Star Tribune
St. Grand is back, dropping $1,000 cash in a Salvation Army red kettle in Coon Rapids
The mysterious Twin Cities philanthropist dubbed St. Grand is back, helping the Salvation Army to close a fundraising shortfall this holiday season.
The charity found a $1,000 donation Tuesday in a red kettle in Coon Rapids on Tuesday — and like past $1,000 donations stuffed into the signature red kettles, this one was a bundle of 10 hundred-dollar bills.
The modus operandi is leading Salvation Army officials to suspect it’s the same secretive donor (or donors, perhaps) who has given more than $150,000 over the past 13 years, always dropping bundles of cash totaling $1,000, usually in the north metro.
“It has all the earmarks of St. Grand,” said Dan Furry, a Salvation Army spokesman. “It’s always exciting when that happens.”
The generous gift comes as the Roseville-based charity, one of the largest social service nonprofits in Minnesota, remains short of its fundraising goal of $1.9 million by Sunday, which is Christmas Eve. So far, it’s collected about $1.3 million at the nearly 300 red kettles placed outside stores across the Twin Cities.
“We’re behind the pace of last year,” Furry said. “If people can give, they’re helping their neighbors who are really struggling this year.”
The annual Red Kettle campaign is part of the Salvation Army’s year-end goal to raise $11.3 million — fundraising that usually provides more than two-thirds of its annual revenue.
With local and national declines in giving, donations have slumped for the charity as they have for other nonprofits. The Salvation Army reduced its fundraising goals this year as a result, and may have to dip into reserves or scale back services if the year-end campaign doesn’t meet its goal.
The charity is trying to make it easier to give money for donors who don’t carry cash or spare change. The organization this year is testing tap technology at about three dozen of its red kettles so donors can give with a tap of their credit card or smartphone on a sensor.
Furry said the tap technology is gradually taking off. It’s an easier option than online giving because donors don’t have to submit their info or credit card details.
“In two seconds, you’re done. We think that may be a big help in the future,” he said. “We’re always in need of donations.”
Two people from Minnetonka were killed late Friday afternoon when their GMC Suburban ran a stop sign and was struck by a GMC Yukon headed north on Hwy. 169 west of Palisade, Minn.
According to the State Patrol, Marlo Dean Baldwin, 92, and Elizabeth Jane Baldwin, 61, were dead at the scene. The driver of the Suburban, a 61-year-old Minnetonka man, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The Suburban, pulling a trailer, was headed east on Grove Street/County Rd. 3 at about 5:15 p.m. when it failed to stop at Hwy. 169 and was struck by the northbound Yukon. The Yukon then struck two westbound vehicles stopped at the intersection.
Four people from Zimmerman, Minn., in the Yukon, including the driver, were taken to HCMC with life-threatening injuries, while two passengers were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Three girls in the Yukon ranged in age from 11 to 15.
The drivers of the two vehicles struck by the Yukon were not injured, the State Patrol said. Road conditions were dry at the time of the accident, and alcohol was not believed to have been a factor. All involved in the accident were wearing a seat belt except for Elizabeth Baldwin.
Hill City police and the Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene.
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.”
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.
