Author: Stuart Sudak

A 29-year-old motorcyclist sustained life-threatening injuries when he crashed at a high rate of speed in Eden Prairie at about 6 p.m. Sunday, March 20. Jared Wesley Farwell, of Shakopee, was riding on a 2018 Indian Scout motorcycle south on Highway 169 as he approached Anderson Lakes Parkway when the accident occurred. According to a Minnesota State Patrol incident report, Farwell reportedly lost control of the motorcycle in the curves, causing it to go airborne before crashing into a ditch. No other vehicles were involved. Farwell was taken to Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis. It is not known the extent of his injuries. The…

Olga Sagalovsky was born in Odesa on the Black Sea in Ukraine. About half the people there speak Russian, the other half Ukrainian. At 14, Sagalovsky moved to Moscow, when her mother remarried.  “I’m just a person who spent most of her life in Russian culture,” Sagalovsky said. “We all speak the Russian language, and we all are immersed in Russian culture. That’s what we bring to the kids.” Each Saturday, the children of immigrants from many republics of the former Soviet Union now living in the Twin Cities gather at the Russian Educational Center of Minnesota, where Sagalovsky is executive…

Fox 9 meteorologist Ian Leonard seems to be a natural when it comes to polar plunges, sort of like a duck takes to water. Of course, it could just be his outfit. For Eden Prairie’s 15th annual polar plunge on Saturday, Leonard jumped into Lake Riley dressed like a yellow duck. He quipped later on social media that he was “one cold duck.” On a wintry but bright afternoon, the Eden Prairie resident led hundreds of polar plunge participants into the frigid waters for a quick dip for a good cause. Leonard, described by an event organizer in a 2015…

Aaron Pierce’s hooded sweatshirt is emblazoned with the phrase, “Seek Discomfort.” The creators of one of his favorite YouTube channels, Yes Theory, use that motto. “I resonated with it personally,” Pierce said Thursday, March 10. “Just the idea that I want to take risks and live a life that’s not comfortable.” Pierce, the international mission director for the U.S. headquarters of Steiger International in Eden Prairie, motions to his computer screen. A few minutes earlier, he played a video where Steiger volunteers talked of their efforts to help the Ukraine people caught in the crossfire of war. “That’s what we’re doing here,” Pierce…

A Minnesota man with Russian ties has a message for Americans on what he sees happening in Ukraine. Kirill Bak-Stepanoff and his wife Svetlana Bak-Gavrilova have run the Minnesota Ballet School (formerly known as the Academy of Russian Ballet) in Eden Prairie for 21 years. Originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, the two live in Chanhassen. “We are Russian, but what (Russian President Vladimir) Putin does, this is not Russia,” he said. “It’s just the Putin government doing horrible, horrible things. We are against this war and hope Americans will not hate us because we are Russian.” Bak-Stepanoff said he heard…

Eden Prairie is thousands of miles away from the turmoil in Ukraine. But, Camp Eden Wood provided the setting for many immigrants from Russia, Ukraine, and other countries once part of the former Soviet Union and their families to show unity against the war and give financial and emotional support for the Ukrainian children caught in the crossfire. Russian Camp MN rented the facility Sunday afternoon for its “Kids Against War” fundraiser of food, music, crafts, chess, and camaraderie. Children who attend Russian Camp MN summer camps come from many backgrounds to learn the Russian language and culture. (Camp Eden Wood…

An Eden Prairie woman has started a GoFundMe page for her Ukrainian relatives directly impacted by Russia’s invasion of their country. “The last couple days just don’t feel real,” said Mariya Lysenko, who came to the U.S. from her native Ukraine at age 3 with her mother. “Everyone’s leaving, abandoning their homes, abandoning their life completely.” Lysenko said the donations raised from the page will benefit her aunt Julia, uncle Vologda and their children Vova and Anna. While still in their pajamas, the family fled their home in suburban Kyiv not long after the invasion began in the early morning hours of…

Regina Burstein was born in the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine. She came to the U.S. with her family, eventually settling in Eden Prairie. Burstein lived in Eden Prairie from ages 6 to 18, moving away for college after graduating from Eden Prairie High School in 2010. Her parents still live here, and she has moved back a few times, too, most recently in 2018. The Minneapolis resident is working on her master’s degree in urban planning at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. After Russia invaded Ukraine last week, I began asking around…

When he heard the news, Anatoliy Mytnik couldn’t sleep. Instead, he stayed glued to the TV in his Eden Prairie home, watching in horror from afar as his native country of Ukraine was being invaded by Russian forces. “It’s like a nightmare,” Mytnik said Friday, still grappling to make sense of Russia’s attack on his homeland. “I couldn’t believe this if somebody told me. It’s really sad and painful for Ukraine.” Born in Kyiv, Mytnik moved to the United States in 2010 and is now an American citizen. “But I love two countries: United States and Ukraine,” said Mytnik, who…

Eden Prairie Community Center personal trainer Carina Smith said consistency is a key to keeping fit all year long. “If we consistently sit, then we will see the appropriate results associated with that,” Smith said. “If we consistently move, then we will see the appropriate results from that, the natural benefit from that.” But, it’s about this time when the steely resolve of those earnest New Year’s resolutions to exercise more or lose some extra pounds are cast aside. Studies show that most people give up on their resolutions by mid-February. It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Smith…