Luverne's touching story replayed
in media from coast to coast
By Lori Ehde
He’s not quite king of the world, but it’s safe to say Luverne homecoming king Andrew Dooyema feels on top of the world.
Since KELO-TV aired a feature story on Andrew’s homecoming reign last week, the story landed on the Associated Press wire, and newspapers nationwide reprinted the touching story of a Down’s syndrome boy whose dream came true.
Andrew prefers to downplay the fact that his disability has anything to do with his new-found fame. In fact, he’d rather not talk about it at all.
He’d rather just bask in the limelight.
When asked how it feels to know his name has been printed in major newspapers from coast to coast, he said slyly, "There’s a lot of girls in all those states."
By all reports, Andrew was crowned homecoming king by his Luverne peers because they thought he best exemplified Cardinal spirit.
"I have a lot of spirit," said Andrew, a loyal Cardinal sports fan. "A good spirit, too. I’m into spirit."
The fact that his peers could see that spirit through the disability is what caught the attention of the nation.
Both the Dooyema home and the high school have been flooded with cards, letters, phone calls and e-mail from New York, California, Louisiana and countless states in between.
Correspondence to the school has been to congratulate Andrew on his coronation and the student body for crowning him.
"It’s amazing to me how this touches not only our community, but it touches people throughout the world," said High School Principal Gary Fisher.
On Tuesday, Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone called with his regards. High School Guidance Counselor Craig Nelson spoke with the senator and issued school-wide e-mail.
"Sen. Paul Wellstone called this morning and expressed how proud he was of our students for electing Andrew as homecoming king," Nelson said in the e-mail. "He said this was really neat and a great reflection on our school and community."
Much of the Dooyema mail found its way to 517 North Freeman without a complete address, but it didn’t take local postal handlers long to figure out where it belonged.
Many were addressed to Mr. Andrew Dooyema, Homecoming King" or "Andrew the King Dooyema" or simply, "King Andrew. One envelope from Amarillo, Texas, was addressed to "His Royal Majesty Andrew Dooyema."
All these writers sent their congratulations after reading about Andrew in their own city papers.
Many of the cards and letters are accompanied by newspaper clippings of Andrew’s story. In the margins of one clipping were the handwritten words, "King Andrew, I know you will accomplish everything you attempt."
Copies of some major publications are making their way to Andrew. For example, a woman in Baton Rouge, La., called the Dooyemas and volunteered to send them her paper.
"Andrew took a call from Washington, and when he got off the phone, we asked if it was Washington state or Washington, D.C., and he said he hoped it was D.C. because maybe the president would invite him to the White House," his mother said.
When the Dallas paper called, Andrew said, ‘Maybe the Dallas Cowboys will pick me up.’ "
The spirit that earned Andrew his homecoming crown is becoming a shining beacon for other families affected by Down’s syndrome.
"The neatest call we got was from a woman in Rochester, N.Y., who has an 18-month-old Down’s baby," Pam said. "And she called to say how uplifting it was for her to see where Andrew is now."
While Andrew doesn’t want to talk about his disability, his mother reminds him that’s what it’s all about.
"You’ve been an inspiration to them, Andrew," she gently told him Tuesday afternoon.
"This is what we were hoping would come from this," Pam told the Star Herald Monday.
She said she knows how the woman in New York feels. "Seventeen years ago we would have never thought this would be possible," she said.
"I can’t say we didn’t wish he hadn’t been born this way, but over the past few years I’ve seen Andrew with Down’s touch people in a way that Andrew without Down’s never could."
She urges people to consider how things that happen to them today play a major role in who they are in the future.
"We couldn’t see it when he was born, but I’m starting to see God had a much bigger plan for Andrew. Look how many people he’s touched with his story," Pam said.
"I know there are women who abort babies with Down’s syndrome. I guess all I can say is you never know what God’s plans are for you."
The AP version of Andrew’s story can be read online at www.wire.ap.org.

The Ellsworth volleyball squad ended a three-game losing streak when they swept a three-game Tri-County Conference match against Faith Christian in Bigelow Tuesday.
The skid reached three straight with a three-game home loss to Westbrook-Walnut Grove Monday and a four-game setback at Edgerton Public School Thursday.
Ellsworth, 5-13-2 overall, will compete at the Lake Park (Iowa) Tournament Saturday before ending the regular season with a home match against Murray County Central Monday.

Ellsworth 3, FC 0
The Panther girls completed a two-win conference season by sweeping a three-game match from the Falcons in Bigelow Tuesday.
Ellsworth produced a pair of solid victories to open the match before winning a tight battle in Game 3 with many Panther reserves playing in the finale.
"FC has improved a lot during the year, but we were clicking on all cylinders. We played pretty well," said Panther coach Ryan Nielsen.
EHS was at its best in Games 1 and 2, when it outscored the Falcons 30-11 while notching 15-2 and 15-9 wins.
Game 3 was more competitive, but the Panthers came out on the winning end of a 16-14 decision.
Connie Lewis had five blocks and Jamie Leuthold had three kills to lead the Panthers at the net.
Tiffany Deutsch was 11 of 11 serving with 10 points and four aces.

W-WG 3, Ellsworth 0
The Panther girls were unable to win a game when they hosted Red Rock Conference member W-WG in a non-conference match in Ellsworth Monday.
Ellsworth scored 23 points in three games, but it wasn’t enough to post a win against the Chargers.
"We played pretty well, they just are a tough team," said Panther coach Nielsen. "We did our best. What it boiled down to was they are a better team."
W-WG opened the match with a 15-7 win in Game 1 before posting a convincing 15-4 victory in the second game. The Panthers put up a good fight before falling 15-12 in the finale.
Holly Timmer led the Panthers with seven kills.
Kayla Boltjes was four of five digging, and Tiffany Deutsch was 50 of 54 setting.

Edgerton 3, Ellsworth 1
A solid performance by the Panthers wasn’t enough to produce a home win when they squared off against conference rival Edgerton Thursday in Ellsworth.
Ellsworth played its way to a split during the first two games of the match before dropping the last two contests of a four-game clash.
"They got us, but this was a good match for us," said Nielsen. "We played a lot better than we did in our last match. We battled pretty hard in a close match. It seemed like one team would get a lead, and the other would fight back."
Edgerton drew first blood by posting a 15-11 win in the opener, but the Panthers evened the score by recording the last two points in a 16-14 win in Game 2.
Game 3 was tied at eight before the Flying Dutchmen scored seven straight points to prevail 15-8. Edgerton settled the issue with a 15-11 win in the finale.
Jenna Groen led the Panthers with eight kills in the match. Holly Timmer had seven kills and five blocks. Connie Lewis served five aces.

By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek volleyball team turned in a solid performance while competing at the Pipestone-Jasper Tournament Saturday.
H-BC earned a berth in the event’s championship match by winning three of four two-game matches during round-robin play.
The Patriots took the first game of the championship match against the host school, but P-J rallied to outscore H-BC 30-3 in Games 2 and 3 to win the match.
"We started out slow, but I thought we played pretty well together the whole day," said Patriot coach Nicole Fey. "Overall, I thought our girls had a great day. They worked well together and did a nice job of finding the open holes in the defenses we faced."
The Patriots drew P-J in the first round of round-robin play and took 15-3 and 15-8 setbacks.
H-BC, however, rebounded from the loss to post consecutive victories against Canby, Murray County Central and Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster.
The Patriots and Canby proved to be evenly-matched teams, but H-BC bested the Lancers by 15-13 and 15-12 tallies.
H-BC pulled out a 15-11 victory during the first game against MCC before pounding the Rebels 15-1 in the second tilt.
The Patriots overwhelmed SV-RL-B while recording 15-4 and 15-7 victories against the Rebels.
When round-robin play was complete, H-BC and P-J had the best records, setting up a best-of-three-game championship match between the teams.
The Patriots got off to a great start by recording a 15-11 win in the opener, but the Arrows bounced back to register 15-1 and 15-2 victories in Games 2 and 3.
"What helped us a lot during the first game of the championship match was getting a lot of big blocks at the net. Our blocking wasn’t there in the next two games," Fey said.
Erin Boeve, Shanna Tilstra and Becky Broesder had big tournaments at the net for H-BC.
Boeve, who was 35 of 39 serving, had 15 ace blocks an 18 kills. Tilstra, who completed 22 of 25 serves, led the Patriots with 20 kills.
Broesder, who had 12 kills, helped the Patriots even more by completing 28 of 31 serves and 17 of 20 digs.
LaDonna Sandstede registered 50 set assists and was 38 of 40 serving during the event.
Tonya Leenderts completed 12 of 16 digs and 34 of 39 serves.
H-BC ended the tournament with a 13-7 overall record. The Patriots play Southwest Christian in Edgerton and Lake Benton on the road tonight and Monday respectively. H-BC hosts Edgerton Public Tuesday.

Poor weather conditions made the 2000 Rock County Invitational cross country meet a challenging one for athletes and fans alike at the Adrian Country Club Thursday.
With temperatures in the 30s and wind chill readings in the teens created by a steady northwest breeze, it wasn’t the best of days for running.
The event, however, took place without a hitch, with all the junior high, junior varsity and varsity races being completed.
All three cross country programs from the Star Herald coverage area braved the conditions, turning in decent performances in face of adverse circumstances.
Luverne had runners entered in both varsity races, and one Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth girl competed at that level.
Adrian-Edgerton limited its runners to the junior high and junior varsity events.
Luverne fielded a complete boys’ varsity team that capped a six-squad field with 177 points.
Jesse Kuhlman led the Cardinals by placing 33rd in 20:38.
Nick Otten (34th in 20:47), Tony Kopp (35th in 20:53), Kyle Bitterman (37th in 21:43) and Jeff Luethje (38th in 21:50) also ran in the varsity race for LHS.
Luverne’s Hannah and Sadie Dietrich turned in top 10 performances in the girls’ varsity run.
Hannah Dietrich finished seventh with a time of 16:30. Sadie Dietrich was ninth in 16:41.
Shanna Tilstra ran in the girls’ varsity race for H-BC-E. She finished 26th in 18:36.
Here is a look at the varsity team standings and the rest of the individual results from the Rock County Invitational.

Varsity boys: Sioux Falls Roosevelt 32, Sioux Falls Lincoln 41, Lennox 57, Worthington 117, Southwest Christian 130, Luverne 177.

Varsity girls: Lincoln 28, Roosevelt 40, Lennox 73, Worthington 99.

Junior varsity boys
Luverne: Kevin Klay, 71st, 20:56.
H-BC-E: Nathan Fick, fifth, 14:59; Matt Buck, sixth, 15:08; Lee Jackson, 10th, 15:14.
A-E: Zach Hadler, first, 14:14; Josh Markl, 19th, 15:31; Jake Salter, 25th, 16:03; Paul Poppen, 55th, 17:54; Jesse Vande Kieft, 58th, 18:09; Kelly Seeman, 61st, 18:24; Jonathon Beukelman, 65th, 19:02.

Junior varsity girls
Luverne: Nicole Cronquist, 18th, 19:18; Suzanne Gluf, 26th, 20:18.

Junior high boys
Luverne: Ruston Aaker, second, 5:59; Michael Nelson, 22nd, 7:00; Travis Halfmann, 24th, 7:10.
H-BC-E: Tyler Bush, first, 5:39; Kale Wiertzema, 14th, 6:33; Travis Broesder, 15th, 6:35; Derek Haak, 21st, 6:58; Cody Scholten, 23rd, 7:09; John Sandbulte, 30th, 7:47; Justin Hinks, 34th, 9:19.
A-E: Brandon Bullerman, fourth, 6:02; Joey Bullerman, 17th, 6:44; Marcus Uithoven, 33rd, 8:15; Eldon Vaselaar, 35th, 10:55.

Junior high girls
Luverne: Victoria Arends, fourth, 6:36; Amanda Saum, seventh, 6:56; Breanna Studer, 11th, 7:26; Jessica Willers, 15th, 7:41; Michelle Riddel, 21st, 9:03.
H-BC-E: Cassi Tilstra, second, 6:33; Melinda Feucht, 12th, 7:27; Kari Roozenboom, 14th, 7:38; Amanda Tilstra, 19th, 8:12.
A-E: Samantha Ferguson, eighth, 6:58; Jenny Weiss, 17th, 8:02.

By John Rittenhouse

Cards end home schedule by winning thriller
By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne volleyball team turned in a pair of solid outings early this week after coming off a rough weekend tournament.
Luverne went 0-3 during the Hull (Iowa) Western Christian Tournament as its season-long losing streak reached five matches.

By John Rittenhouse
A Luverne High School doubles team has advanced to the semifinal round of the Section 3A Individual Tennis Championships.
Seniors Allana and Ashley Gacke, who were seeded No. 12 out of 18 teams for section doubles competition, pulled off a pair of upsets during the first two rounds of tournament play in Redwood Falls Tuesday.
The Gackes handed MACCRAY’s Grussing and Gustafson, the tournament’s No. 5 seed, a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 setback to open the event.
Lac qui Parle Valley’s Schoffman and Malecek were waiting for the Gackes in the quarterfinals, and the Cardinal players saddled the fourth-seeded team with a pair of 6-4 setbacks.
The Gackes will need to play another strong match when they face Yellow Medicine East’s Rasmusson and Baldry, the tournament’s No. 1-seeded doubles team, in Friday’s semifinals. The match will be played at 11 a.m. in St. Cloud.
Another Luverne doubles team and a pair of singles players ended their campaigns in Redwood Falls Tuesday.
Gabe Van Dyk and Patricia Willers, the No. 15 seed in doubles competition, handed Springfield’s Sara Grobner and Sonja Nelson 6-3 and 6-1 setbacks in a preliminary-round match before falling to MACCRAY’s Dammann and Minter by 6-4 and 6-2 scores in the next round.
Amanda Aning, seeded No. 4 in the singles tournament, posted a pair of 6-1 wins over Redwood Valley’s Linda Gano before falling by 6-3 and 6-1 scores to No. 5-seeded Kim Gardner of Montevideo.
Cardinal Becky Antoine, seeded No. 7, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Montevideo’s Haley Strand. Pipestone-Jasper’s Cassandra Van Vliet, the No. 2 seed, topped Antoine by 6-0 and 6-3 tallies in the quarterfinals.

By Lori Ehde

Millions of Americans suffer from the embarrassing effects of urinary incontinence, and therapists at Luverne Community Hospital want to get the message out that the condition can be treated.

By Jeanne Johnson
Extension educator

More than 400 Rock County 4-H members and volunteer leaders will celebrate 4-H Week Oct. 1-7.

4-H in Rock County has a long history of positive experiences for youth that build leadership, teamwork and responsibility while developing friendships and fun.

4-H is the cooperative extension system's non-formal educational program for young people. 4-H programs reach more than 6.5 million youth across the United States.

The program combines the cooperative efforts of youth, volunteer leaders, County Extension staff, state land-grant universities, federal, state and local governments along with the United States Department of Agriculture.

The mission of 4-H is to assist youth in acquiring knowledge, developing life skills and forming attitudes that will enable boys and girls to become self-directing, productive and contributing members of society. Adult and youth leaders do this through 4-H clubs and projects with hands-on activities.

The 4-H roots are deeply planted. The first 4-H emblem design was a 3-leaf clover, introduced sometime between 1907 and 1908.

From the beginning, the 3-H's signified Head, Heart and Hands. In 1911, at a meeting of club leaders in Washington, D.C., the present 4-H design was adopted by approving the fourth H, Health.

Otis Hall, state leader of Kansas, was responsible for the original working of the 4-H pledge. At the first National 4-H Club Camp in 1937, the state 4-H leaders officially adopted the 4-H pledge. The pledge read:

"I pledge my head to clearer thinking

My heart to greater loyalty

My hands to larger service and

My health to better living

For My club, My community, My country."

The addition of the words "My world" to the last line was done in 1973. In Minnesota the 4-H pledge added "My family" to start the last line in the -80s.

Rock County 4-H clubs were started in the following years:

1926 - Blue Ribbon

1927 - Willing Workers

1929 - Livewires

1932 - Denver Go-Getters

1933 -Blue Mound Climbers

1945 - Magnolia Juniors

1947 - Springdell

The only other 4-H club that is still thriving today is the County K-9s, which is the youngest club in Rock County.

There have been a number of other clubs, which have come and gone throughout the years including the Luverne Riverside, Springwater Hustlers and North Stars 4-H clubs.

Many of the original projects are still available today, including foods and nutrition, gardening and crops and livestock projects.

However, these projects have changed with the times. In 1939, 14 girls exhibited articles made from flour sacks and feed bags for the "Thrift Project."

Today "sewing" (now titled Textile Science) project members still learn basic sewing techniques so that they can make articles of clothing but also how to make good consumer decisions when purchasing clothes. In July nine 4-H members modeled clothes that were either purchased or constructed at the 2000 4-H Fashion Revue.

The positive aspects of 4-H from 50 years ago are still true today. Ask current 4-H leaders what they value about 4-H and they'll tell you that through 4-H kids learn responsibility, teamwork and leadership skills.

Ask the 4-H'ers themselves and they will often repeat what the adults have said but put friendships and fun first. The friends they make in their club, in the county and from across the state make 4-H fun.

The times have changed during the long history of 4-H but the fun and friendships will keep 4-H in Rock County strong into the future.

For more information about 4-H, call the Rock County Extension Office at 283-8685, extension #4.