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Communities that KARE: Hope Chest gives cancer patients a lift
Local mom of two Kirsten Coder didn’t let her cancer diagnosis stop her in her tracks, she got through it all with help from others and places like Hope Chest.
ORONO, Minn. — The three words “You have cancer” are life-changing.
“It was devastating,” said Kirsten Coder, a Twin Cities mom of two. “It was like my world just fell out from under me.”
Kirsten Coder’s mom was the first in their family to have breast cancer.
“They got her right into chemo like essentially like after finding out she had cancer cause it was very aggressive and it worked and um we’re really thankful for that and she had the full meal deal,” Coder shared. “We call it the double mastectomy of chemo and radiation and she’s still here today and cancer-free.”
Her mom was cancer-free, but little did Kirsten know her own battle with cancer was about to begin.
“I started screening, they wanted me to at 10 years before my mom’s diagnosis and that put me at 39 and I’d had a, a lump for a number of years that was bothering me,” Coder said.
Despite so many unknowns coming with a breast cancer diagnosis, the hardest part for Kirsten was telling her daughters.
“My girls knew something was wrong because I just told them I had something that was hurting me that I just needed to get figured out what it was, and my girls knew before I even told them that it was something,” Coder said.
“I said, ‘This is big guys’ and before I even said the words, they said, ‘Mom, God’s gotten us through some pretty hard things already in our life and we know God’s gonna get us through this too.’ I knew right then that we were gonna be ok.”
Kirsten was thankful she was in the early stages, soon undergoing a bilateral mastectomy, chemo and radiation. She says finding a support system and not being afraid to ask for help from organizations like Hope Chest for Breast Cancer made a huge difference.
“I first learned of Hope Chest in around 2009 when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer,” said Coder. “She said did you know there’s a store you can go shop and the proceeds go towards helping women with breast cancer and I thought, let’s check it out.”
A percentage of every item sold at the resale store in Orono goes towards helping families like Kirsten’s in the breast cancer community.
“We help with rent, mortgage groceries, auto-related expenses, daycare and we are seeing more unique needs come through for the patients,” said Hope Chest Executive Director Maureen Scallen Failor.
Failor says Hope Chest has been doing incredible things since its inception in 2001. To date, they have shared over $2.9 million in patient grants, which has served over 6,000 patients.
“It was like kind of a surprise after surprise along the way and I’m self-employed and I don’t have sick time,” said Coder. “I had to take time off work to recover from these things and take care of my kids too. That’s why I’m so thankful for hope chest.”
Investigators say 27-year-old Mayan Deng Mayan shot a man following an argument at the unlicensed party at an Uptown business.
MINNEAPOLIS — A man will serve a sentence of more than 34 years in prison after pleading guilty in a fatal shooting at an after-hours party in Minneapolis.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office says 27-year-old Mayan Deng Mayan was sentenced to 414 months, or 34 1/2 years in prison for the murder, which took place outside an Uptown Minneapolis business that was holding an after-bar party the morning of Sept. 18, 2022.
Police were dispatched to the Fade Barber Shop on the 1600 block of Harmon Place just before 5:30 a.m. and found 28-year-old Birahim Gildersleve of Rochester suffering from life-threatening gunshot wounds.
Gildersleve was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center but did not survive.
Investigators learned the shooting followed a verbal argument outside the party and used surveillance video and a license plate reader to identify Mayan as the shooter. He was subsequently charged with second-degree murder.
“Mr. Mayan took the life of Birahim Gildersleve and in doing so, devastated Mr. Gildersleve’s loved ones and damaged a community,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said. “There is no sentence that can repair the harm, but today’s sentence delivers accountability for Mr. Mayan and is in the interest of public safety.”
Mayan will be credited for 585 days already served.
BCA Special Agent Joe Swenson told jurors that Maddi Kingsbury’s remains were hidden by brush and logs 6 to 10 feet long and appeared to be there “on purpose.”
MANKATO, Minn. — BCA Special Agent Joe Swenson was the first witness called Monday morning, the 8th day of testimony in the 1st-degree murder trial of Adam Fravel for the death of Maddi Kingsbury, his ex-girlfriend and mother of his two children.
Swenson, based in Rochester, took the stand and testified about arriving at the scene where Maddi’s remains were found inside a culvert on June 7, 2023. He recalled that the remains were so hidden that he couldn’t tell where the Fillmore Co. Deputy was pointing until they started moving logs and brush.
The BCA agent described some of the logs in the ditch as being 6-10 feet long and “the size of older wooden powerlines, 6-inches across.”
“It certainly appeared the logs were placed there on purpose,” Swenson said.
Then prosecutor Phil Prokopowicz questioned Agent Swenson about discoveries made during an April 27, 2023, search of the Rochester home Fravel and Kingsbury shared. Jurors were shown photos inside the garage as Agent Swenson testified about finding a roll a roll of black Gorilla duct tape, which seemed to match the tape wrapped around Maddi’s body.
Swenson told the courtroom he also found Wyze-brand surveillance cameras in the garage, which had been taken down from inside the townhome and were not operational on the day investigators believe Maddi was killed.
Last week, prosecutors charged Mary Kay Bower, 42, of St. Paul, with rustling and livestock theft, which is a felony.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. — In a YouTube video titled “Rustling is still a thing,” Bloomington Police Chief Booker T. Hodges begins by saying “I’m going to talk to you about a crime that city dwellers don’t often have to talk about.”
Hodges is referring to a woman who was recently arrested and charged with stealing a sheep from a farm in Bloomington.
Last week, prosecutors charged Mary Kay Bower, 42, of St. Paul, with rustling and livestock theft, which is a felony.
On Saturday, Oct. 19, around 6:45 p.m., officers were called to Old Shakopee Road East on a report of a man and woman walking a dog and a sheep.
Bower originally told the officers she had purchased the sheep, according to court documents. However, the man with Bower told officers she “had stepped over the fence to a farm, put a leash on the sheep, and then pulled the sheep through the fence. The male said {Bower} pulled so hard that the sheep was choking.”
Officers said they confirmed with the nearby farm’s owner that the sheep was stolen. The farm’s owner said the “sheep is a breeding hair ram worth approximately $500.”
Chief Booker ended his video by saying the ram was in good condition and Bower’s dog and a “bunny rabbit” that she also had in her possession had been returned to her after she was released from the Hennepin County Jail.
