I write a bi-weekly column in the Grand Forks Herald. It appears on Saturdays. Here are the first paragraphs of each of those columns:
May 16, 2026 | From childhood negotiator to national debater, Jakob Kehrwald heads to nationals
Jakob Kehrwald is 16 years old and a junior at Red River High School. When he turns 17 in June, he will celebrate with 7,000 of his fellow students from across the country — because Jakob will be one of two North Dakotans to take the stage for the debate competition at the National Speech and Debate Tournament in Richmond, Virginia.
May 2, 2026 | UND’s women’s club hockey team prepares for its debut
Back when my oldest son was a little fella, one of our favorite family activities was to attend a women’s hockey game at the University of North Dakota. Why was it a favorite? The games were fun. The team was highlighted by a pack of Olympians and world champions, including Jocelyn and Monique Lamoureux and Michelle Karvinen, who now plays in the PWHL for Vancouver Goldeneyes, and they won more than they lost. Continue reading
April 18, 2026 | Lucy and Landyn light up Valley Senior Living
We have a lot of great kids in Grand Forks, and I want to tell you about two of them. Meet Lucy Restad and Landyn Adams. Lucy is 11 years old and Landyn is 9; in May, they will be named the North Dakota Long Term Care Association’s Young Adult Volunteers of the Year. The award is presented to volunteers under the age of 20 who have significantly contributed to the quality of life of a community’s long-term care residents. Typically, the Long Term Care Association only honors one person each year. Lucy and Landyn, however, are exceptional. Continue reading
April 4, 2026 | Eric Ripley and the new Career Impact Academy are growing region’s next crop of professionals
Back in the 2000s, Sadie Ripley and I sat next to each other during the Grand Forks Chamber Leadership Program. At the time, North Dakota was battling the out-migration of local 20-somethings toward bigger cities and bigger jobs. As Sadie and I were in the early days of our careers — and Sadie had excitedly confided to me that she and her husband, Eric, were in the early days of pregnancy with their first baby — the community was especially supportive of giving us professional opportunities that would keep us in Grand Forks. Continue reading
March 21, 2026 | Blizzards, breaches and being 17: A look back on 1997’s Blizzard Hannah
After a springtime snowstorm, Grand Forksers over the age of 40 are required by social law to turn to their children, grandchildren and younger friends and say, “You know, back in April of ’97, we had a three-day blizzard named Hannah and that’s one of the reasons it flooded.” Continue reading
March 7, 2026 | For the owners of Grand Forks’ Urban Stampede, it’s the beans that bind
My little sister and I grew up in my family’s clothing store, Silverman’s, in downtown Grand Forks. When we weren’t working Crazy Days, wrapping presents or measuring teenagers for prom tuxedos, we were eating kuchen at A Taste of Norway and weaving in and out of the tables at the antiques store. We spent hours upon hours upon hours of our childhood at the City Center Mall, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Continue reading
February 21, 2026 | A backyard rink faces off with spring
February has been a month of ups and downs. For most of us, the recent warm snap – or, really, more like a gentle applause – gladly shook the frost off our surroundings and ourselves. We opened our coats, threw our scarves to the breeze, and turned our faces to the sunshine as our neighborhoods filled with birdsong and our curbs filled with slush. Continue reading
The mission of The String Queens – featuring Kendall Isadore on violin, Dawn Johnson on viola, and Élise Sharp on cello – is to “create musical experiences that inspire diverse audiences to love, hope, feel, and imagine.” Continue reading
January 24, 2026 | Healing through legacy service
I grew up in a neighborhood full of boys, and because my backyard was flat and green with a flower bed in the right spot to act as second base, there were quite a few Whiffle Ball games played at my house. Continue reading
January 10, 2026 | Sleds and sweatpants – the halcyon days of January
It’s January! I love January! January is a month unburdened by expectations. Seasonal decorations? Not unless you want to hang balloons for my birthday on Jan. 29 – which, coincidentally, is also National Curmudgeons Day, so if you don’t put up anything but your coat on the back of a chair, that’s completely appropriate, too. Continue reading
December 27, 2026 | Where light gathers
For the last 20 years, the magic of this week for me has been in its darkness. My boys and I spend Christmas with my husband Kyle’s family in his itty-bitty hometown of Fillmore, Saskatchewan. To get to Fillmore you head north from Minot, and if you’ve been that way you know that in the daytime you’re cruising through a beautiful rolling valley dotted with pasturing cows and larger-than-life numbers – a “54” on one hillside, an “02” on another – formed out of white rocks by Kenmare’s graduating classes. At night, however, it’s nothing but you and your headlights and whatever the moon decides to illuminate. Continue reading
December 13, 2026 | Applause for the Greater Grand Forks Community Theatre
It’s the most wonderful time of the year for my 10-year-old; December means curtains up on the Greater Grand Forks Community Theatre’s Children’s Musical. This season Ten and his fellow castmates are putting on a performance of “Finding Nemo Jr.” I don’t think I’m being biased in saying that it’s probably the cutest and bestest iteration of this particular show and/or any marine-based stage play ever performed. Continue reading
November 29, 2026 | A look into UNITY Village at the North Dakota State Penitentiary
Earlier this month, I toured the State Penitentiary in Bismarck, North Dakota’s maximum security men’s prison. I knew going in that the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DOCR) was different than many of the systems in the country because its goal is not only to incarcerate, but also to rehabilitate. Continue reading
November 15, 2026 | ‘Thank you for being so brave’
My 10-year-old son wrote a letter to a veteran as a part of a school project in honor of Veterans Day. We found out about this project when he came home, set his backpack on the counter, and sighed the most mournful sigh anyone has ever sighed.
“What’s going on, buddy?” my husband, Kyle, asked.
“All of the veterans I know are dead,” Ten said, pointing to the living room and sighing loudly once again. Continue reading
November 1, 2026 | Fresh air, fun and friends are the magic of tailgating
October is a particularly nice month to be in North Dakota, and when a Saturday in North Dakota is not only crisp and apple-spiced but also filled to the brim with sunshine … well, we’re basically required by Midwestern law to take advantage of it.
“What would you think about tailgating the UND game today?” My husband, Kyle, asked as we drank our morning coffee. Continue reading
October 18, 2026 | Lessons that come from life
Earlier this year, I attended a luncheon of the Grand Forks Retired Teachers Association. Teachers are the gold standard for meetings because they approach them in the same way they do classroom education – well-organized agendas, lessons and information delivered through storytelling, stickers – and so the luncheon was a great time. Continue reading
October 4, 2026 | Striving to herald the unheralded
Recently, the New York Times was one of several dozen newspapers nationwide to author an article on the life and influence of our own Marilyn Hagerty. In the comment section, a reader named Walker wrote, “This story makes me wish I grew up in Grand Forks. There are so many interesting people like Ms. Hagerty, and the vast majority of them go unheralded.” Continue reading
September 20, 2026 | A retail fairyland, right in Grand Forks
I am typing this email while wearing my new citrine necklace, a purchase from Wild Bergamot in Grand Forks. Wild Bergamot is a retail fairyland created by Lasha Oss; a space that feels much more like a secret garden than a shop. I am going to tell you much more about the store itself – but first, I want to talk about Lasha. Continue reading
September 6, 2026 | Learning all about hot serves and cool saves during sand volleyball league
Once a week, my husband, Kyle, dutifully carries a folding rocking chair to a shady spot beneath the trees in Bringewatt Park so that I can watch him and a handful of our friends play volleyball as a part of the Choice Sand Volleyball League. Continue reading
August 23, 2025 | Not too long ago, Crazy Day in downtown Grand Forks was, in a word, CA-RAZY
Back in the early 1960s of Grand Forks, when Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy both spoke on the University of North Dakota campus and the South Forks Plaza was readying to open its doors as the region’s first indoor shopping mall, downtown Grand Forks held a one-day sidewalk clearance sale called Crazy Day. Continue reading