community PRIDE
The Globe | Wednesday, March 29, 2023
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| THE GLOBE’S COMMUNITY PRIDE | B1
Kari Lucin / The Globe
Hilary Mathis holds Randy, the second of two foster cats from Cottonwood County Animal Rescue to stay at Enspired until adoption. Mathis plans to continue fostering with another cat now that Randy has been adopted.
A CONDUIT FOR COMMUNITY KINDNESS:
MATHIS IS ‘ENSPIRED’ TO HELP “You have to have a lit fire to keep going in small business, especially lately. And all these community efforts have been that lit fire.” Hilary Mathis
stranded visitors, bringing in three tables of food, drinks, personal hygiene supplies, cards, WINDOM — When a midpuzzles, piles of blankets and March snowstorm shut down pillows. every highway in southwest It was truly a community Minnesota a couple of weeks effort — and one of many ago, Hilary Mathis asked a examples of Mathis’ efforts to simple question on Facebook: serve as a conduit, bringing What happens to all of the people together and channeling motorists stranded in Windom? their efforts into a powerful The answer was equally force for good. simple — the Business, Arts Many of her projects begin at & Recreation Center would her store in downtown Windom, be opened as a shelter, and Enspired, which offers a wide people could stop there until variety of items, including the weather cleared up and they artwork, jewelry, honey, soaps, could safely get back on the road. lotions, candles, wax melts, teas, More than a dozen people were food, books, crystals, greeting already at the BARC when Mathis cards and decor. Much of it is put out a call to her friends in locally-made, including Mathis’ Windom, asking for pillows and own product lines. blankets for the BARC travelers. She opened the boutique And as Mathis knew they would, in October of 2011, with no the residents of Windom came background in sales or retail. It wasn’t always easy, but she together to care for their 52 By Kari Lucin The Globe
learned the ropes, developed her own product line and forged the shop into a place not just for buying and selling, but for people. “A lot of the efforts that I have been involved in happen through this place,” Mathis said. “It’s a connecting point.” The effort to help the stranded motorists was just one of many times she’s brought people together to help others. It’s an excellent example of how she likes to do that, too — a shortterm, high-impact project that involves contributions from a diverse group of local people who care, often including other organizers and groups coordinating together. Mathis herself often isn’t even technically part of those groups — she’ll just put out a post or two asking for help and letting people know how they can.
ENSPIRED: Page B2
CONNECTING, CREATING, COMMUNICATING:
KYAW DRAWS ON EXPERIENCES
Photo courtesy of Than Than Kyaw
SWIF Community Engagement Specialist Than Than Kyaw, right, celebrates Welcoming Week, intended to create new connections between Worthington residents, including immigrants and refugees.
By Jane Turpin Moore The Globe WORTHINGTON — Conversing with Than Than Kyaw, a Class of 2017 Worthington High School graduate, is a pleasure. Kyaw’s velvety voice, which translates to a singing baritone, is easy on the ears. The 24-yearold’s confidence, descriptive phrasing, calm delivery and broad vocabulary rarely hint that Kyaw spent the first 12 years of his life in Thailand’s Nupo Refugee Camp and that he was an ESL student through his junior year of high school. The youngest of five children, Kyaw’s family arrived in the United States on Sept. 2, 2010—a date burned into his memory — and initially settled in Roseville. “I went to sixth grade there,” said Kyaw, who is fluent in English and Sgaw, the language spoken by those of Karen
heritage, and is additionally proficient in Thai and Burmese. He became a U.S. citizen on Sept. 11, 2018. “I walked into school (Roseville) and looked for the number ‘6,’” he recalled, not realizing there was a registration process. “They sent me to the office.” Such experiences make Kyaw an ideal fit for his current job as a Community Engagement Specialist with Southwest Initiative Foundation. Kyaw was previously employed at JBS as a community liaison for immigrants and refugees, and prior to that he worked for the Nobles County Integration Collaborative NCIC. “The whole community of Worthington helped raise me,” said Kyaw, who moved to Nobles County with his mother in 2011 when she began working at JBS.
KYAW: Page B4