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COUGAR SPORTS: Tennis player heads to state PAGE 6
Lino Lakes church joins choir concert for a cause BY MADELINE DOLBY EDITOR
The St. Joseph of the Lakes choir will participate in the second annual Harmony for Humanity, a concert celebrating love, peace and compassion through choral music, alongside four other north metro churches on Sunday, Nov. 2. The concert will be from 6-7:30 p.m. and take place at Hamline Methodist Church in St. Paul. “The choir is just a marvelous group of people. We’ve been involved in a lot of great projects over the years,” said
Kathy Schwister, a member of the St. Joseph of the Lakes choir. Schwister has been a part of the choir since 1991. She also was a music teacher at Mahtomedi for 34 years. The idea for the concert was created by Robert Pickering, interfaith specialist for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and board member of the Minnesota Multifaith Network, in the summer of 2024. The event’s focus is to explore common threads that unite the community, regardless of individual beliefs. Pickering asked Schwister to
help connect him with various faith-based music groups for the concert, since she had contacts beyond St. Joseph choir due to her time as a music teacher. Having already agreed to join the project, Schwister said she thought it made sense to ask Andrea Grasse, the St. Joseph choir director, if the choir could also take part. “I logically said, ‘Well, I will ask our choir director if she thinks this is something she’s wanting us to do,” Schwister explained. “She didn’t even hesitate.” SEE HARMONY FOR HUMANITY, PAGE 2
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Harmony for Humanity will take place from 6-7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2, at Hamline Methodist Church in St. Paul. St. Joseph of the Lakes, located in Lino Lakes, and Chain of Lakes Church, located in Blaine, will perform.
Celebrate fall at Wargo Nature Center
New childhood development program offers outdoor learning BY MADELINE DOLBY EDITOR
Centennial Early Childhood, in partnership with the Wargo Nature Center, has launched a new program called Outdoor Explorers Preschool. The program gives preschoolers the opportunity to explore nature and learn through hands-on outdoor experiences. “This is something Molly (Wrobel) and I have been talking about for about three years,” said Sara Ison, coordinator of preschool and early childhood. “It’s something that other districts have done, and we’ve seen success.” Wrobel, who teaches the outdoor explorer preschool program, visited the nature preschool at White Bear Lake with Ison and saw how successful it was. From there, the two spent a year planning what the program would look like. They received a SHIP grant from Anoka County to help buy supplies and help with professional development for Wrobel. “I think our biggest thing was we wanted to bring the indoors outside. We just want to give them (the students) a lot of time to be outside and explore and be with different materials, dirt, sand and water, and just do anything we can out here (outside) to enhance learning,” Wrobel said.
PAUL DOLS | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
A group of local residents enjoys a trail walk at Wargo Nature Center’s Fall Festival. This year, the festival is scheduled to take place from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18. The event will feature a variety of self-guided activities, pioneer games and apple cider. Wargo Nature Center is located at 7701 Main St., Lino Lakes.
SEE OUTDOOR PROGRAM, PAGE 5
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