Bamboo Betty's First Annual Charity Motorcycle Show

Bamboo Betty's Bar and Grill

3800 Restwood Rd

Lexington, MN, 55114

Release 4/21/2011

CONTACT: Brandon Paul

Office: (763)786-1014

  The League R.C. will be hosting it's first annual season kickoff party and fundraiser at Bamboo Betty's Bar and Grill, 3800 Restwood Rd, Lexington, MN, 55114, on Sunday, May 29th 2011. Tickets are available for purchase at Bamboo Betty's, or from Tom Bolan, the president of The League, and the cost is $10 in advance or they will be available the day of the event for $15 at the door, food and drinks will be provided.

  The League R.C. is a motorcycle riding club and non-profit organization that was formed in 2010 by Bolan and a few of his close friends. The club is dedicated to improving their community through community service, charity rides and fundraisers. These types of events are the clubs sole purpose for existing. The leadership of The League strongly believes that bringing people together that have common interests and similar goals can produce a very positive impact on the community.

  The season kickoff and fundraiser will consist of a motorcycle show featuring three classes; custom, classic and sport. The show is open to anyone that wishes to enter, the only requirement is the purchase of an entry ticket. A sport bike stunt show will be put on at various times throughout the day by Minnesota's  professional sport bike stunt team, Authority Stunts. Live music by Pipe Dream and special guests to be announced. Food and beer or soda will be provided between the hours of 1 and 6 PM with entry fee. There will be many items, most but not all of which will be motorcycle related, in a silent auction as well.

  The funds raised will be used for the purchase of some equipment and other things associated with the operation of the club to help them continue their mission to raise money for charities as well as support the Minnesota Patriot Guard Riders on their missions related to our service members and their families. This spring, The League R.C. has teamed up with the Animal Humane Society of Minnesota to help animals in need and more than 50% of the proceeds from this event will go directly to that cause.

  For more information on the event, call Bamboo Betty's Bar and Grill at (763)786-1014, or visit The League R.C. on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-League-RC/153830764631256

Isn't student-teacher and oxymoron?

  Cori Bolan is a full time student at Anoka Ramsey Community College, and after two years spent mostly on the Cambridge Campus, she will be transferring to St.Cloud State University to pursue her B.A. In education.

   Bolan is a non-traditional student, having started attending college at 27 years old, and after marrying and having two young children, with another that was to be born in the final weeks of her first semester of school. She graduated high school from Spring Lake Park Senior High, and moved on to attend beauty school immediately after graduation. After getting a cosmetology license, she became a hair stylist, working in that profession for nine years and still maintains her license today.

   She worked for a high level chain salon for a number of years before leaving to be her own boss at a salon that allowed her to rent her own chair and set her own prices. The move was challenging, but the salon business is a challenging one to begin with. She loved being a stylist, and valued the relationships she had built with her clients, some of which had been customers of hers since she started in the field. But she always felt that she wasn't living up to her potential. She felt she had more to offer the world than haircuts and expert color jobs.

   She felt that she needed a degree from a university.

   Now, the real challenge began. Bolan was married and had two small children, with another on the way. Her and her husband made the decision to move to Cambridge to live with her parents so they could both pursue degrees simultaneously and get as much schooling out of the way as possible. She had been out of school for almost ten years, so she was apprehensive about her return. Like many non-traditional students, the first few weeks of school can be hectic. But she fell in step with her peers and has been recognized as an exceptional student. She is a member and officer of Phi Theta Kappa, the international two year college honors society, she's on the dean's list, and she will be graduating with honors from Anoka Ramsey after this semester.

   The most difficult thing for her was not getting the grades, even though she has maintained a grade point average above 3.9. For Bolan, the hardest part of school to date has been deciding what she was actually going to school for. She knew she needed a degree in something to pursue a career that was more challenging and rewarding than that of a stylist, but a degree in what she had no idea. She at one time had planned to get a degree in psychology, and was inspired to do so by a psychology class she took her first semester. But the prospects for that seemed dim, and the job market was not extremely active in the field. Not only would it have meant at least eight years of school, but the schooling might have never ended. She didn't want to be in school until her oldest child was in high school, that she knew.

   Then, she had an experience that changed her path and finally gave her some direction. Between the fall 2010 and spring 2011 semesters she decided to be a teachers aide at Cambridge Elementary school for a week. She did it because she had considered education, but many of the schools required previous experience in the classroom before accepting new applicants into the program. She hadn't decided on education for sure, but at least she wanted to have the option if she did decide to go that route.

She spent a week in a third grade class and was immediately hooked. She loved the classroom, and really enjoyed spending time with the students. It was this group of children that helped her decide her future. She has plans to graduate and become a teacher, but her ultimate goal is to be a principal or school administrator. She has demonstrated the ability to remain at least moderately organized with three children under the age of five at home and a husband that is also an honors student and very busy. Bolan believes she has what it takes to run a classroom in an orderly fashion, and ultimately an entire school.

   So finally, after almost two years of college and over a decade of pondering, all it took was a group of third graders to convince her that she was supposed to be a teacher.

Story #6

Kathleen Hoffman Professor

   Kathleen Hoffman, a professor at Anoka Ramsey Community College, has been teaching for almost two decades. This isn't unusual, as many teachers are career educators, dedicating much of their lives to teaching. What is unusual however, is the fact that Hoffman never aspired to be a teacher to begin with.

   Hoffman has been a professor at Anoka Ramsey for about 14 years, and teaching in universities for almost 20 years. She currently teaches three to four classes a semester, which she said equates to approximately 60 hours a week, including grading papers. Hoffman has a masters degree in English, with an emphasis on teaching writing. Outside of the college campus she has taught technical writing to firefighters, and classes that cover a very broad spectrum of writing and communication skills to employees of the Minnesota Department of Transportation. On campus, she teaches English, honors leadership, study skills, speech, and creative and technical writing courses.

   She is the advisor for the Cambridge campus branch of Phi Theta Kappa, the international two year college honors society. Hoffman is a member of the honors committee, where she plans the honors courses to be offered each semester. Both of these positions allow her to get to know some of the colleges most successful students, and this relationship with the colleges best and brightest is helpful in her role on the internal scholarship committee.

   However, as successful as she has been as a teacher, Hoffman says it was never her plan to become one. As the owner of a restaurant along with her husband, she decided to attend graduate school. She didn't have any real reason to do so, nor did she have a particular degree she was planning on pursuing. During the course of her studies she worked as a teachers aide, a job she took not because she aspired to become a teacher, but because it helped to pay her tuition which was automatically deducted from her paycheck. She would teach her own classes, but with the guidance of a professor and according to a syllabus that had been prepared for her. She found that she really enjoyed teaching through her experience as a teachers aide, and she couldn't wait for the chance to direct her own classes and write her own course schedules.

   But even then, she says she never had an epiphany that she was to become a teacher. “Teaching was not my goal or my plan. I didn't have a plan, it just sort of happened.” she said when asked how she decided to become a professor. But become a professor she did, and she has become a very successful one to boot.

   Kathleen Hoffman never wanted to be an educator. But in the end, she discovered a love for teaching that pulled her in, regardless of the direction she was headed. When one looks at her accomplishments, and speaks to her students, it becomes apparent that Hoffman is a natural, successful, and well liked professor.

   Even though she never intended to become a teacher, there are many people that are very glad she ended up as one, including Hoffman herself.

Rockin Rendezvous : Paul Imholte

  The coffee house series returned to the Cambridge campus of Anoka Ramsey Community College on Tuesday, March 22^nd. This time, the featured artist was Paul Imholte.

   Music rang through the halls of the Cambridge campus Tuesday. This isn't an unusual occurrence as, at times, the sounds of the guitar ensemble, or other sections of the music department, can be heard in the spaces between classrooms. This music however, was something entirely different than the usual harmony of classical guitar. It was folk music, and those that had ears were compelled to see, and hear, just what was going on in the cafeteria this afternoon. Paul Imholte, a folk singer and lifelong Minnesotan, was playing his music to a small, but enamored crowd. People came and went through the cafeteria, many stopping for a moment, and some sitting down to enjoy the free show.

   Imholte is a career musician, folk singer, and master of stringed instruments. On stage with him were the tools of his craft: a guitar, violin, fiddle, banjo, lute, harmonica, and hammer dulcimer, which is an instrument that was a transition between the harpsichord and modern piano. He has been playing music since he was in the eighth grade, and getting paid to do what he loved since. The small crowd gathered in the Rendezvous Cafe seemed to thoroughly enjoy the craft Imholte has spent the better part of 50 years perfecting.

   “The space here is really small, it's really intimate. I could almost play without amplification, it feels more personal in places like these.” he said about the Cambridge campus cafeteria. Imholte is no stranger to small venues, but he has played to larger audiences as well. He's played across the country from New York City to California, but the vast majority of his work has been in the upper Midwest. Although more than 80 percent of his work is his solo career, including the release of a number of solo albums, he plays with different bands on occasion. He will be playing with an Irish music group called Ring of Kerry at a festival in Duluth next week, and has played to audiences numbering in the thousands at various festivals.

   Today he took a few requests from the audience, a Johnny Cash song as well as a tune written by Bach. However, folk music is what he does best. “People in Iowa and Minnesota, they get these songs. They know what a song about raising a barn is about.” Imholte said just before he played one of his original folk songs, referring to the many rural and farming communities that dot the maps of both states.

   “I enjoy the connection with the audience, when they're dancing or getting into the music.” Imholte said when asked what he enjoyed most about being a career musician. “There's an energy transferred there, that's my favorite part.” The students and faculty enjoyed the show as well. One student said he had never seen a performance like this on campus, and thought these types of things only went on at large universities. He, and many others stayed from beginning to end.

Bicyclist struck by car

After four months in the hospital following an accident where she was struck by a car, Marsha Taylor is looking forward to getting back to riding.

The 37 year old McDonalds manager says she had put at least 3,500 miles on her bike in the previous year alone. “In the spring I rode in the Governors Bicycle Tour, which goes across the state. And in the fall I rode in a tour across the United States.” Taylor said, “If I could, I'd be out there right now.”

But Taylor can't ride her bicycle right now because she is still on crutches, after an accident that could have taken her life.

Taylor had just returned from the U.S. Tour and had taken her bike out for a short ride. She had planned to be out for about an hour when she was struck from behind by a car as she neared the intersection of 72^nd Street and Southland Boulevard. She was sent flying off of her bike to the ground and remembers nothing after the initial impact until she awoke in the hospital.

The diagnosis was a laundry list of injuries. She had broken her neck, six ribs, her pelvis, her arm and sustained a mild concussion as well. She was initially scheduled to finish her rehabilitation in about two months, but her recovery wasn't going as planned and further testing revealed numerous internal injuries which prolonged her rehabilitation for months. Her doctors were initially concerned because of the extent and number of her injuries. One of them had even told her it was a miracle that she hadn't been paralyzed. She still has rehabilitation sessions three times a week, but is on her way to recovery.

When asked if her attitude about cycling has changed her response was a firm no. When speaking of what kind of precautions that a bicyclist should take she said, “Well, the main thing is protective clothing, especially the helmet. I never ride unless I have my helmet. It probably saved my life.”

Obituary

Bolan, Thomas P.

Age 33

Taken from us Jul. 6, 2011

Survived by wife of 6 years Cori Bolan; daughters Zoe, Anja and Zeta; parents Carol Logan and Donald Bolan; sisters Crystal Bolan and Jennifer Bolan; many other relatives, friends and members of The League RC. Tom grew up in Blaine and traveled extensively across the country on his motorcycle finally settling in Cambridge MN to realize his dream of attending college by enrolling at Anoka Ramsey Community College with plans to transfer to the University of Minnesota. He was deeply committed to making a difference in his community, eventually leading him to found and become the president of a not for profit motorcycle riding club that was heavily involved in community service work. He had plans to move into public service by running for office later this year and was gaining experience in the political field by interning in the offices of state legislators and lobbyists. He lost his life doing what he loved most when his motorcycle was struck by a car while riding on a charity poker run. Tom has asked that instead of a funeral his ashes be spread out in the black hills and any money saved be donated to Habitat For Humanity or other charitable organization.

Sheriffs department feeling the pinch of budget cuts

   A 5-2 vote by the county commissioners at a meeting Thursday afternoon denied a substantial funding request by the Isanti County sheriffs department. Sheriff Gus DiCesari said the money would've been used to replace an aging fleet of cruisers as well as to put more officers on the street and that if something isn't done to remedy the situation he fears something bad is going to happen.

   DiCesari feels the sheriffs department is being “shortchanged” by the Isanti County commissioners office. He voiced this opinion at a Thursday afternoon meeting, and said he believes the budget cuts are a serious threat to public safety. “You're putting the lives of the people of this county in jeopardy,” DiCesary said when referring to the lack of funding for the Isanti County sheriffs department to purchase new cruisers and hire new officers. “It is getting too costly to maintain the older vehicles,” he said, citing that eight of the departments cruisers have over 150,000 miles on them and they are oftentimes unavailable for use because they are being repaired. He brought to the attention of the commissioners that in his 27 years as sheriff, this is the first time the county hasn't allocated funds to the department for the purchase of new equipment.

   Commission members Anita Shenuski and Raymond Laybourne supported DiCesary in his request for more funding. Shenuski and Laybourne said during the meeting that county funds would be better spent on the sheriffs department than on programs assisting migrant workers, approximately 5,000 families total, who come to the county in search of work. “We never had problems until we began letting migrants come to this county and work. They are a problem for our law enforcement, our schools and our healthcare system. They take away jobs from decent people and work for next to nothing, and if something gets stolen, you can bet it is one of them that's taken it. We need to protect local residents from them.” Shenuski said during a heated argument with commission president Anne Chen.

   Chen stated that increasing fuel prices along with rising healthcare costs for county employees are to blame for the budget shortcomings, not immigrant workers. “Those people who come to work here are decent, hardworking people being employed at jobs that local residents don't want to do. They add a great deal to the local economy and they pay taxes.” She then stated that it would be hypocritical to blame migrant workers for the financial problems of the county, a sentiment supported by commissioner Jose Gardez who stated that many of the migrant workers become permanent members of the community, opening businesses and eventually earning citizenship.

   Of the counties $127 million budget, $30 million was allocated to the building of a new prison facility to alleviate overcrowding. Chenn said the department would have to make do this year without the requested $580,000 that would've been used to replace eight cruisers and hire five new officers. She suggested the practice of letting officers drive the cruisers home should be stopped, thus preserving mileage on county vehicles as well as making more cars available for official use. DiCesari responded by stating that the marked cruisers in their neighborhoods was a strong deterrent for crime.