Dennis & Doris Berends will serve as the 2021 Rustic Lore Days Grand Marshals
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The Rustic Lore Days Committee is pleased to announce the 2021 Grand Marshals – Dennis and Doris Berends – who will lead our home-town festivities this year! Congratulations to them on being deserving of this honor!
Dennis was born to Duane and Barbara (Bobbie) Berends and raised in Glenwood City on the family farm and is the oldest of 11 children, all being boys. Dennis graduated from Glenwood City High School in the Class of 1970. Following graduation, Dennis completed one year of college in River Falls. Doris is also a local to the Glenwood City and Downing areas. She was also raised on a family farm, born to Harry and Bernice Drinkman, where she was the youngest of 10 children. Doris is also a graduate of Glenwood City High School in the Class of 1970. She then attended college at Stout for one year. Both Dennis and Doris come from large, local farming families and are proud to say that most of their family are as well – with many still being in the area or close enough for a short car ride.
Dennis and Doris, perhaps unbeknownst to them, went to school together in first grade; however, Dennis transitioned to the Catholic school from grades 2-8 and then back to public school to finish high school. In fact, these two were students impacted by the hill school fire and were displaced to other area buildings to complete first and second grade, which was housed in what is now the Glenwood City Historical Society and one of the local churches. But if you ask them, they’ll probably tell you that they met during their time together in high school. They started dating after 11th grade with their first date – and favorite date spot – being at Cedar Lake Speedway for a lot of Saturday night dates. After 1969, you might hear them say that “everyone lived happily ever after,” but there is more to the story than that.
Dennis and Doris were married on August 28, 1971 – in fact, they just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary two weeks ago. When they were first married, Dennis was working at Forest Feed Mill and Doris was working at the Hahn’s restaurant which was at the four corners.
They soon began to grow their family with their five (5) children – Brad (Angie), Jodi (Tim), Gary (Ashley), Adam (Sarah) and (the late) Steve (Krista). Their children are all graduates of Glenwood City High School as well. Three of their children live within a one-mile radius of the Berends homestead, while two are just a short drive away. They have been blessed with 18 grandchildren – Nathan, Jacob, Tricia, Brett, Matt, Cassidy, Tristan, Baily, Nikki, Ava, Connor, Colton, Ella, Cooper, Max, Natalie, Dan and Anna and 4 great-grandchildren – Claira, Landon, Carson and Lyla.
In December 1973, Dennis and Doris bought their farm from Orville Wittmer – whom they had milked cows and done barn chores for while their family vacationed – which would become their forever homestead to raise their family. They now say that it might have been a “foolish” decision as they “couldn’t see all of the rock piles in December” which they would describe as their “best crop” on the farm. They had a dairy operation until 2000 when they sold the cows and started a small herd of beef. Dennis then went to work for 15 years at Downing Tractor Parts. Doris started working in 1990 at Glenhaven as a Cook and Activity Aide. She then worked seven years at Hiawatha National Bank, but landed back at Glenhaven in 2006 as the Office Manager and working back in the Activities Department before transitioning to her current role of Activities Director in 2017.
Dennis and Doris have been active members of our community throughout their years. Dennis became a Knight of Columbus in 1974 and began assisting at the Knights of Columbus fair stand at the Saint Croix Country Fair in 1974. He has also served as the KC Financial Secretary for 19 years. He and Doris both serve on the State KC Raffle Committee, which raises much money to help people who have had fires, illnesses, hospital bills, to name only a few. On top of his service to the Knights of Columbus, he also served on the Emerald Town Board for 10 years. While Dennis was on the town board, Doris assisted with elections. She also served as General Leader for the Bellringers 4-H Club for 18 years, as well as a project leader for ceramics, leather, and explorers. Her 4-H group participated in window paintings for many businesses during Rustic Lore Days as well as making signs advertising the fair. She was also one of the original members of the Emerald Crossroads Homemakers, which started in the 1970s. Doris also has a few other titles within the community, as she may be known as the “weed queen” or the “pumpkin lady”. The first comes from her time spent working with students on their infamous 8th grade weed project where she helped generations of students from 1996 to 2019. Dennis would tease her about taking kids out looking for “weed”. As to the pumpkin lady nickname, this name started in about 1973, when she was asked to grow big pumpkins for the Catholic Church in the fall. For the past 30-40 years, she has been doing just that and Dennis has been the one to haul them into the church, with help from Gary, in the fall. Related to church, both have taught catechism classes for a total of 45 years combined. Now they are doing the Focus portion of marriage classes at Saint John’s Catholic Church. Dennis has been a coach for the Special Olympics organization and a caring and compassionate citizen by donating a kidney to a local resident. Doris is a member of the Glenhaven Auxiliary and serves presently as president of the Council of Catholic Women at St. John’s. It goes without saying that these two have been actively involved in many aspects of our small-town community throughout the years and we thank them for their service.
Dennis is now fully retired from Downing Tractor Parts; however, still finds plenty of farming to do to keep busy. Doris doesn’t know what retirement is like yet, but has plans to retire from Glenhaven soon. They will stay busy by raising a few beef cattle and spending time in the gardens in the summer, hopefully to have less weeds. They will continue to bowl on the Ma and Pa league in town with their friends and hope to get back to Canada to enjoy a favorite pastime – fishing. Dennis and Doris plan to stay busy with their grandchildren as well – babysitting and getting to more of their school and athletic events, enjoying the titles of grandparents.
Dennis and Doris were both “greatly honored and very very surprised” to get the call to be considered and selected as this year’s Grand Marshals for Rustic Lore Days. With joyful tears, Doris stated that it’s “good to be a part of such a generous community” as she knows that Glenwood City has a lot of generous people who do a lot for the community, especially Glenhaven through all the years that she has been there. Glenwood City is a good place to live, raise a family and connect with your neighbors near and far. The couple commented that, “you’ll never see us in the cities” and we are grateful that they have spent their lives here in our community. We’re even more grateful to honor them as our 2021 Glenwood City Rustic Lore Days Grant Marshals. Join Dennis and Doris Berends to “Stand as One; Reunited in 2021” as we celebrate Glenwood City’s Rustic Lore Days on September 10-12, 2021!