Marie Johnson
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Marie Johnson joined the Perham Focus more than five years ago, and has since worn many hats as writer, editor and page designer. She lives in rural Frazee with her husband, Dan, their one-year-old son, Simon, and their yellow lab, Louisa.
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She awoke to the sound of her 3-year-old daughter screaming in the back seat of the car. Her head throbbing with pain, she had no idea how long she had been unconscious. The details of what had happened were a blur. There had been an accident, she knew that much. She could hear sirens in the distance. All she could do was wait and hope. The next thing Kellie Smith remembers, she and her daughter, Olive, were being loaded into an ambulance. Someone had witnessed the crash and called 9-1-1.
And now for an uncomfortable topic. Uncomfortable, but important: colorectal cancer. Talk of bowels and rectums is usually avoided at the dinner table, and for good reason, but a doctor's office is a completely different story. Since colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S., but is also one of the most preventable types of cancer, it's crucial to talk about it with your doctor, however uncomfortable that might make you.
An 18-year-old Ashby, Minn. female was hurt in a one-vehicle accident on Interstate 94 on Tuesday. Mackenzie Rayn Ecker was driving a 1996 Mercury Sable westbound on I-94, near the Brandon exit, when the vehicle went off the side of the road and struck the median cable barrier, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.
A Mahnomen woman was airlifted to a Fargo hospital on March 3 after pulling her vehicle out in front of a semi and being struck. The Minnesota State Patrol reports that Elisa Elva Bellanger, age 72, was driving a 2010 Dodge Caravan westbound on Highway 200, approaching the intersection with Highway 59, when she failed to stop for a stop sign and pulled out in front of a 2002 Freightliner Semi.
A motorcyclist and his rider were injured after hitting a dog that ran into the road northeast of Bagley, Minn. on Sunday. The driver, Patrick Dale Obryan, age 58, of Bagley, and passenger Sharon Kay Dyrdahl-Obryan, age 62, of Bagley, both sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the accident, according to the Minnesota State Patrol. Both were taken to Mahnomen Health Center for treatment.
Learn more about home building, landscaping, decorating, outdoor sports and more — all from the local pros who know best — at this year's Lakes Area Home and Cabin Show. Happening at the Perham Area Community Center on Friday and Saturday, March 10 and 11, the show will feature more than 100 informational booths and vendors, games and giveaways, activities for kids, concessions, live broadcasts by the local radio station, fishing seminars, dance and taekwondo demonstrations, and more.
The new Bongards Retail Cheese Store is about to prove that there's no such thing as too much of a good thing. With wall-to-wall coolers full of more than 200 different varieties and flavors of cheeses, the store will be a Heaven-on-Earth for dairy lovers. Also featuring snack meats from the Perham Locker Plant, cheese-themed gift baskets and related goods like cutting boards and knives, it's gearing up to be 1,800-square-feet of everything a cheese connoisseur could hope for.
Otter Tail County is doing slightly better than most when it comes to the condition of its bridges. According to a report released last week by The Washington Post, more than 130,000 bridges in the United States are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. That doesn't mean all those bridges are about to fall down, but it does indicate a need for repairs. The report states that in counties nationwide, on average, 9.4 percent of bridges are considered structurally deficient. In Otter Tail County, that percentage is less, at 6.8.
Years of exemplary leadership at Perham's Crosspoint Alliance Church have paved the way for Kay Morris to play a global role within the denomination—one that will touch the lives of millions of people. Morris is one of 12 youth pastor representatives from around the world chosen to take part in a youth ministry vision planning event for the Christian and Missionary Alliance, which has 6 million members.
Perham's seventh-grade science students are charting new waters with a project that's never been done before at Prairie Wind Middle School. The kids have hatched, and are now raising, hundreds of rainbow trout through a program called Trout in the Classroom. They're among students from just a handful of Minnesota schools taking part in the program this year. Once the trout become fingerlings, they'll be released into a local lake.
