the American Red Cross Barron County Chapter’s Annual Meeting, Pam Strickland, American Red Cross First Aid, CPR and AED instructor, was awarded the American Red Cross Lifesaving Award for the Professional Responder. On June 1, 2002, Pam Strickland, while on duty as a security guard at the St. Croix Casino, save the life of Linnea Larson. Ms. Strickland took charge when a medical emergency presented itself by instructing the security supervisor to call 911 as she and another guard moved Ms. Larson into a wheel chair and into the first aid room.
War Fancy, a play written by Laura Greschner, a Turtle Lake high school senior, will be presented at a Dinner Theater Thursday, November 21 at the Turtle Lake Auditorium. A play-only presentation will also be held on Friday, November 22 at 7:30 p.m.
30 YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 12, 1992
The Village of Turtle Lake experienced a record voter turnout in last Tuesday’s Presidential Election when 397 residents went to the polls. The previous high was 394 in 1980. Village voters agreed with the rest of the nation as they cast the majority of their ballots for the Bill Clinton/Al Gore presidential ticket. They also agreed with voters statewide as they chose Russ Feingold over Bob Kasten for the U.S. Senate seat.
The Turtle Lake Junior High football team has completed a successful 1992 season. The Lakers faced Webster in their first game and battled their way to an 8-6 victory. They then played a superb game as they defeated Osceola 30-8. The team then moved on to outscore Clayton in a scrimmage. The Lakers lost to Webster the second time, 18-6, and tied Osceola 16-16. In the last game of the year Turtle Lake ran into a very solid New Auburn team and lost 30-0. Members of the team were Adam Hansen, Tony Williams, Eric Allen, Justin Stalpes, Andy Koenig, Josh Yeske, Ron Rich, Craig Cook, Coach Tarver, Chris Cook, Randy Stevens, Brandon DeGolier, Ryan Effertz, Matt Richter, Keefe Tarman, Mark Greschner, Shawn Gliniski, Coach Damon, Joe Kasper, Aaron Flottum, Shawn Schradle, Ryan Schradle, Zach Greene, Tadd Peterson, Alvin Todd and Pat Gehrman.
Winners of the local Punt, Pass and Kick competition, sponsored by Knights of Columbus Council 7848, were Kirstan Rouzer, Brandon Graber, Eric Richter, Danielle Tarman, Keefe Tarman and Maisa Rouzer. District Punt, Pass and Kick winners were Kirstan Rouzer, Brandon Graber, Danielle Tarman, Matt Huset, Maisa Rouzer and Keefe Tarman.
40 YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 11, 1982
Hartzell Custom Products will hold an Open House at their Turtle Lake facility on Sunday afternoon, November 14, 1982, between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. Guests will be given guided tours by Hartzell Custom Products management personnel. The tours will feature many displays including products produced for some of the major customers. A plastic injection molding machine and possibly an aluminum die cast machine will be in operation so visitors can observe the process.
With the presentation of “Silent Snow, Secret Snow”, the Turtle Lake Drama Class has won the right to advance to sectional competition. The group competed at the district level Drama Fest on Saturday, November 6, at US-River Falls. After receiving two “A”-advance ratings the “Snow” group will now prepare for their sectional challenge to be held Saturday, November 20th, at US-Barron Campus in Rice Lake. Members of the class include Debbie Flettre, Liz Soderholm, Debbie Welsch, Jeff Bartels, Steve Orf, Brenda Neuenfeldt, John Hinck, Georgeina Jeska, Joel Clark, Julie Wylie, Scott Bates and Mike Minteer.
The Turtle Lake pep band under the direction of Mr. Checkalski performed at the pep band playoffs held at Bruce on Monday, November 1sr. This year the playoffs were divided into two different classes. The Big Band and the Small Band Lakeland Conference. Turtle Lake was in the Big Band Conference, along with Shell Lake, Cameron and Bruce. Placing in this competition were Bruce High School – first place; and Cameron High School – second place. Mr. Checkalski said, “The Turtle Lake band played very well from where I stand. I thought they played well enough to place. The judges did not hear it that way.”
50 YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 2, 1972
A large number of voters, 14,337, turned out in Barron County Tuesday despite the inclement weater to cast their votes for the persons of their choice to represent them in positions of government. In our local area there were a total of 317 votes cast in the Village, 270 in the Town of Almena, 183 in the Town of Turtle Lake and 303 in the town of Beaver. President Richard M. Nixon and his running mate, Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew, won a landslide victory on the national level and the Barron County voters greed with this decision as they gave 8423 votes to the Nixon-Agnew ticket, as opposed to 5376 to Senator George McGovern and R. Sargent Shriver.
The Turtle Lake Chapter of Future Farmers of America will sponsor a donkey basketball game this Thursday, November 9 at 8:30 p.m. The first game will have the FFA vs the TL teachers. The second game will see the GAA vs. the Lions Club. The championship game will immediately follow the second game. Any ties will have a sudden death playoff.
Members of the Junior High School football team and their coaches were guests of honor at the Turtle Lake Lions Club at their monthly meeting Tuesday evening. These boys proved that they were not only able to win all their football games during the season, but they are also able to consume a large amount of food. From all reports the meal was delicious and the boys enjoyed it immensely.
