Fairview invites you to their open house; we say goodbye to a community pillar

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting Fairview’s new St. Croix Orthopaedic Center. The center is an addition to the hospital and is amazing. They have built a 21,000 square foot addition at the cost of 5.6 million dollars. Housed in this beautiful addition will be Fairview’s physical and hand therapy department along with St. Croix Orthopaedics. St. Croix Orthopaedics provides sports medicine, podiatry care, surgical and nonsurgical musculoskeletal care and much more. The partnership with St. Croix Orthopaedics adds to an already dynamic medical campus.

Next Thursday is your chance to come and view this beautiful state-of-the-art building in person. You are cordially invited to come walk through the new center and see just how amazing this place is. The June 13 open house begins at 4 p.m. and runs until 7 p.m. Tours will be given along with prizes and free bike helmets (while supplies last). Prior to the open house there will be a free seminar on hip pain relief and at 6 p.m. there will be a seminar on sports concussions. You are asked to call 612-672-7272 to register for the seminars. Come on out and welcome a great addition to our community. I always like to promote local people or businesses that are featured nationally in other media.

Through speaking, blogging, authoring 3 Amazon Top 100 books, hosting an online radio show, and appearing in a global debt-sense German documentary, Jen and Bob McDonough and their four kids (ages 3 to 13 years old) of Lindstrom, will finally get to share their personal finance story with Fox Business News and National Radio Show host Dave Ramsey. The McDonoughs will be driving down to Tennessee to do their "debt free" scream to the world in celebration of paying off $182,000 worth of debt and paying cash for over $35,000 worth of medical related expenses in four years. The McDonough's story started four years ago when their 7-year old son Robbie was diagnosed with a lifetime medical condition. Although having good insurance, they were in no way prepared for the several thousands of dollars of out of pocket expenses. Close to starting down the road of becoming one of the numerous foreclosure stats we hear about today, the McDonoughs stumbled upon Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University program.

The family will be featured on the radio show Monday, June 10, 2013 between the 1-2pm hour. Both 1180 AM and 1240 AM stations carry the show. The Chisago Lakes area needs your help. Businesspeople are asking any and all residents to take a brief online survey. The survey will compile statistics, feelings, and satisfactions in order to set new goals. Goals that will help improve our area both for the residents and for tourism. The survey is a 31 question survey and you are asked to please answer honestly. To take the survey please go to: www.surveymonkey.com/s/ChisagoLakesSurvey. The survey needs to be completed by June 15. This weekend (Thursday thru Saturday) the City of Shafer would like to invite you to its annual city wide garage sale. You will find some hidden treasures in some of the many sales throughout the town.

The sales begin at 8 a.m. and run until 5 p.m. each day. It seems like every week I am writing about the loss of an important local figure. Well unfortunately I am here again doing just that. It is with a very sad heart that we must say goodbye to Chris Bjorklund. Describing Chris to someone who didn’t know her is not easy. She was one of the kindest, most caring woman I have ever met. I have known her for years, but covering the Kids Outerwear clothes drive every year, we became closer. Chris was such an inspiration to me and many others in our community. To meet someone whose sole purpose was to help others is a lesson for all of us. Chris will be missed by all.