Infants Remembered in Silence hosts memorial event Thursday
October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month and the nonprofit Infants Remembered in Silence, or IRIS, is hosting a special memorial event this Thursday at the Northfield Library for those who have lost a child at any time during pregnancy, during birth, or during early childhood.
A statement from IRIS said, “Those in attendance will have the opportunity to talk about their experiences if they would like and have the chance to create a meaningful keepsake painted rock to honor their child.”
Infants Remembered in Silence is a nonprofit organization founded in 1987 and based in Faribault that serves families in southern Minnesota who have lost young children. They offer a variety of health and advocacy services as well as funeral preparation services and support to parents in the years following their loss.
According to IRIS, the organization “supplements the care given by the medical, mental health, and religious communities by providing resources and referral information, support and education to parents, family, friends, and professionals after a child dies.”
The event will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Northfield Library on Thursday and registration for the event is encouraged. To register, go to https://mynpl.libcal.com/event/9278894.
To find out more information about IRIS and their services call 507-334-4748 or visit www.irisremembers.com.
Registration opens for annual Rotary Turkey Trot
Registration has officially opened for the 2022 annual Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day. Those who have participated before will have received an email with the link to register and anyone can register on the Northfield Rotary Club website.
The event is one of Rotary’s biggest fundraising events of the year. According to the Rotary website, this year’s Turkey Trot will benefit multiple Rotary programs including their youth exchange program, polio eradication, and several international projects. Rotary will also be collecting food for the Northfield Food Shelf during the event. Non-perishable food donations can be dropped off the morning of the race or when participants pick up their bibs and T-shirts.
Jim Loe of the Northfield Rotary Club said though the Turkey Trot is an important fundraiser for the club, it’s also a great homecoming event during the holidays.
“It’s been a tremendous fundraiser for our Rotary Club, but I think more importantly it’s been a great homecoming for college students coming back for Thanksgiving, they get to see their friends. And there’s a lot of runners in this community that can get together and feel good about eating a lot of turkey when you get a good start to the day.”
All types and ages of participants are welcome and people can run or walk. Every participant receives a free long-sleeved T-Shirt commemorating the event that highlights event sponsors on the back of the shirt.
Loe said typically between 900-1000 runners participate. And this year people can participate even if they won’t be in Northfield during Thanksgiving. Developed during the pandemic, a “free-range” participation option lets participants do the Turkey Trot from anywhere. They’ll still get the T-shirt and can participate on their own time wherever they are Thanksgiving morning.
The Rotary Turkey Trot to be held on Thanksgiving Day, November 24. The run begins at 9:00 a.m. from First UCC Church, at 300 Union Street.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Jim Loe of Northfield Rotary Club can be heard here.
Student mural at Just Food finished with community contributions
The student-created mural on the outside of Just Food Co-op in Northfield was finished on Saturday with the help of the community. For the last day of painting, community members were invited to add their personal touches to the mural.
The project was the brainchild of Mar Valdecantos of Rice County Neighbors United, or Vecinos Unidos, and her artistic partners: Northfield Middle School Art Teacher Rafa Estrella and the former Art Coordinator at The Key Youth Center, Marie Fischer.
Neighbors United received an almost $5000 grant from Northfield Shares in 2018 for the student mural project and despite delays from construction at the co-op and the pandemic, the organizers and students are proud to present the finished product.
Around 40 Northfield Middle School and High School students participated in the project. The students first studied the importance of murals and the process of making them and then they designed their own. Students participated in either the design, the painting or both. Roberto Ochoa, who graduated from Northfield High School in 2021, also helped lead the painting process.
Valdecantos said she was impressed by the creativity of the students. She said the process has been “very organic” and the students have been flexible and willing to adjust ideas and colors to make their collective vision come to life even during the actual painting process.
The students decided to base the mural around several themes that they felt spoke to them and to Northfield including night and day, the seasons, Mother Earth, the Cannon River, and connecting an urban setting to nature.
Estrella said there’s a lot of talented and artistic students in Northfield and he loves seeing the students realize both that it takes more work than they might think to paint a mural, but also that they can do it.
“We have a lot of talent in Northfield. There’s a lot of students that are just itching with creativity and they want to have another outlet. They’re curious about murals; they see them, they look at them like ‘oh my God can I do that?’ and I’m like ‘Yes, you can!’ Just to see them interacting with the wall and the paint; it’s just so much fun to see them do that and realize it’s a lot more work than just taking a brush to the wall.”
Valdecantos said this is hopefully just the first student mural Neighbors United sponsors. Her organization has already secured some funding for future student mural projects.
Cait Kelley is the KYMN News Editor. Contact her at cait@kymnradio.net.
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