STREETLIGHT 2013
Barnesville Record-Review
Streetlight 2013 Progress Report
Barnesville, Minnesota 56514
5C
One Random Act Of Kindness Helps Create Local History
By: Kelli Froslie
One act of random kindness.
Seems like such a simple thing.
Whether it’s holding the door for
someone, paying the tab for the
person standing behind you in
line or even volunteering with an
organization, every little thing done
can turn into something much bigger.
For Alexis Power, it was to help
clean up the environment and make
Barnesville look better.
Alexis and her friends use
the popular bridge that crosses
over Whisky Creek northeast of
Assumption Church at the end of
Sixth Avenue Northeast, where they
like to hang out. One day, she stopped
on top of the bridge and observed all
of the debris and garbage that littered
the shoreline and in the river itself.
“When I looked down, I couldn’t
believe how much garbage was in
the river,” said Alexis. “I couldn’t
figure out why people would just
dump their garbage and not take care
of it properly.”
Seeing the mess and damage
it was doing to the surrounding
environment, Alexis brought an idea
to her mom, Bobbi.
She proposed organizing a group
of friends getting together and
cleaning up the mess.
“Her dad, Rob and I thought it
was a great idea,” commented Bobbi.
The next step in making this
a reality was running it past the
appropriate people at city hall. “I
called City Administrator Mike Reitz
and he thought it was a great idea.
He talked to Public Works Director
Terry Ystenes who was completely
on board with the idea,” said Bobbi.
Alexis made the call to Ystenes
and the two arranged a time to meet
him down at the creek to come up
with a game plan.
Showing Terry what she had in
mind, Alexis was given the go ahead.
“I was so excited when Terry said
we could do this,” said Ali.
Now the challenge was to get the
word out to people for some help.
Bobbi created an event on the
social media site Facebook asking
for help that anyone would be
willing to give.
“We were so pleased with the
turnout we had,” said Bob. “The
day turned out to be nice with the
weather cooperating.”
Helping the Power family clean
up Whisky Creek were Josh and
Hunter Kadrmas; Missy, Madison,
Brooke and Brynn Sossa; Angie,
Zach and Braeden Bredman; Heather
and Mason Shaw; Leah and Tessa
Baker; Stacy and Ryder Lindbom;
Doug Røise and Zach Slininger.
Also pitching in for the day to help
her big sister was seven year old
Olivia Power.
“We had such a fun day,”
commented Alexis. “I was very
grateful to those who showed up to
help us.”
In one afternoon last fall, the
group cleared out a clothes washer
and dryer from the 50’s; two oil
burning furnaces dated to 1954; a
car’s gas tank; tires and tire rims;
computer monitor and hard drive;
barrels; cinder blocks; live trap; a BB
gun; mattress; car battery; as well as
tons of miscellaneous garbage.
“Rob and Zach Slininger went
into the creek to take out tree
branches and trees and ended up
pulling out a computer hard drive,”
exclaimed Bobbi.
After a day of cleaning up the
creek, the group gave the bridge a
fresh coat of paint and called it a day.
“It made me sad to see all the
Ryder Lindbom enjoyed a day out in the nice weather and sunshine as he and his mom Stacy joined the Power family, among others, to clean up Barnesville’s Whisky Creek.
The project, spearheaded by nine year old Alexis Power, took out a number of large items from the river and river banks.
garbage that people would throw in
the creek,” said Alexis. “I was glad
that we were able to get all that junk
out of the water.”
Bobbi said she has been
approached by two groups hoping to
join the Power family project in the
future.
“This sure means a lot to Alexis
and it would be awesome for this
to become an annual community
event,” said Bobbi.
Alexis Power has made history
in Barnesville by doing one random
act of kindness. Now the question is
how are you going to make history
by paying it forward?
Alexis Power takes a brief break over the creek she helped clean
up. Alexis was the driving force to gather a group of friends to help
clean up Barnesville’s Whisky Creek.
Bob Power and Zach Slininger haul away a washing machine that was guessed to be from the 1950s
that was dumped in Whisky Creek.
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Pelican Rapids 56572
History…
From A Kindergartner’s
Perspective
Dr. Seuss wrote books.
Annika Fradet
****
Abraham Lincoln was a president
and he did his best to help people.
Abigail Dunham
****
George Washington helped our
country.
Kash Tuel
****
Dr. Suess wrote Cat in the Hat
and lots of other books.
Brady Nosal
****
Nannie was famous because she
read books to me when I was a baby.
Brenden Randklev
****
George
Washington
helped
people in our country.
Chip Fiebiger
****
My grandpa because he let me
ride four wheeler.
Collin Morey
Lukas Andrud
John Shockley
201 Front Street South
Office Number 5 • PO Box 718
Barnesville, MN 56514-0718
218.354.7011 • FAX 218.354.7012
www.ohnstadlaw.com
Walk-ins Welcome!