Author: Joanna Werch Takes

Sixty pheasants, nine geese, and 1-1/4 deer. Those are some of the statistics – and the ingredients – that went into the making of the Eden Prairie Lions’ 49th annual Wild Game Dinner. Held annually on the first Monday in December, this year’s Dec. 5 event raised $1,745 for donation to local charities supporting the sheltering and adoption of animals, including the Tribal Partnership Program of Secondhand Hounds and the Eden Prairie Outdoor Center. Steve Wilson, a Lions Club member and co-chair of the event, donated many of the pheasants from his and his friends’ South Dakota hunts. The wild…

A crowd of 3,500 people attended an event headlined by national personal finance personality Dave Ramsey at Grace Church in Eden Prairie earlier this month. The Nov. 10 “Building Wealth Live” presentation was the Upper Midwest stop on a tour of the event described on the Ramsey Solutions website as teaching “how to build wealth – and keep it.” Ramsey’s keynote speech addressed that topic by citing The National Study of Millionaires. “Typical millionaires put money in their 401(k) and paid off their house,” Ramsey said. “It’s boring as crud.” Ramsey, a radio host and author, peppered his speech with…

Visual artist Meena Subramanian finds inspiration along the trails of Staring Lake Park for many of her pieces, which are showcased online at meenasartroom.weebly.com. “Each day is a different scene; the scenery is spectacular,” she said. “I just love all the trees and all the seasons, especially fall. It’s just gorgeous, you know?” Subramanian lives close enough to Staring Lake Park that “no matter what season it is, I’m walking the dog around the lake,” she said. While there, she’ll take pictures with her cell phone of scenes that she’ll later try to capture in art or collect items, like…

When Eden Prairie resident Dan Little took a swing at making wooden bats, it was a hit. He’s now made approximately 200 of the bats, which he sells through his website apexbats.com. Both of Little’s kids, 12- and 14-year-old boys, play baseball, and Dan has found whittling to be a way to keep his hands busy while sitting at their practices. He originally picked up woodworking from building with the scraps from his mom’s woodshop when he was a kid, and now enjoys not only whittling, but carving, woodturning, and more. A couple of years ago, he wanted to set…

EPLN contributor Joanna Werch Takes snapped these photos during her neighborhood’s Night to Unite on Tuesday. She lives on Grant Drive. More than 150 neighborhoods in Eden Prairie participated. The annual summer event celebrates and strengthens the commitment to a safe community. For more, see our earlier coverage of Night to Unite.

Miss Minnesota 2022 received her crown on June 17 at Grace Church in Eden Prairie. Rachel Evangelisto, formerly Miss Winona, is the first Indigenous woman to receive the state title. She will go on to compete in the Miss America pageant in December. The statewide pageant took place at its Eden Prairie location for the second year; prior to the cancelled 2020 event, the Miss Minnesota pageant was held at Eden Prairie High School for at least 10 years. The 21 contestants in the 2022 event began practices, which included learning choreography for group performances, on the Monday prior to…

Eden Prairie residents Barry and Joni Butzow’s horse Zozos finished 10th in last weekend’s Kentucky Derby – after spending part of the race running in third and fourth place positions. Assigned a post position (placement in the starting gate) of 19 out of the field of 20 three-year-old horses in the week before the race, Zozos’s starting position was just ahead of the eventual winner, Rich Strike. Given a post position of number 20 and entered into the race the day before the Derby as a replacement for scratched horse Ethereal Road, Rich Strike seemed to come out of nowhere…

A horse owned by Eden Prairie residents will be among the field of 20 three-year-olds running in the Kentucky Derby on May 7. Zozos, the colt owned by Barry and Joni Butzow, qualified for the Derby at the March 26 Louisiana Derby, his third race. “We were overwhelmed” when watching that finish from the stands, Barry Butzow said. “He’d only had two races going in, and he was running against a whole bunch of experienced horses.” By placing second in the Louisiana Derby, Zozos accumulated 40 qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby, the minimum needed to be part of the…

The past couple of years have seen a bad news/good news scenario for the blood donation situation at the Eden Prairie location of Memorial Blood Centers. The bad news? “Even before the pandemic, we were experiencing a blood shortage in the country and around the world – the United States has been in a deficit for years – and the pandemic made it much worse,” said Wendy Capetz, director of marketing for Memorial Blood Centers. Traditionally, in 2019 and before, about half of Memorial Blood Centers’ donation collections came from fixed site donor centers, with the other half coming from…

The new play “Eden Prairie, 1971” is having its theatrical world premiere this month at Riverside Theatre in Iowa City, Iowa. Set in an Eden Prairie backyard, the play takes place the night of the 1971 Apollo 15 moon landing, when Vietnam draft dodger Pete, home from Canada, initiates a conversation with high school classmate Rachel. The play grew, in part, from the time playwright Mat Smart spent reading the letters written by veterans of several wars, including Vietnam, at the Minnesota Historical Society while working on a separate project. “I was just really struck with how so many young…