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Minnesota commission picks top state seal finalist that includes a loon

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Minnesota’s new state seal will showcase a loon at its center, the first major re-design of the official stamp of government since statehood in 1858.

Members of the State Emblems Redesign Commission voted Tuesday to move ahead with one design for the seal as their top finalist after thousands of comments of support poured in from members of the public.

“It’s truly surreal,” said Ross Bruggink, a Shorewood designer who submitted the state seal image chosen by the commission. “There’s going to be such a history and legacy attached to these designs. I feel very honored.”

His design features the state bird posed atop waves to represent the state’s many lakes. The loon is flanked on one side by wild rice, Minnesota’s official grain, and pine trees on the other to represent its forests. The North Star also appears prominently next to the loon to play off the state motto of “L ‘etoile du nord,” the star of the north.

“That’s such a great representation of our state, it feels prideful and it’s unique to Minnesota,” Bruggink said of the loon imagery.

The commission’s decision removes four other seal finalists from consideration so members can focus their energy on potential changes to the final design, including whether to note the year Minnesota became state and if the state’s motto should be inscribed in its original French or English. Commission members also discussed whether the loon’s eyes should be red.

Over the last week, more than 3,000 Minnesotans submitted comments in support of the design for the state seal. It was also the top pick for the members of the commission, which voted unanimously at a recent meeting to advance it as a finalist.

“It’s a clear favorite. It’s distinctive, it’s versatile,” said Isaac Maruyama, a member of the public who testified at the commission’s meeting on Tuesday. “I think we can all agree that everything on the table right now is an improvement on what we have.”

The 13-member commission was created by the Minnesota Legislature last session to change the design of both the flag and the seal after decades of criticism that the white settler imagery on the state’s current emblems is offensive to tribal communities.

The current seal, which is at the center of the flag, shows a white farmer plowing a field in the foreground while a Native American man on horseback rides off into the sunset. The law required them to come up with designs that “accurately and respectfully reflect Minnesota’s shared history, resources, and diverse cultural communities.”

The commission received thousands of public submissions for a new state flag and seal. Members are still trying to narrow down their list of top six flag finalists, which have been more divisive with the broader public. The commission received more than 15,000 comments on the state flag designs.

Bruggink also designed one of the flag finalists and is hopeful it will make it to the next round of consideration. All of the flag designs feature the imagery of the North Star, which commission members felt was a broadly identifiable image for the flag.

In choosing a finalist for the flag, Bruggink hopes the commission members follow their own principles laid out for simplicity and a bold design that can be easily reproduced and recognized from a distance.

“The requirements for a seal are different than the flag. The seal invites more complexity and it can be a lot more illustrative,” Bruggink said. “I think there’s a lot more that can be latched onto through that design, it’s not as much a brand exercise as the flag is.”

Bruggink said he plans to submit variations on his seal design for the commission for their next meeting. The commission faces a Jan. 1 deadline to present a new flag and seal design to the Minnesota Legislature.



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The story behind that extra cheerleading sparkle at Minnetonka football games

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Amid the cacophony and chaos of the pregame preparation before a recent Minnetonka High School football game, an exceptional group of six girls is gathered together among the school’s deep and talented cheerleading and dance teams.

The cheerleaders, a national championship-winning program of 40 girls, dot the track around the football field. As the clock ticks down to kickoff and their night of choreographed routines begins, the six girls, proudly wearing Minnetonka blue T-shirts emblazoned with “Skippers Nation” and shaking shiny pom-poms, swirl around the track, bristling with excited energy.

Their circumstances are no different from any of the other cheerleaders with one notable exception: The girls on this team have special needs.

They’re members of the Minnetonka Sparklers, a squad of cheerleaders made up solely of girls with special needs.

A football game at Minnetonka High School is an elaborate production. The Skippers’ recent homecoming victory over Shakopee brought an announced crowd of 8,145. And that is just paying attendees; it doesn’t include school staffers, coaches, dance team, marching band, concession workers, media members and others going about their business attached to the game.

The Sparklers program, now in its 12th season, was the brainchild of Marcy Adams, a former Minnetonka cheerleader who initiated the program in her senior year of high school. Adams has been coach of the team since its inception, staying on through her tenure as a cheerleader at the University of Minnesota.

She started the program after experiencing the Unified Sports program at Minnetonka. The unified sports movement at high schools brings together student-athletes with cognitive or physical disabilities and athletes with no disabilities to foster relationships, understanding and compassion through athletics. Many Minnesota schools offer unified sports.

“I grew up in a household that valued students with special needs and valued inclusion,” Adams said. “I saw a need to give to those students. At Minnetonka, we have a strong Unified program, and this was a great opportunity to build relationships and offer mentorship opportunities.”



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Here’s how fast elite runners are

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Elite runners are in a league of their own.

To get a sense of how far ahead elite runners are compared to the rest of us, the Minnesota Star Tribune took a look at how their times compare to the average marathon participant.

The 2022 Twin Cities Marathon men’s winner was Japanese competitor Yuya Yoshida, who ran the marathon in a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 28 seconds, for an average speed of 11.96 mph. He averaged 5 minutes and 2 seconds per mile.

That’s more than twice the speed of the average competitor across both the men’s and women’s categories, of 5.89 mph, according to race results site Mtec. The average participant finished in 4 hours, 26 minutes and 56 seconds. That comes out to an average time of 10 minutes and 11 seconds per mile.

And taking it to the most extreme, the fastest-ever marathon runner, Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya, finished the 2023 Chicago Marathon in 2 hours and 35 seconds, for an average pace of about 13 mph. Kiptum averaged 4 minutes and 36 seconds per mile.

Here is a graphic showing these differences in average marathon speed.



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Liberty Classical Academy sues May Township after expansion plans put on hold

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The school said in its lawsuit that both Hugo and May Township consider the land rural residential zoning, and that the codes identify a school as a conditional use. Hugo officials have generally supported the LCA plan, granting a building permit in 2022 that allowed LCA to invest $2.1 million into the former Withrow school for renovations.

The school said in its lawsuit that the existing septic system is failing and needs to be replaced, regardless of expansion plans.

The school said it notified neighbors of the property in 2022 and again in 2023 about its land purchase. About 50 residents in total attended those meetings, and just two expressed concerns over the issues of traffic and lights, according to the suit. The school met with the May Township board in May of 2023, and minutes from that meeting show that the board had no concerns beyond lighting at the time, according to the suit. The board asked if the school could use “down lighting” for its athletic fields and the school said it would.

In June, Hugo City Council approved a conditional use permit for the school, but the May Township board voted to extend the decision deadline to early August.

The suit says it was at a subsequent meeting in July that May Town Board Chairman John Pazlar objected to the plan for the first time, saying “the main concern, based on public comment, is to keep Town of May rural.”

The school said its plans for the May Township portion of its property had been submitted eight months prior to the July meeting, and that its plans met requirements of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.



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