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ZACH BARTZ FUND: Honors legacy, pursues research PAGE 14
Ukulele Bears strum with one accord BY LOGAN GION CONTRIBUTING WRITER
premiered in 1957 starring Julie Andrews. It was remade in 1997, starring Whitney Houston. Suoja emphasized that, while
“Rainbow Stew,” the 1981 country song by Merle Haggard, speaks of a utopia achieved through innovation and harmony with one’s neighbors. That dream becomes a reality—for 90 minutes, at least—during jam sessions with Ukulele Bears. Ukulele Bears started in 2017 when Paul Wolleat was attending a woodcarving class at the White Bear Area Senior Center. A staff member asked attendees for future activity ideas, when a classmate mentioned that Wolleat knew music and could teach everybody. Wolleat had been playing various instruments since he was 8 years old, and he believed the ukulele was an easy one to pick up. “You can do hundreds of songs with a couple of chords. You can do almost any song with three chords,” Wolleat said. “I tell people, ‘I can teach you to play a uke in about a minute. Two, if you’re slow.’” “I thought he told me three minutes …” joked longtime member Dick Ingberg, whose favorite song, “Rainbow Stew,” was the theme of a recent jam session with over 40 ukulele players. “All of a sudden, a lot more people showed up,” Ingberg said. “They must like it, you know?”
SEE CINDERELLA, PAGE 16
SEE UKULELE BEARS, PAGE 20
PAUL DOLS | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
Fellow cast members look on as a moment between Prince Topher and Cinderella (Ethan Christensen and Holly Flood) is interupted by Sebastian (Lucas Maahs) during a rehearsal for the upcoming fall musical production of “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.”
‘Cinderella’ glides into Performing Arts Center BY LOGAN GION CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The White Bear Lake Area High School fall musical is always enchanting, but director
Wendy Suoja wanted the first musical in the Performing Arts Center to be truly magical. Thus, this fall’s show is “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” which originally
Main Street Inc. brings back ornament tradition with modern twist BY SHANNON GRANHOLM MANAGING EDITOR
A tradition that ceased to exist in the early ’90s is coming back thanks to Main Street Inc. From 1987 to 1993, downtown White Bear Lake shoppers would visit PaperMill Gift Shop on Banning Avenue to purchase an authentic “Holiday Greetings” ornament each year. Most of the designs featured the iconic bear, but one highlighted the well-known gazebo at Railroad Park. Sara Hanson, executive director of the White Bear Lake Historical Society, says PaperMill’s owner Joan Storey came up with the idea. “That
was her baby back in the day,” Hanson said. “She was a driving force with Main Street.” White Bear Lake Main Street Inc. is a nonprofit organization run by board members, who each have businesses directly in downtown White Bear Lake. Main Street Inc. serves the members that are located in the White Bear Lake Special Service Tax District. “As a board, we talked about that it would be nice to bring the ornaments back that they used to do,” said Main Street Treasurer Patty Steele. Main Street social media extraordinaire SEE COMMUNITY COLLABORATION, PAGE 10
SHANNON GRANHOLM | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
This holiday season several businesses in White Bear Lake will be selling the 2025 Main Street Inc. ornament.
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