MUCH OBLIGED

Kinship Partners recently hosted our annual Christmas party for the children and adult partners. We had a tremendous turnout- over 200 attended! A huge undertaking like this could never happen without the help of many volunteers. Many thanks to First Lutheran Church of Brainerd who welcomed us into their beautiful fellowship hall and to Pastor Andy. Also a very warm thank you to the congregations of First Lutheran Church of Brainerd, Our Savior's Lutheran Church of Pequot Lakes and Immanuel Lutheran of Crosby for all the Christmas gifts purchased for all the kids. Santa (Mark) did a great job of handing out the gifts on a very cold day! Thank you for the wonderful cookies and beverages that were provided by the women of the Moose. Thank You Arleen and your great helpers that helped turn the cookies into masterpieces. And finally Thank You to the all the volunteers that helped with at the stations, set up, clean up , or where ever needed. We couldn't have done it without you!

Thank you to Denny Schmitt for taking our pictures.

The Kinship Partners Staff

Pillager Music Department

Ashley Furniture recently, without any hesitation, made a very generous donation to our Music Department's efforts to raise money for a trip to New York City.

Twice recently our "Best Seat in the House" story has been written about in the Brainerd Dispatch. The "Best Seat" is a special "couch" which can be won for an evening at a local sporting event. Tonight we played Wadena-Deer Creek for Boys Basketball and high in the stands was a beautiful reclining, leather loveseat that was donated by Ashley Furniture. The Eastmans enjoyed the evening of basketball in the loveseat, after placing the winning bid. But better than the evening of basketball in the reclining, leather loveseat was the thought of possibly winning the loveseat at the end of the season!

Sue Van Hal

Pillager

Great job!

Last week I was fortunate to spend some time volunteering at the Radiothon To End Child Abuse. This is a wonderful yearly event that provides much needed resources for the counties of Crow Wing, Cass and Aitkin in an effort to end child abuse. To the many people who made this happen, I would like to say thank you for allowing me the opportunity to participate and look forward to next year's event as well. Great Job!

Sheriff Todd Dahl

Crow Wing County Sheriff's Office

Northland Arboretum

The Northland Arboretum extends a HUGE thank you to all who helped make our 4th annual Haunted Trail a continued success: Alyssa Abrego, Elizabeth Anderson, Bruce, Mary & Jamie Baden, Laura Bielke, Sharon Bodie, Blair & Monica Boileau, Sue Braddy, Jess Branham, Matt Burris, Braydon Campbell, Reed, Sally & Corbin Campbell, Jill Cyann, Rachel Dallman, Matt Darling, Peter DeBoer, Caitlyn Derksen, Glen Dosh, Joey Doyscher, Renee Du Fresne, Emily Dumbeck, Mark & Becky Eckelman, Jerry Enberg, Tori Faxum, Amanda Finstad, Sara Fransen, Marty Freeman, Carl Fruenderberg, Ruth Gmeinder, Gretchen Gramer, Sean & Melissa Hagen, Tyler Hammer, Matt Hammermeister, Dennis Hansen, Jinny Haugen, Paul Heinlen, Vi Heiser, Eileen Henderson, Terri Hendrickson, Kayla Herubin, Erica Hiller, Barb Humphrey, Erin Innerson, Chelsey James, Peggy Jewison, Jeff Kidder, Chuck & Mary Klang, Jason Kuhl, Sue Kuhl, Bob & Jeanne Larson, Lisa Levig, Sheelah Lewandowski, Katie Lippo, Amy Lively, Roger Macy,Doreen & Rick Mahoney, Katie McCarthy, James McLean, Emily, Molly & Terri Melin, Jackie Nayvon, Linda Nichols, Jon & Laurie Padgett, Dale Parks, Greg Parks, Megan Parks, Libby Pedersen, Shannon Pederson, Megan Quinn, Amanda Randall, Devon Rausch, Keaton Riley, Kari Roberts, Mark Robideaux, Alycia Robinson, Cody Robinson, Lori Rubin, Yana Schneider, Clay Schulte, Logan Schweitzberger, Kyla Slette, Kaye & Sarah Smude, Lisa Stawarski, Patti & Tom Steiger, Katie Strand, Rachel Sullivan, Tracy Switajewski, Darren Thramer, Jackie Thurlow, Abe, Ava, Emmy, Mary & Sam Tuomi, Tammy Turner, Shayna Vastila, Talan Vastila, Josh Viste, Linda Walters, Audrey Wanous, Brian Wenstrand, Jamie Whitehead, Jody Williams, Reah Williams & Alexa Wright. Many thanks for the time and talents of these special friends of the arboretum who showed their spirit of fun and teamwork each evening.

Special thanks to Michelle Burris, the person who pulls it all together and makes it happen, Peggy for her delicious home cooked meals, Forestview Youth Advisory Council, Youth As Resources and MidState Refrigeration.

Northland Arboretum Board of Directors

Heartland Symphony

The annual Heartland Symphony Grand House Tour was again a festive affair enjoyed by many. Even the snowstorm didn't seem to stop too many from enjoying the six very charming, unique, interesting homes on the tour.

The Grand House Tour became a reality for the Heartland Symphony as a "fun fundraiser" because of a former past president and board member of the symphony, Paulette Buck. She had seen it in motion in other areas and said, "Let's do it here in Brainerd." I have had the pleasure of working with Paulette and each year we are bleed with gracious hosts sharing their homes. We appreciate Paulette's outstanding commitment to this fundraiser for the symphony.

We say a special "thank you" to the six homeowners including Greg and Margaret Rosenberg, Rod and Sharon Carlson, Tom and Lynn Strowbridge, Kelly and Sue Bevens, Mike and Heidi Schmidt, and Tom and Amy Hofius.

To the Brainerd Dispatch for the wonderful story by Jennifer Stockinger and the girls handling the sale of the tickets for the tour at the Dispatch, we say "Thank you."

It seem impossible to thank you to all these behind the scenes that make an event like this a success so we won't try and mention names.

To the hostess, tour guides for each home, to our extended media, radio, TV stations, "Splash" with the super interview between Paulette Buck and Billy Holiday, Thank you.

The First Congregational Church has a special cooking group plus volunteers that served a beautiful lunch. Music in the sanctuary was also enjoyed to add to this beautiful festive event. The Heartland Symphony Fundraiser is also supported by the efforts of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, and so we try to use two special words to express our sincere appreciation. Thank you one and all.

Tis indeed the season to remember the reason we celebrate this blessed season. Merry Christmas and God Bless you everyone.

The icing on the cake for heartland Symphony Fans was the wonderful concert Sunday afternoon at Tornstrom Auditorium, enjoying the symphony and Legacy Chorale.

Betty Alderman

Heartland Symphony Board member

Forestview 5th grade

I would like to thank Gander Mountain and Wal-Mart for their generous donation of sleds to Forestview 5th grade students. It is a joy to see kids having old fashioned fun in Minnesota. The sleds are used by over 100 kids a day all winter long. Thanks for supporting us.

Bryan Barber and fifth grade students at Forestview