2024

Caring enough to do what’s right

Two elementary schoolaged boys were talking on the playground during recess one of the first days of the new school year.The first boy complained, “If I forget to say‘Thank you’to my mom for supper, my dad sends me to my room. If I don’t do my chores when I am supposed to do them, my dad sends me to my room. If I am mean to my little sister, my dad sends me to my room. If I bring home a bad report card from school, my dad sends me to my room. If I am sassy to my grandma, my dad sends me to my room. It seems like all my dad ever does is send me to my room!”

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2004: Irish eyes smiling as LHS grad takes field

20 YEARS AGO: NEWS FROM THE ISSUE OF SEPT. 9, 2004 Nancy Piepenburg said she felt like she might get sick. Shirley Loch said the past few days had been filled with “lots of anxiety.” Meanwhile, riding a coach bus on Minnesota Highway 71 headed for Redwood Falls National Guard Armory where their mothers waited, Specialist Justin Piepenburg and Specialist Patrick Loch shared some of the same nervousness. But it was a good kind of nerves. After 11 months of preparation for and service in a security detail in Kosovo, 95 members of the 682nd Engineer Battalion — including 30 from CompanyA out of Litchfield — returned home Saturday. The 30 Litchfield Guard members were the first large-scale deployment from the local unit in 2003. They were attached to Company C and spent about five months training in the United States, then six months in Kosovo before returning to the States.

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Paddle remains elusive

Football returned Friday night as Litchfield met Annandale in a rivalry game — the Battle for the Paddle — at LHS field. Unfortunately for the Dragons, the commemorative paddle trophy went home with the Cardinals again.

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Learning, loud and clear

As students head back to the classroom at Lake Ripley Elementary School this week, they might be hearing their teacher in a whole new — better — way. And some of the teachers might be speaking with new clarity — and less strain — as well.

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Swenson wins Maple Lake Invite

Litchfield junior August Swenson had just enough to capture first place in the Maple Lake Invitational cross country meet Friday at Robert Ney Park. Swenson ran the 5,000-meter course in 17:20.1, crossing the finish line four-hundredths of a second ahead of Rockford’s Grady Dawson (17:20.5).

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