Sesquicentennial

Celebrate with us

2008. A very special year. As you may have heard, Eden Prairie is celebrating its Sesquicentennial, its 150th anniversary! The Heritage Preservation Commissioners, your city-appointed, volunteer stewards of historic places, are coordinating the celebration.

Our goal is awareness: we want every Eden Prairie person, organization, school, church and business to know why we’re so excited and encourage them to get involved. I hope you’ve noticed our great looking sesquicentennial logo and its tagline, 150 Years of Community. That, in a nutshell, is what we’re celebrating: the tradition in Eden Prairie of being a community that works together and plays together for the benefit of the whole.

So far, we have on the calendar:

* May 3 – History Tour, a self-guided driving excursion presented by the Eden Prairie Historical Society. Members will greet and guide guests through the Smith-Douglas-More House (Dunn Bros. Coffee), J.R. Cummins House, Consolidated School Gymnasium, Riley-Jacques Farm and the Dorenkemper House. A tour is downloadable from the City Web site and will be printed here in the newspaper.

* May 17 – Join us at the Riley-Jacques Barn for an old time barn dance featuring Shake These Bones with Bob Walser and Julie Young.

* June 7 – Arts and Antiques in the Garden will be held at the Cummins Homestead.

* June 14 – Join us at the Riley-Jacques Barn for a night of bluegrass music featuring the Middle Creek Spunk Boys.

* July 4 – The city’s Fourth of July celebration as a special tribute Eden Prairie’s 150 Years of Community.

* July 19 – Join us at the Riley-Jacques Barn for a barn dance featuring Pigs Eye Landing.

* Aug. 9 – Second Annual Antiques Fair at the Smith-Douglas-More House (Dunn Bros. Coffee) sponsored by the Eden Prairie Historical Society.

* Aug. 10 – Join your neighbors for the Annual Eden Prairie International Festival, featuring Cyril Paul and the Calypso Monarchs. Dance, arts, food, exhibits and more!

* Aug. 23 – Join us at the Riley-Jacques Barn for an evening of bluegrass music featuring the Blue Drifters.

* Sept. 14 – Special Sesquicentennial Sunbonnet Day and Dorenkemper House Tours at the Riley-Jacques Farmstead.

Also in the works:

* The Hennepin County Library will develop a reading list for history buffs in conjunction with a display of Eden Prairie artifacts, on loan from the Historical Society.

* Reprinting of the city’s story, “Eden Prairie, The First 100 Years” by Helen Holden Anderson.

* There will be a series of outdoor banners displaying our sesquicentennial logo, donated by Northern Lights Display.

* Afternoon Tea at Bearpath Country Club; an Eden Prairie Historical Society fundraiser with a sesquicentennial flavor, on June 22.

* The city of Eden Prairie Web site will have detailed activity information, a downloadable Sesquicentennial brochure (history and lots of photos) and the map for the Historical Society’s History Tour on May 3.

* The Sesquicentennial brochure will also be printed and distributed throughout the community.

We hope that you will be able to take part in what we have planned AND that your organization, neighborhood, school, church or business will get involved with your own sesquicentennial activities and festivities! To help:

* The sesquicentennial logo is yours to use as you publicize your events. You can download it from the City website, www.edenprairie.org. Scroll down to What’s Happening/”Celebrating 150 Years”   

* We’d like to list your sesquicentennial event on the City Web site; please contact the city’s communications department for further information.

* Please feel free to print or forward the online Sesquicentennial brochure or we will happily supply copies to you to distribute.

What a great way to start our second 150 years of community! Have fun!

Betsy Adams

Eden Prairie

Editor’s note: Adams is writing on behalf of the Heritage Preservation Commission. 

Eden Prairie School District

Blackout

How many of you cringed and wished for a few weeks that you didn’t live in Eden Prairie when some of our high school students showed up on Facebook drinking alcohol? We were forced to acknowledge what we already suspected. There are underage teens that drink.

If you were hoping something positive would come from this incident, take heart. A group of students and staff at Eden Prairie high school took up the challenge. After weeks of research, interviews and rehearsals, they presented the play “Blackout,” a stark, yet informative play about teenage drinking. The play brought to light the complex dimensions of teenage drinking in a series of vignettes and monologs.

The post performance discussion with the audience, cast and director Peter Heeringa added a personal dimension to the experience.

I applaud the EPHS Drama Club for their willingness to take on this subject, and for doing such a wonderful job with it.

I think Eden Prairie would be greatly served if this play were presented annually as part of freshman orientation at EPHS.

Jim Rannow

Eden Prairie

Generation EP

Appreciates column

Whether you agree with him or not, Ryan Johnson’s April 17, 2008, editorial reflects independent thinking and clarity of expression of a higher level than one would expect of a high school student.  Thank you, Ryan, for writing the editorial, and thank you Eden Prairie News for publishing it.

John D. Sens

Eden Prairie

Thank you

Thanks from Troop 342

The Boy Scout Troop 342 had a wonderful turnout this year with over 2,200 people attending our annual Pancake Breakfast at the high school. We would like to thank the community of Eden Prairie for their continued support. We would also like to thank the following sponsors: Prairie Lawn and Garden, C.H Robinson, General Mills, US Bank, Berry Coffee Co., TGI Fridays, Thrivent Financial, Byerly’s, Panera Bread, the Super America on Pioneer Trail, Jerry’s Foods, Cub Foods, PDQ, Kowalski’s Market, Applebees, Timberlodge Restaurant, Costco, Davanni’s, Washburn-McReavy Funeral Chapel, Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and Cargill Kitchen Solutions for their very generous donations.

Thanks to everyone involved in making this a great Pancake Breakfast!

Tom Nordquist

Eden Prairie

Editor’s note: Nordquist is senior patrol leader of Troop 342. 

30-hour Famine

Last month, St. Andrew Lutheran Church hosted 18 metro-wide churches for a “30 Hour Famine,” an international youth movement to fight hunger, which is sponsored by World Vision. During the famine the students fasted for 30 hours, while they learned about world hunger and how they can make a difference in the world. They also packaged food at Feed My Starving Children in Chanhassen and participated in other service projects. The combined donations that were collected by the students totaled approximately $40,000, which will feed nearly 200 children for a year. At the end of the famine we broke our fast with a meal donated from Chipotle.

St. Andrew is so thankful to have a neighbor like Chipotle who so generously provided burritos and chips for the 364 people who participated in the event. Their support was above and beyond our expectations. Our youth learned a lot about how we can be responsible for our neighbors around the world by helping put an end to hunger and also that they have neighbors right here in Eden Prairie who are here to help and support them. Thank you Chipotle for your support of the youth of the Twin Cities!

Diane Pflepsen

Eden Prairie