Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Winnie’s crew to the rescue



The recent beautiful weather has given us a last chance
to finish up all of those outdoor chores before the anticipated cold weather.

Watching those beautiful days go by and darkness approach
earlier every night, I came to a realization after hearing, over and over
again, “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

A month has flown by and the downtown Waverly courtyard’s
sidewalk and clock foundation were no where near being ready for concrete.

The courtyard project has been fulfilling. It’s great to
see the progress that has been made in downtown Waverly. Although, it has
not been without a few headaches. I have done plenty of scheduling over
the years and have dealt with lots of difficult people.

Well, that’s life and I’m sure this won’t be the last time
I will have to deal with this sort of problem. I would also like to point
out that most everyone has been wonderful to work with and their donations
have far surpassed my expectations.

So why dwell on this problem? Just to show how hopeless,
discouraging, and frustrating it can be when things don’t go as planned
and that “tomorrow” isn’t ever going to be here.

Now, the good news. My husband, Ken Kutz, saw how discouraged
I was and approached Jim “Winnie” Weninger at Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted
High School. Ken briefed him at 8 a.m. Tuesday with the situation-at-hand.

By 10 a.m. Tuesday, Weninger and his FFA crew showed up
at the courtyard project, all with shovels and rakes in hand.

They all worked so hard and progress was immediately visible.
Each of his classes came to the courtyard that day to pitch in their services.
Weninger supervised the crew and kept the project flowing throughout the
day.

I began to jot down their names, but soon realized that
upwards of 75 students showed up.

They know who they are, so, I’ll just refer to them as
“Winnie’s crew.” After all, it was Winnie’s crew to the rescue.

I wasn’t familiar with what FFA was or did. So, all of
this activity was very overwhelming to me.

By 3 p.m. that day, the sidewalk was all leveled, staked
and ready for concrete. Josh Diers showed up early Wednesday morning to
check everything over before Con-Mix delivered the concrete to the site.
Con-Mix of Howard Lake/Delano donated four yards of concrete for the project.

Soon, Weninger and his crew showed up once again with shovels
in hand. They spread, leveled, and finished the concrete into the sidewalk
and clock foundation.

Many learned by doing, and yet, others learned by watching
the process take place.

It was very rewarding to see, once again, the youth of
our community pitch in to make a difference. Each and every student should
be commended for their hard work and their parents and teachers certainly
ave something to be proud of.

Winnie and his crew came to the rescue and in my book they
would each get A+ and a couple of smiley faces. What a fine program HLWW
High School has in FFA.

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