The electric school buses have arrived, and members of the community gathered to help unload them; former high school football coach Clarence Kooistra was inducted into the SD Sports Hall of Fame, and the Gazette caught up with Kooistra to reminisce; the GHS Band has entered competition season and opened with a first-place finish; and it's National 4-H Week. Plus, the city council voted to donate the pop can trailer and soccer finished up its regular season, plus much more!
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Marie Margaret Knock, age 74, of Garretson, passed away on Wednesday, September 27, 2023, at her home. Funeral services will begin at 11:00 AM Friday, October 6, 2023, at Good News Church, 26th & Valley View Rd, Sioux Falls. Interment will be in the Lennox Cemetery. Visitation will be from 5-7:00 PM Thursday, at the Minnehaha Funeral Home, Garretson. Memorials may be directed to the Humane Society, Luke Society, Garretson Ambulance, or Garretson Fire Department.
Marie was born on May 27, 1949, in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, to Roger Russell and Marion Lorraine (Hawkins) Hardy. She grew up in Chester, Pennsylvania and received her education there. She moved to Sioux Falls in 1967. On May 16, 1987, she married Orval Gene Knock in Sioux Falls. Marie work for 17 years at Raven Industries and for several years at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport. Marie served her community as an EMT for the Garretson Community Ambulance. She was a member of the Good News Church in Sioux Falls where she enjoyed volunteering.
Marie is survived by her son, Steven Dugan, Sioux Falls; daughter, Dawn Klepel, Sioux Falls; stepdaughter, Kathleen Hanson; eight grandchildren: Shayla, Jordan, Eric, Clifton, Rachel, Marissa, Isabelle, and Rebecca; several great-grandchildren; and her sister, Pat Hardy. She was preceded in death by her husband Gene on August 31, 2019, and her parents.
The electric school buses have arrived, and members of the community gathered to help unload them; former high school football coach Clarence Kooistra was inducted into the SD Sports Hall of Fame, and the Gazette caught up with Kooistra to reminisce; the GHS Band has entered competition season and opened with a first-place finish; and it's National 4-H Week. Plus, the city council voted to donate the pop can trailer and soccer finished up its regular season, plus much more!
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Carter Dreckman’s unique genetic disorder only affects 500 people worldwide
Carrie Moritz,
Garretson Gazette
The past 24 months have been world-changing for Luke and Paetyn Dreckman, whose son, Carter, was diagnosed in August 2022 with CTNNB1 Syndrome. CTNNB1 Syndrome is a genetic disorder that keeps him from using or producing enough of a protein, beta catenin, that gives him symptoms very close to those of cerebral palsy. Currently, there aren't any medical treatment options, but there could be. In order to move forward with testing, researchers need more funding.
Carter got his first gait trainer, a type of walker that helps him move around, just a few short months ago and has enjoyed it immensely. // photo submitted by the Dreckmans.
When 23-month-old Carter was born, he seemed to be healthy.
"I had a completely normal pregnancy," said Paetyn, Carter's mother. "He always measured small, but that was about it."
Both parents said that looking back, they could see the signs- for instance, he had trouble eating, and it took a month before he would really open his eyes. But it was only at their four-month checkup when things really seemed amiss. Carter wasn't yet trying to sit, and hadn't accomplished rolling over at that point. While their pediatrician was okay with taking a wait-and-see approach along with some therapies to encourage his development, she ensured that within a couple months the Dreckmans were going in for an MRI and genetic testing.
The pediatrician was attempting to find out if Carter had cerebral palsy, the result of brain injuries or neurological development problems which cause issues with muscle tone, eating, and development. An MRI can often find those issues, but Carter's MRI came back normal.
However, the genetic test showed that Carter had a deficiency on the CTNNB1 gene. This gene is relatively unknown, but a mutation on the CTNNB1 gene causes symptoms that are very similar to cerebral palsy.
"In fact, they're trying to encourage people with a cerebral palsy diagnosis to go back and get genetic testing, because they're so intertwined," said Luke, Carter's father. "With CTNNB1, your brain function is 100% normal. It's just that the relay from your brain to your extremities or whatever is lost in translation there [at the brain stem]."
CTNNB1 Syndrome is caused when a mutation or deletion occurs on the CTNNB1 gene, which encodes a protein called beta catenin. Beta catenin helps cells "stick together" and communicate. It is not an inherited disorder, and the mutation or deletion happens spontaneously during fetal development. Only 430 to 500 people worldwide have been diagnosed with CTNNB1 Syndrome. It doesn't have a catchy name, and the families of those diagnosed are faced with explaining what this strange-sounding mutation means.
Currently, researchers believe it affects around 1 in 35,000-to-50,000 people worldwide, but its first diagnosis didn't occur until 2012, which means most people with confirmed cases are under the age of 15, with a majority under the age of 7. This is because diagnosis must occur via genetic testing, which didn't become widely available worldwide until fairly recently.
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Garretson School students are learning about safety, whether it's in the school or outside, and during the first week of October, the Garretson School will be featured during the South Dakota Department of Transportation's Walk to School Day.
"Deputy Aanenson has been going into classrooms to talk about school safety, and [Bus Director] Tim Nelson has been showing students bus safety," said Elementary Principal Katie Hoekman. And on October 4, she said, employees from the DOT will be coming to the school as part of the statewide initiative to encourage safe routes to school.
Transportation Director Tim Nelson and Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Aanenson teach students safety skills. //Photos submitted by Katie Hoekman.
And during the same week, Garretson High School FFA and Agricultural Structure students taught 4th graders farm and tool safety (see article on page 9).
School safety rests with everyone, from the students to parents and community members, whether it's knowing what to do if a stranger approaches the playground or driving slowly through school zones.
That, plus knowing who to rely on in an emergency and what to expect to report to emergency personnel is important for students to know, said Deputy Jason Aanenson.
Aanenson, who is employed by the Minnehaha County Sheriff's Department, has been the Garretson School Resource Officer since 2011. Last week, he visited several classrooms as a way to introduce himself and develop a relationship with the younger elementary students. He said his goal in going into the classrooms is to keep kids safe, and to build that knowledge base of who to rely on and what to do in an emergency.
"For instance, who to report to if there is an emergency, and to see if they have a way to access 911 when they're at home," he said. "Lots of us, myself included, don't have landlines anymore, so we need to make sure they have a way to do that."
He said that family planning goes a long way for children. Knowing what to do, where their exits are, and what might be expected of them if they do make a report to emergency services was not only something he introduced to the students, but if the parents make sure their children know the plan, that helps quite a lot.
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SIOUX FALLS – Things became heated toward the end of this week’s Minnehaha County Commission meeting with the last agenda item of a service agreement with Elections Systems and Software, LLC.
County Auditor Leah Anderson brought the last item to the commission with a memo that stated the following: “Every three years, Minnehaha County enters into an Agreement for Election Services, which determines what the county will pay for Ballot Layout, Coding, Voice File Services and Ballot Printing Services with Election Systems & Software LLC (ES&S).
Auditor Leah Anderson. //File photo by Dave Baumeister
“The sum of these services for the Primary and General Election in 2022 was $123,678.64. This total expense exceeds my spending authority and therefore I am unable to sign this Agreement.”
But with this simple item to pay a bill for services from ES&S over the next year, it became unclear whether or not Anderson wanted to make changes which might render this agreement unnecessary.
At first, Anderson presented the bill with the recommendation that would “authorize the chair (Jean Bender) to sign a service agreement with Election Systems and Software, LLC."
However, as she went on, Anderson brought up that many changes could be made in how the county conducts elections.
She did mention she would like to “experiment with random hand counting of ballots at the precinct level, to go along with tabulations."
But commissioners were confused as to where Anderson was going in her statements.
“Is this a part of your motion?” Commission Chair Jean Bender asked Anderson. “Why are you bringing this up now? You are trying to address other issues in the statement that you made.”
“Correct,” Anderson said.
Bender and Commissioner Dean Karsky both said they needed more time too look at what Anderson was saying, and that this was not the time to consider those things.
Bender pointed out that none of this was in Anderson’s memo to the commission for this week’s agenda.
Even still when Bender opened the agenda item up to public comment very few of the several people who spoke referred to the bill on the agenda.
Most talked about the need for “hand counting ballots."
One member of the public even turned to the audience, raised her hand in the air and proclaimed she would be willing to stay all night to hand count ballots.
After over 20 minutes of comments, Bender returned the commission back to the original motion.
“I’m going to take the conversation to where it started, which was a motion by the auditor (Anderson) to approve services from Elections Systems and Software.”
“This is a system that has been well-vetted out by our secretary of state…The sole motion before the commission right now is whether to approve these charges for the system that the county has been using for a long time, and any concerns about the election should be addressed by the audits put in place by the legislature.”
Karsky asked Anderson, “Are you forfeiting your role as the election officer to the county commission?”
“I am not forfeiting my role as auditor,” Anderson said. “I was told my role in making decisions was not…I’m not the governing board.”
“You’re very conveniently not the governing board this morning, that’s for sure,” Bender retorted.
Commissioner Joe Kippley had much more to say when he chastised Anderson: “If the auditor has an affirmative agenda, I would say ‘Bring it.’
“I really don’t appreciate what is (effectively) smuggling in other issues to what I think is routine (business): warranties on equipment and paying for election services to print ballots.”
“I just don’t get this Pontius Pilate washing my hands ‘I’m just a tribune to the people, and I will let the public commentors come up and smuggle in all of these issues,’ which quite frankly have been litigated in the courts.”
“We’ve seen defamation against voting machine companies come back with hundreds of millions in verdicts, so I don’t think we want to get in the business of defaming ES&S.”
Kippley continued: “I really don’t like the way this was set up and brought before us. I don’t have a lot of patience for the nonsense around the election fraud stuff.”
“Every election in our free society has a losing side. And that losing side needs to learn how to lose.”
Kippley went on look back at the elections of 2000, 2004, 2016 and now 2020, which, he pointed out, all had similar problems. He then made the motion to pay the bill to ES&S, which was unanimously approved.
No further comments were made by Anderson or anyone else regarding this matter.
The next meeting will be Tuesday, Oct. 3, at 9 a.m. in the commission meeting room on the third floor of the Minnehaha County Administration Building.
There are a lot of hands that go into getting the breakfasts and lunches prepared for the hundreds of Garretson students each day. A well organized and enthusiastic team in the kitchen help make that happen with a few familiar faces and a few new faces this year. //Photo by Gracie Fiegen
by Tyler Erickson, GHS Blue Ink
You may have been seeing some new faces, plus the familiar faces in the lunchroom this year. This is because the Garretson school has gotten a few new helpers in the kitchen this year.
Starting off, the new lead food service manager is Cara Karber. Karber’s favorite thing about working here is that she gets to cook, and she also loves seeing the kids. Next, Brenda Tyrrell as the cashier, Linda Powell at the fruit and vegetable bar, and Kristina Crow as the food service director. Lastly, the two helpers this year are Donna and Marilyn as the washers.
While we all understand that the school lunch is not going to be the same as going out to eat at a restaurant, that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few more options that the Blue Dragons would like to see going through the lunch line at school. When asked if there were any foods that students and teachers wanted to add to the Garretson food program, there were a wide variety of requests such as butter noodles with parmesan cheese, steak, and egg bake. The option of having the full Culver’s menu was also suggested.
But there are a few current options that students asserted must stay. The food program HAS to keep these popular items: chicken ranch pasta, super nachos, and orange chicken.
In between the requests for new items and the staples on the menu, there were a few items that the students love that seem to have disappeared. The most common request to be returned to the Blue Dragon students is the malt machine, feeling that if they can buy ice cream currently, why can’t they have the malt machine. Other items that are hoped to be returned to the menus are crispitos, dinner rolls rather than breadsticks, and Pizza Ranch Fridays.
A few students also mentioned they wanted the fresh strawberries on the salad bar line as it has just been bananas and peaches lately. Another requested the glazed donuts to be brought back at breakfast time. Finally the bread and peanut butter that used to be available was thought to need a return.
So with a few new faces and a few familiar ones matching the request for a few new foods and a few familiar favorites, the Garretson food program is off and running for another school year.
Article Submitted by Ms. Alysha Kientopf, Garretson FFA Advisor
National Farm Safety and Health week was September 17th-23rd. The 2021 data for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the agricultural sector is still the most dangerous in America with 453 fatalities. Fall harvest time can be one of the busiest and most dangerous seasons of the year for the agriculture industry. For this reason, the third week of September has been recognized as National Farm Safety and Health Week. This annual promotion initiated by the National Safety Council has been proclaimed as such by each sitting U.S. President since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944. National Farm Safety and Health Week is led by the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety (NECAS), the agricultural partner of the National Safety Council.
Ag Students, Jayden Meyer and Reece Connely, talk about the dangers of playing around, near, and in grain bins, grain wagons, and other large agriculture equipment through a wide variety of demonstrations. //photo submitted
To honor this week, the Garretson FFA hosted a Safety Around Agriculture for Youth (SAAY) Program for the 4th graders at Garretson Elementary on Wednesday, September 20th. The Agriculture Structure class broke into teams and developed 20-minute safety presentations highlighting Chemical, Metal Fabrication, Grain, Power Tool, and Tractor Safety, which in small groups the participants rotated through each session. The class felt these were the most common areas of concern for youth when it comes to Safety Around Agriculture in our area.
During Chemical Safety the students tried to identify chemical- like items compared to edible/consumable items that look alike in their color and consistency, while understanding the importance of being cautious handling unmarked items such as liquids that could be hazardous. These items could be pesticides, insecticides, household cleaners, etc. that look like some beverages and snacks that we enjoy consuming.
Participants had the opportunity to try on all the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that is important to wear when welding, alongside learning about how to be careful around the gas tanks. Along with Power Tool Safety, the importance of properly utilizing tools and equipment was shared. Demonstrations of loose clothing getting caught in a power drill and how quickly getting your finger (hot dog to represent) cut in the blade of a compound miter saw can happen were some helpful visuals for the 4th graders to understand safety a little better.
Tom, a volunteer with Farmers Union of South Dakota, teaches how to ride inclines and terrain safely on an ATV. 4th Grader Easton Schwabach took a turn on the hydraulic simulator to practice what he learned. //photo submitted
Grain Safety consisted of showing the youth how quickly a person can become engulfed in grain when not being safe around grain bins or wagons. Demonstrations to show the challenge of breathing in these situations and educating them the reasons why grain bins and farm equipment are not safe to play around and in, which lead into the Tractor Safety rotation. Participants watched a short video and then saw how quickly an actual Power Take-off Shaft moves and can hurt someone if they get caught into it. A dummy was used for this visual with a bale shredder hooked behind a tractor.
Lastly, we had the Farmers Union of South Dakota Farm Safety Trailer join us this year too. Rocky Foreman and his helper Tom shared great knowledge about ATV safety and reiterated grain bin, electrical, and PTO safety in the trailer. They were a great addition to making this educational day a success. Garretson FFA and the Garretson Agricultural Department hopes to continue to expand this program into bigger things with the 4th Grade teachers at the Garretson School; expanding it into a full day event and partnering with other businesses and organizations like Farmers Union in the years to come.
Brecken Weir and Jakob Gnadt share their knowledge about safety around welding, especially the importance of wearing proper protective equipment. //photo submitted Colin Shellum, Cole Schleuter, and Lane Ellefson educate the youth about doing checks on equipment, the importance of turning equipment off before working on it, and showing a demonstration on how quickly you can be in harm’s way if you get caught in a PTO. //photo submitted
Participants of Drive Your Tractor to School Day with their tractors from (L to R) are Dyaln Waltman, Isaac Stoterau, Austin Graff, Tanner Baatz, Brecken Weir, Levi Top, and Jakob Gnadt. //photo submitted by Alysha Kientopf
As harvest season is upon us and National Farm Safety and Health Week was September 17th-23rd; Garretson FFA brought back Drive Your Tractor to School Day after many years. Seven Garretson High School and Garretson FFA Members woke up and left for school a little earlier on Wednesday, September 20th to drive their tractors or lawn mowers to school.
The students initially wanted to bring this tradition back as it is a great way to get students involved and show-off their tractors. Some want to see what their tractor can do — horsepower-wise. From vintage to brand new, students had the chance to look at how models have changed, and all the equipment can do.
As parent and community member Patrick Waltman shared, “Yet, another reason why I love this town”, as he drove by the back parking lot of the school and shared a photo of the tractors lined up on social media, just confirmed the value of reviving this tradition.
The ultimate objective for the event was to show support to our local farmers and remind community members to be supportive of our farmers when they are on the road by slowing down and being patient as they are slower moving. We want to keep our community members and farmers safe this harvest season as our local farmers work hard to help bring our food supply from the farm to our tables.
Continuing school, you're still probably seeing a whole lot of new people, and you may have no clue who they are. While you may have gotten to know a few of the new students as you sit with them in class, there may be some new teachers you have yet to meet.
In the second part of the Blue Ink’s feature on new staff members, the elementary and specials teachers were interviewed: Mrs. Denae Bass (DB) the new 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Taylor Schweitzer (TS) the new vocal music teacher, and Ms. Tori Hanson (TH) the new 3rd grade teacher.
Q: Where did you grow up?
TH: I grew up in a small town called Hurley, South Dakota.
TS: Mobridge, South Dakota
DB: Ackley, Iowa
Q: What college did you graduate from?
TH: Univeristy of South Dakota
TS: Northern State University
DB: Southwest Minnesota State University
Q: Why did you choose Garretson?
TH: Because I like the small community and everybody’s been super friendly and welcoming.
TS: My husband works here, my sister-in-law works here, my brother-in-law Ramsey goes to school here, so yeah lots of family and it’s where we live.
DB: It’s similar to towns I’ve taught in before. I like the small town and the smaller schools.
Q: What made you choose the grade that you teach?
TH: I like little kids, I like working with younger students and watching their minds grow and I feel like there’s a lot of growth that happens in 3rd grade.
TS: I’ve always grown up loving music, I had a really awesome elementary music teacher that inspired me to do elementary music and then I’ve been doing elementary for the past 4 years, this is my first year doing MS/HS.
DB: I just like the early childhood so I’m able teach PRE-K through 2nd grade so it’s like the younger groups of ages and they’re still excited to learn.
Q: Would you choose a different subject or different grade than the one you teach?
TH: 1st grade.
TS: History.
DB: High school social studies.
Q: What are some of your hobbies?
TH: I like the paint, I like to go hiking, I like to be with my family, and I like to play basketball.
TS: Hiking, walking our 2 dogs, I’m learning to play the guitar, I’m going back to school for music therapy right now, and I like doing hot yoga.
DB: Going to sporting events, watching movies, I like to go shopping, and I’m usually chasing after my kids a lot.
Q: What animal would you be and why?
TH: I would be a hippopotamus because they can eat whatever they want and people don’t judge them.
TS: I’d like to be a corgi, cause I love my corgi. She’s kind of sassy and I can be kind of sassy too.
DB: Anything that can lay around all the time and take naps.
Q: Did you play any sports in school?
TH: I did. I played volleyball, softball, cross country, basketball, and track.
TS: I did basketball and volleyball in high school.
DB: In high school I played volleyball, basketball, softball, and track. Then in high school I also played basketball and softball.
Q: What food would you eat if it was the only thing you could eat?
TH: Anything potatoes.
TS: Peanut butter.
DB: pizza.
Q: If you were stuck on an island what 3 things would you bring?
TH: My dog, cause I need some company, my blanket, and my sister.
TS: my dogs, peanut butter, and some good books to read.
