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Backpack Project seeks to help homeless youth in Twin Cities
About 6,000 young people experience homelessness every night in Minnesota, according to Backpack Project MN.
The nonprofit provides backpacks with personal care items for young people in need. They work with YouthLink, The Link, StreetWorks, Ain Dah Yung Center and the Division of Indian Work to distribute these backpacks to youth in the Twin Cities area.
Through these backpacks, the nonprofit has reached more than 7,000 people in the last ten years. Backpack Project MN is seeking to raise $25,000 for operating costs in 2025.
Founder Randy Palmer visited KARE 11 News at Noon to share more.
The new pop-up exhibit will run through Dec. 28, telling the story of Minnesota through our sports teams.
MINNEAPOLIS — As the iconic Dayton’s building on Nicollet Mall comes to life this holiday season, there’s a new exhibit on the lower floor that sports fans young and old will want to see.
The Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame Experience, which opened Black Friday and runs through Dec. 28, tells the story of our state through our athletic triumphs and tribulations. Sharing the same hours as the popular Dayton’s Holiday Market upstairs, the free exhibit takes visitors through more than a century of Minnesota athletics.
Forged by a partnership between the Minneapolis Foundation, the Minnesota Star Tribune, Meet Minneapolis and other stakeholders, the Hall of Fame pop-up exhibit has been an idea of former mayor R.T. Rybak for more than a decade.
Rybak, who now leads the Minneapolis Foundation, said he originally wanted to put a Hall of Fame display at the Armory to coincide with the opening of U.S. Bank Stadium. Now, more than a decade later, his concept has finally come to fruition inside one of the city’s most recognizable buildings.
“One of the things about a museum is you can tell a story through whatever prism you want,” Rybak said. “Right now, it’s kind of a tough period to get people to all believe in the same thing at once. It’s great as Minnesotans that we can all believe in the same teams at once, even if they usually lose!”
Jokes aside, the Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame Experience actually helps to shine a light on the state’s many athletic successes by breaking down the history into six distinct eras.
The exhibit begins in the late 19th century by showcasing sports like Indigenous lacrosse games and early women’s basketball. From there, the Hall of Fame winds forward through time, from the dominant Gopher football program under coach Bernie Bierman that earned five national championships in the years before World War II, to Olympic heroes and the Metrodome, to the rise of women’s sports and the emergence of a pro sports market in the early 1960s.
It’s also a unique use of space inside The Dayton’s Project building, which went into receivership this fall due to financial troubles.
“I really hope it shows people what we have in Minneapolis that maybe they’ve forgotten about,” said Kathy McCarthy with Meet Minneapolis. “I just think that this building and the history of this building, and using it to also showcase Minnesota sports history, makes perfect sense.”
As the exhibit opened Friday morning, dozens of curious shoppers wandered from the Dayton’s market down the stairs to the Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame Experience. It became an instant hit, particularly the interactive elements that allowed visitors to touch part of the Metrodome roof or see artifacts from Sid Hartman’s old Star Tribune office.
Jack Elsberry, a younger fan visiting the Dayton’s building with his family from North Dakota, said he learned a lot from the exhibit.
“I’ve been a Twins and Vikings fan for a long time, so it’s just really cool to see the history and stuff,” Elsberry said. “This is kind of about when Minnesota sports were better.”
This year, the mall gave the first 200 people in line at the center’s north entrance a $25 gift card.
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — The year is 2024 and thousands of shoppers still head to the Mall of America for the morning of Black Friday.
According to the Bloomington mega mall, 13,000 people came through its doors within an hour of opening.
The figure didn’t quite break records—at least 15,000 people showed up to shop in 2011—but it did surpass last year’s figure of early morning shoppers, which was 12,000.
Retailers will be even more under the gun to get shoppers in to buy early and in bulk since there are five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.
This year, the mall gave the first 200 people in line at the center’s north entrance a $25 gift card.
“People come to get the deals, but more importantly, they come for the excitement, the energy, the traditions surrounding Black Friday,” Jill Renslow, Mall of America’s chief business development and marketing officer, said.
So far this holiday season, online sales have beaten expectations, according to Adobe Digital Insights, a division of software company Adobe. U.S. consumers spent $77.4 billion online from Nov. 1 to Nov. 24, 9.6% more than during the same period last year. Adobe predicted an 8.4% increase for the full season.
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They are now staying in a hotel and urging other renters to consider the importance of insurance.
STACY, Minn. — One day before Thanksgiving, Danielle Thompson and Justin Honken lost everything they’d spent years building.
“It’s really hard to see everything that we worked so hard for just gone in a matter of minutes,” Thompson said, standing in front of the home she and Honken rented in Stacy. “We worked so hard to get to where we’re at today,” Honken added.
A fire erupted outside the back of the house on Wednesday afternoon as Honken was making lunch for his children. He said his daughter spotted smoke outside as she was sitting in the kitchen.
“Before I knew it, the fire was already into the kitchen and I was getting the kids out.”
Honken got himself, his two children and two dogs out safely, but said he had to watch the house and everything in it burn to ash before fire crews arrived. Thompson was not home at the time, but came back as the house was still burning.
Investigators have not determined the cause of the fire, which is being investigated by the State Fire Marshal.
“We lost everything,” Thompson said. “We walked out with what we’re wearing.”
Thompson and Honken are now staying in a hotel. They are urging other renters to consider the importance of insurance. The couple did not have renters insurance, a decision they said they now regret.
“It’s a big thing,” Honken said. “Make sure you get that. It’s a must because you think it ain’t going to happen to you. It can, it could and it might.”
Honken is the owner of Home Proz LLC, a remodeling and construction company. He lost all of his essential work tools in the fire.
Despite the loss, the couple is choosing to remain positive this Thanksgiving and determined to keep moving forward. “We’re all still here. We have a lot to be thankful for,” Thompson said.
