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Christmas Tree Project grows in North St. Paul front yard
Rachel Thompson started the North St. Paul Christmas Tree Project in 2020 as a way to help her neighbors during the holidays.
NORTH ST PAUL, Minnesota — Rachel Thompson wasn’t sure she would be here again this year.
“I wasn’t. I really vacillated. I went back and forth. Not because I don’t think the need is there. The need is always there,” Thompson said. “But I didn’t want to burden the people of my community by every year asking people to donate hundreds of gifts and thousands of dollars. I had put a post up asking if people were still interested and it was just a resounding, ‘Yes.'”
Thompson started the North St. Paul Christmas Tree Project in 2020 during the pandemic as a way to help her neighbors during the holidays. She set up a tree in her front yard — full of lights, ornaments and gift tags full of holiday wishes from families who live in either North St. Paul, Oakdale or Maplewood.
“The generosity that people have. People want to help other people,” Thompson said. “The sheer amount of giving that people will put out there is amazing to me every single time.”
This year, 23 families will be given gifts through the NSP Christmas Tree Project. Rachel worked with some social workers at local schools to find the first seven families and the rest came in as requests. The project is also giving gifts to those at Polar Ridge Senior Living in North St. Paul.
Thompson has noticed more requests for basic needs like clothes but she also wants kids to receive toys and is fulfilling some bigger wishes. Thompson typically recommends people keep gifts around $25-$40. But, for example, in one case a 16-year-old boy was requesting a sewing machine. Before turning down the request, Thompson turned to Facebook and asked if anyone had a gently used sewing machine they would be willing to donate.
“A lady said, I’ll buy a new one. I’ll deliver it to you wrapped on your delivery days. So I got that. I have someone else who bought a Game Boy and someone who bought a bike,” Thompson said.
Over five years, the NSP Christmas Tree Project has helped more than 100 families celebrate the holidays.
“It’s great to help,” said Katherine Nierenhausen of Oakdale who picked a tag with a request from a 5-year-old girl for a Barbie House.
Nierenhausen and her neighbor, Tami Bartholomew, stopped by Monday morning to pick up some tags.
“My sister used to do this every year,” Bartholomew said. “She taught my kids when they were little. We would go adopt a family. So now that they’re older, we’re trying to keep the tradition going.”
“It is without a doubt one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life. Probably the thing I’ll be most proud of,” Thompson said. “Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a hero of mine and one of my favorite quotes from her is ‘leave tracks’… If you’re going to do something, leave tracks. This is the track that I can leave and the tracks that my community can leave by helping others. We have to take care of people. It’s fundamentally important to take care of those around you.”
People can stop by 2727 9th Ave E. North St. Paul to grab a tag off the tree anytime until Dec. 8. All you have to do is pick out a tag, buy the requested gift item, wrap the present and bring it back to Thompson’s home with the tag attached. Drop off days/hours include Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Dec. 7 and 8 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thompson then takes gifts off-site.
On Dec. 7, Thompson will be hosting a hot chocolate and cookie bar at her home from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. or until they run out. Anyone who donates that day will get their name put into a raffle for a hand-knit blanket made by Thompson’s mother.
Those who want to financially contribute, can Venmo: @Rachel-Thompson-122.
You can reach Thompson at NSPChristmasTreeProject@gmail.com.
Milan Dennie struggled as a teen. Now he mentors teens to choose a better path.
ST PAUL, Minn. — You’ve seen plenty of stories about barber shops, most of them focused on what’s taking place up top.
But Milan Dennie’s barbershop is notable for the parade of kids heading downstairs.
“The first thing we do when we start a business is we have to come up with an idea,” Milan, standing at the front of the room, instructs a small group of teens intently listening.
Four days a week after school, the teens sit at tables, classroom style, in the basement of King Milan’s Barbershop.
Call it the students’ MBA-BB program: Milan’s Business Academy in a Barbershop Basement.
The real name Milan chose for his youth programming is simpler and more broadly focused. “It’s Our Neighborhood,” is Milan’s gift to the community.
“I always reflect on what I had to go through,” the 42-year-old barber says.
Milan grew up poor, with two old siblings in Gary, Indiana,
“My father passed when I was 7,” Milan explains. “So, I grew up without a father.”
Milan’s mother was often sick. “She was born with polio,” he says.
With challenges at home, Milan made some bad choices.
“I ended up getting in the judicial system as a teenager, getting in trouble and stuff like that,” he says.
By the time Milan reached the age of the students he’s now teaching, he was in juvenile detention.
A license to barber proved to Milan’s his path to redemption.
“At the age of 22, I opened my first barbershop,” he says.
For the first time, Milan experienced the feeling of being an owner. A friend convinced him to open a shop on University Avenue in St. Paul.
Boarded stores stand near his shop. He wanted to be in a neighborhood with challenges.
He wanted to make things better.
Milan wanted young people to know the feeling he knew, the feeling of being an owner.
“We are going to go over the business plan,” Milan tells his afterschool students.
Tamea Greenhill is among the teens learning — free of charge — entrepreneurship, web design and multimedia.
My brother and my stepdad get their hair cut here and I just seen the flier on the door,” she says. “It’s just fun to interact with children our age, stay out of trouble, you know.”
Tamea and other students produce products they sell several times a year at a Rosedale Center business fair.
Then, each Friday afternoon, they play chess.
“It teaches you to be patient. It teaches you to think before you make decisions,” Milan says.
Alex Spitzer is among the volunteer instructors who prepare Milan’s students for chess tournaments – and life.
Ninth-grader Ace Kimmons calls the barbershop basement classroom a blessing. “I want to go to college,” he says. “I want to do business.”
The students are also learning about community service.
Milan encourages them to participate in trash pick-ups he organizes.
He also leads by example.
Each fall, the day before school starts, Milan and his other barbers give free haircuts to children.
“Last year we did about 200 kids,” he says.
Every kid who comes in for a haircut also leaves with a backpack full of school supplies.
On the street in front of the barbershop, Milan’s students serve Polish sausages from a food trailer.
Today, the sausages are free. On regular days, the students work in the food trailer to earn money for themselves and their educational programs.
“It’s all youth ran, all young entrepreneurs run it,” Tamea says as she serves sausages with all the trimmings.
Milan used grant money to buy the food trailer, another way, he says, for students to learn business skills while earning some money during summer months and on weekends.
But why does he do it; this one-time juvenile delinquent, turned mentor.
“To me, it feels like I am them, in a sense,” he says of his students. “I see myself when I see them.”
Milan Dennie, taking care of business — and his neighborhood.
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April Rodriguez was last seen Monday morning on the 5400 block of Chicago Avenue wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans and carrying a Hello Kitty backpack.
MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis Police are asking for the public’s help finding a 13-year-old girl who never returned from school.
April Rodriguez was last seen Monday morning on the 5400 block of Chicago Avenue wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans and carrying a Hello Kitty backpack. Officials believe she went to school, but never returned home.
April is 5-foot-6, 120 pounds with brown eyes and brown hair.
Anyone who sees April should call 911, and anyone with information about where she may be is encouraged to contact the MPD at 612-673-5845 or at policetips@minneapolismn.gov. People can also leave anonymous information through CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or by submitting them electronically here.
Travis Boyd’s journey to his Minnesota Wild debut reads like a Minnesota folk tale. A trek through snowy traffic in dress shoes, making it just in time for warmups.
ST PAUL, Minn — For Hopkins native Travis Boyd, the path to his Minnesota Wild debut, quite literally, involved walking through a storm. But after battling back from a devastating pectoral injury and weathering the uncertainties of the Arizona Coyotes’ relocation to Utah, a little Calgary snowfall wasn’t going to stop him from living out his childhood dream.
“I had my gear bag over my shoulder, trudging through the snow, cars barely moving on the road beside me,” Boyd recalled, a smile creeping across his face as he sat in the Wild locker room. “But honestly, it felt perfect. Like everything that led to this moment had prepared me for one more challenge.”
The former University of Minnesota standout’s journey to wearing forest green has been anything but straightforward. Last season, a torn pectoral muscle sidelined him just as he was finding his rhythm with the Coyotes, forcing him to watch from the press box as the franchise played its final games in Arizona before the announced move to Utah.
“That injury tests you mentally as much as physically,” Boyd explained. “You can’t even lift your arm above your shoulder for weeks.”
When the team’s relocation to Utah was announced, Boyd was a free agent and still recovering from his injury. He decided it was time to find a new home, but it only led him back home to Minnesota. Boyd signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Wild in the off-season. He’s been playing in Iowa for the AHL Wild affiliate all year.
Over the weekend, he got the emergency call up to play for the Wild after two-star players were out with injuries. He took three different planes to get to Calgary from Iowa.
After he landed and got his bags at 12:30 p.m., Boyd hoped into a car with the team’s services manager. Calgary’s notorious winter weather slowed traffic to a standstill around the Saddledome, Boyd found himself stuck in gridlock with game time quickly approaching. Rather than risk being late, he shouldered his equipment bag and set out on foot, trekking three blocks through the traffic in only a suit and dress shoes.
“I had maybe 15 minutes to get dressed once I got there,” Boyd said, shaking his head with a smile. “But you know what? It felt like coming full circle. From playing youth hockey in Hopkins to wearing the ‘M’ for the Gophers, and now this — walking through a snowstorm to play for the Wild. It’s very Minnesotan.”
The video of his snowy sprint became more than just a viral moment—it was a symbol of Boyd’s resilience. His ultimate goal remains clear: “I know I’m an NHL player. I just gotta continue playing, and I know things will start to come back. They already are.”
