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SPRING 20<strong>24</strong><br />
■ Jazz group swings into live shows<br />
■ Diversity brings soccer success<br />
■ New option for senior living<br />
ORANGE CITY<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
Courting<br />
Connections<br />
Students become community ambassadors
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2 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
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SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 3
CONTENTS |<br />
29<br />
Easy living at<br />
new complex<br />
ON THE<br />
COVER<br />
20<br />
Building<br />
a bond<br />
Queen and court<br />
create connections<br />
ORANGE CITY<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
SPRING 20<strong>24</strong><br />
FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER<br />
Peter W. Wagner<br />
PRESIDENT<br />
Jeff Wagner<br />
EDITORIAL STAFF<br />
Kirsten Elyea<br />
Kate Harlow<br />
Georgia Lodewyk<br />
Mikaela Mackey<br />
Eric Sandbulte<br />
Aleisa Schat<br />
Thea Sterrett<br />
Renee Wielenga<br />
ADVERTISING DESIGN<br />
Carissa Fohwein<br />
Elizabeth Myers<br />
Chelsea Parks<br />
Camryn Reinking<br />
Alex Rolfes<br />
Kira Spaans<br />
43<br />
Capturing life’s most special moments<br />
Jenni Oschner always loved art, but when she picked up a camera, something clicked<br />
Orange City <strong>Mag</strong>azine<br />
is published by<br />
Iowa Information Inc.,<br />
Sheldon, Iowa.<br />
6<br />
Author shares<br />
son’s tragic story<br />
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE<br />
10<br />
14<br />
36<br />
Right in the middle<br />
New business development<br />
takes advantage of high<br />
traffic along Highway 10<br />
Hollander Jazz<br />
Drew Lemke and friends blend<br />
talents to perform live jazz at<br />
concerts, weddings<br />
On and off the pitch<br />
Diversity on the roster has<br />
created winning formula for<br />
Northwestern men’s soccer<br />
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and other questions,<br />
please contact us.<br />
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©20<strong>24</strong> Orange City <strong>Mag</strong>azine<br />
No material from this publication<br />
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from the publisher.<br />
4 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
Happily Ever After Starts Here!<br />
908 8th Street, Orange City, IA • (712) 707-5900<br />
www.prairiewindseventcenter.com • events@orangecityiowa.com<br />
SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 5
UNDERSTANDING |<br />
Son<br />
‘Scenes with my<br />
’<br />
TEXT BY RENEE WIELENGA | PHOTOS BY RENEE WIELENGA & SUBMITTED<br />
Robert “Bob” Hubbard<br />
of Orange City is<br />
grateful media outlets<br />
like podcasts, radio stations and<br />
magazines are taking interest in his<br />
book — one Eerdmans Publishing<br />
Co. selected to publish and one that<br />
has all five-star reviews on Amazon<br />
and Goodreads.<br />
“With each speaking engagement<br />
or interview, I always want<br />
to emphasize how grateful I am for<br />
the interest but, of course, I would<br />
give anything not to be here because<br />
I’m only here because something<br />
awful happened,” said Bob,<br />
August “Auggie” Hubbard at 17 years old. His<br />
father, Robert “Bob” Hubbard, wrote a book in<br />
tribute to him following Auggie’s death by suicide<br />
in 2020 after years of dealing with depression.<br />
a 55-year-old theatre professor at<br />
Northwestern College in Orange<br />
City.<br />
After battling clinical depression<br />
for more than five years that<br />
was exacerbated by autism, Bob’s<br />
youngest of three sons, August<br />
“Auggie” Hubbard, died by suicide<br />
at the age of 19 on Oct. 23, 2020.<br />
Three years to the day after Auggie’s<br />
death, Eerdmans released<br />
“Scenes with My Son: Love and<br />
Grief in the Wake of Suicide,” written<br />
by Bob as a tribute to his son.<br />
“I wrote it because I felt called to<br />
celebrate the life of my son and to<br />
let other people know about him,”<br />
Bob said. “I also hope the book is<br />
helpful both to people who have experienced<br />
great loss and difficulty<br />
as well as to those who haven’t but<br />
who would like to understand more<br />
of what it’s like to endure suicide.<br />
“I’m trying to be redemptive, yet<br />
nothing I’m doing comes close to<br />
balancing the pain that Auggie endured<br />
and our family experienced.<br />
Still, I’m trying to tell his story and<br />
feel called to do that in the hopes of<br />
being helpful to others.”<br />
The idea to write the book<br />
emerged about eight months after<br />
6 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
Auggie’s death. Until that point, Bob had fallen<br />
into situational depression.<br />
“We did our best to take care of ourselves.<br />
We saw therapists, but with it being COVID,<br />
none of it was in person, so we didn’t do support<br />
groups,” Bob said. “One therapist, a cognitive<br />
psychologist, said the brain slows down<br />
when you’re in depression. It literally stops<br />
working as well. That happened to me. I felt<br />
like a droid. Just doing one movement after<br />
the other.”<br />
By the time summer came, Bob and his<br />
wife, April, spent about three and a half weeks<br />
in Bob’s hometown of Minot, ND, for April to<br />
direct summer theatre at Bob’s undergraduate<br />
alma mater, Minot State University.<br />
“I had a lot of time on my hands,” Bob said.<br />
“I swam laps; I went to coffee shops. While I<br />
was in a coffee shop, I read a wonderful novel<br />
called ‘Hamnet’ by <strong>Mag</strong>gie O’Farrell. It was the<br />
first book I was able to read. It makes the case<br />
that Shakespeare had a son named Hamnet,<br />
but in Elizabethan spelling it would have been<br />
Hamlet and that Shakespeare wrote his greatest<br />
tragedy trying to replicate the personality<br />
of his son. When I finished, the idea of writing<br />
an homage analogy to Auggie hit me.”<br />
As a person always interested in story ideas,<br />
he carries journals with him.<br />
“I opened up a journal and thought of three<br />
sections, and I jotted down eight, nine, 10 onesentence<br />
vignettes in each,” he said.<br />
Then he left the material alone until that<br />
fall.<br />
“It was serendipitous that I had a sabbatical<br />
planned for that fall even before Auggie died,”<br />
Bob said, noting his work in Nassau, Bahamas,<br />
was reduced due to COVID-19 restrictions in<br />
place in the Caribbean nation. “I had to have<br />
A father’s reflection on love and<br />
grief in the wake of suicide<br />
SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 7
Northwestern<br />
College theatre<br />
professor Bob<br />
Hubbard pages<br />
through a copy<br />
of his book<br />
“Scenes with<br />
My Son: Love<br />
and Grief in<br />
the Wake of<br />
Suicide,” written<br />
as a tribute to<br />
his youngest<br />
of three sons,<br />
August “Auggie”<br />
Hubbard,<br />
pictured as an<br />
infant on his<br />
desk. Auggie<br />
died from<br />
suicide at 19<br />
years old.<br />
something else to do. So, there again in a coffee<br />
shop in Nassau I wrote the book. Looking back, it<br />
was a blessing because I wouldn’t have had that<br />
window of opportunity to write otherwise.”<br />
The three sections of vignettes became “Beautiful<br />
Boy,” which introduces the reader to Auggie;<br />
“The Family Monster,” which chronicles Auggie’s<br />
battle with clinical depression; and “The Life After,”<br />
which recounts the aftermath of Auggie’s suicide.<br />
“As a theatre person, I believe in the power of<br />
story. I wasn’t sure where that would go, but earlier<br />
in my career I studied the theological idea of vocation,”<br />
Bob said. “A misconception is that a vocation<br />
is not necessarily what we do for a living, it can be<br />
more akin to a pilgrimage. Vocations are often not<br />
fun or easy, but things we feel called to do. One<br />
of the reasons I wrote is because I felt a calling or<br />
vocation to try to make sense of what happened.”<br />
“Scenes With My Son,” however, is not a work of<br />
apologetics tackling the problem of pain. Instead,<br />
it’s a story of great loss and hope.<br />
In the wake of Auggie’s death, Bob wrote a few<br />
extensive social media posts about what was going<br />
on so as to not hide or pretend<br />
his son died another way — posts<br />
which various acquaintances said<br />
were helpful. Later, once Bob began<br />
to read again, he, too, found comfort<br />
in hearing people’s stories who have<br />
endured something similar.<br />
“That was comforting,” he said.<br />
“When something so awful happens,<br />
you can feel so alone, like nobody<br />
could possibly understand, and then<br />
you read stories about others who<br />
have gone through something similar<br />
and you find a cloud of witnesses,<br />
you sort of find a community.”<br />
Bob also wanted to share his<br />
struggles even as a man of faith.<br />
“I didn’t want to try to explain<br />
why this happened, I didn’t want<br />
to try to say things like, ‘God is in<br />
control of everything.’ I wanted to do<br />
narrative theology,” he said. “I believe everything is<br />
terribly broken, that we all suffer under the same<br />
sun that rises and sets on us all and having faith<br />
may help endure these hardships but not protect<br />
you from them.”<br />
Another goal is to help others understand or<br />
share his feelings.<br />
“I hope this book will inspire empathy for people<br />
who don’t have any other practical way of understanding<br />
what it’s like to lose a child to suicide,”<br />
he said. “Maybe there will be less stigma around<br />
depression. Maybe others won’t see it as a weakness<br />
because, through this narrative journey, they<br />
see how much Auggie fought.”<br />
Bob also wrote the book to celebrate his son.<br />
“Many of the reviews say they feel like they got<br />
to know my son by reading this,” he said. “I live in<br />
the resurrection, the hope that I will get to see my<br />
son again one day and all of this will be redeemed.<br />
I hope this book isn’t all we have of Auggie, but<br />
right now it is. I want to let people know about<br />
him, so I’m thrilled other people will get to know<br />
this crazy, passionate character and feel like they<br />
have insights into how remarkable he is.” <br />
8 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
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SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 9
PROGRESS |<br />
growth<br />
READY FOR<br />
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ERIC SANDBULTE<br />
Newest business development<br />
Commercieel Centrum opens<br />
The plain dirt lots neighboring the newly paved street<br />
and the Highway 10 roundabout might not look like<br />
much now, but in time, Orange City leaders envision<br />
it to become a community hub catering to their residents and<br />
Alton commuters alike.<br />
With about <strong>24</strong>.65 acres to it, this land is Orange City’s<br />
newest business development, called Commercieel Centrum.<br />
Thirteen lots are available, with one business in the process<br />
of purchasing the main corner lot along the highway. The<br />
city expects to close on that land purchase in June. Additional<br />
lots will become available after enough of the initial<br />
wave of lots are sold.<br />
Once ground breaks on that corner lot in the summer, Orange<br />
City Community Development director Ryan McEwen<br />
expects other lots will begin to attract even more attention.<br />
“It is designed more for the retail and commercial spaces.<br />
We’ve had a number of businesses ask us, including a flower<br />
shop, a car wash, a restaurant,” McEwen said. “It can be that<br />
type of hub where we would love to have a strip mall with<br />
various stores, kind of like some of the other ones in town.<br />
It’s the idea of bringing people together in an easy space to<br />
access that is in between Alton and Orange City.”<br />
The high volume of highway traffic already made it an<br />
attractive location, but this area around the roundabout<br />
also will benefit from M<strong>OC</strong>-Floyd Valley Elementary, which<br />
opened in August just to the south on Jay Avenue.<br />
“The stronger relationship we have with Alton, the better.<br />
It’s a great community and very like-minded. Having a<br />
school there with Commercieel Centrum where everyone<br />
can access things easily, that was the thinking back several<br />
years ago,” McEwen said. “It’s really a wonderful hub.”<br />
Talks about establishing Commercieel Centrum began<br />
with his predecessor, Mark Gaul, with the land for<br />
10 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
Commercieel Centrum purchased three<br />
years ago. To provide access to the first<br />
chunk of lots in the business development,<br />
a set of new roads was put in: Tallahassee<br />
Avenue Southeast and Eighth<br />
Street Southeast.<br />
McEwen said that projects like Commercieel<br />
Centrum represent the city’s<br />
commitment to communicating with<br />
local businesses and growing the local<br />
economy. Of course, such work brings<br />
about other needs in communities, such<br />
as housing and other services that workers<br />
and their families need when they<br />
consider moving someplace.<br />
“I hear that all the time, affordable<br />
housing and assistance with day care,”<br />
McEwen said. “We are always working<br />
to improve our day care, making it sustainable<br />
and expanding it. It makes life<br />
easier when you have a consistent and<br />
strong day-care presence.”<br />
As for housing, considerable market<br />
changes have altered what affordable<br />
means for the average homebuyer.<br />
“With interest rates and everything<br />
going up, that old idea of affordability<br />
from even a year ago might not be<br />
so affordable anymore. We’re actually<br />
exploring ways to have houses that are<br />
in the lower $200,000, not the upper<br />
$200,000,” McEwen said.<br />
As the city facilitates growth in business<br />
and housing, it seeks simply to be<br />
prepared.<br />
“It’s a matter of time before you have<br />
some of these other dominoes start to<br />
fall,” McEwen said. “We’ll have to take<br />
it as it comes, but we are ready. We are<br />
ready for growth.” <br />
SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 11
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SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 13
TUNED IN |<br />
Swing<br />
TEXT BY ALEISA SCHAT | FILE PHOTOS<br />
Hollander Jazz energizes Orange City arts scene<br />
time<br />
When Orange City resident Drew<br />
Lemke founded Hollander<br />
Jazz, he did it for a simple<br />
reason — he missed playing jazz music.<br />
“I had a bunch of friends that also just<br />
wanted to play jazz,” 29-year-old Lemke<br />
said. “Being fresh out of college, I also just<br />
missed the opportunity that I got to play in<br />
all of those ensembles. I just kind of started<br />
thinking, ‘Well, maybe I’ll just start my own<br />
band.’”<br />
Lemke graduated with a music education<br />
degree from Northwestern College in Orange<br />
City in 2<strong>01</strong>7 and has been the M<strong>OC</strong>-Floyd<br />
Valley Middle School band director since<br />
August of the same year.<br />
In 2020, Lemke gathered musicians from<br />
Orange City and surrounding communities<br />
and put together a jazz orchestra.<br />
The band’s first regular gigs were sponsored<br />
by the Orange City Arts Council, the<br />
nonprofit organization that showcases the<br />
work of artists and supports arts education<br />
in the Sioux County seat community.<br />
“It kind of started mainly as a thing we did<br />
with <strong>OC</strong> Arts in the summer,” Lemke said.<br />
Orange City Arts’ summer OnStage<br />
concert series brings musicians from far<br />
and wide to perform outdoor concerts on<br />
Wednesday evenings in Windmill Park<br />
downtown.<br />
“I definitely attribute a lot of our being<br />
able to get started to <strong>OC</strong> Arts — providing<br />
those summer series for us and asking us<br />
to come back and play,” he said. “That was<br />
amazing, getting us going, and then I started<br />
to save up for the next purchase of a speaker<br />
or a piano, or more music, and we’ve started<br />
to grow a little bit more.”<br />
The group began performing as a full jazz<br />
orchestra, which includes around 20 musicians,<br />
and as word spread about the group,<br />
Hollander Jazz began receiving invitations to<br />
perform in smaller ensembles, too, at community<br />
events and weddings.<br />
The group plays in varying configurations,<br />
depending on the event and the number of<br />
musicians available to play on a given date.<br />
“It kind of depends on the request I get.<br />
Basically, I just ask people, do you want the<br />
big band or do you want a smaller combo,<br />
and then we kind of build it from there,”<br />
Lemke said.<br />
Along with performing at public and private<br />
events across northwest Iowa, the group<br />
puts on a regular Christmas show at the Unity<br />
Christian High School’s Knight Center in<br />
Orange City.<br />
“The first year we did it, it was like, ‘Well,<br />
we’ve still got some standards mixed in — but<br />
it’s mostly Christmas. Now, we have enough<br />
to do Christmas the whole set,” Lemke said.<br />
Hollander Jazz offers<br />
ensembles of various<br />
sizes for whatever best<br />
fits the venue. The group<br />
is available for public and<br />
private events.<br />
14 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
BOOK THE<br />
BAND<br />
To book Hollander Jazz for<br />
an event, visit the website<br />
www.hollanderjazz.com,<br />
call 712-540-0059 or e-mail<br />
hollanderjazz@gmail.com.<br />
The annual Christmas show features<br />
the full jazz orchestra, which includes a<br />
rhythm section and typically four trumpets,<br />
four trombones, five saxophones<br />
and a guitar.<br />
“That’s what most of those big band<br />
arrangements are written for, so that’s<br />
what we try to stick to with our big<br />
band,” Lemke said.<br />
Jazz ensembles, by comparison, are<br />
smaller and more nimble, with more<br />
room for the improvisational melodies<br />
that are characteristic of the genre.<br />
“But there’s still a huge variety of<br />
music that the big bands can play —<br />
music that’s maybe not even traditional<br />
jazz,” Lemke said. “It’s swing, it’s Latin,<br />
it’s funk — it’s all of these different<br />
grooves. That’s been a lot of fun, too. I<br />
love the diversity of jazz.”<br />
As a band director, Lemke can play<br />
most common instruments, but his<br />
mainstays are guitar and trumpet.<br />
“When I’m performing with Hollander,<br />
especially, I’m going to be playing<br />
trumpet,” Lemke said.<br />
Among the jazz group’s regular players<br />
are Kevin Linder of Akron, a talented<br />
trumpet player in the region who has<br />
performed with Frankie Valli, Kenny<br />
Rogers and the Temptations. Other<br />
Hollander Jazz regulars include Rod<br />
Shedenhelm, the former band director<br />
for the Sioux Central School District in<br />
Sioux Rapids; Titus Landegent, a Sioux<br />
Center-based drummer who teaches at<br />
Kinsey Elementary; Megan Powell, the<br />
Sioux Center High School band director;<br />
and Monica Boogerd, the Sioux<br />
Center Middle School band director.<br />
SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 15
“I definitely have a list of regulars,”<br />
Lemke said.<br />
Lemke begins by calling the<br />
group’s original members, stitching<br />
together a group of performers<br />
available to rehearse for and perform<br />
at a particular event.<br />
The band’s repertoire is anchored<br />
by familiar jazz standards<br />
and big band hits.<br />
“We kind of built off of standard<br />
big band jazz. So, you’re ‘In<br />
the Mood’ — the kind of thing<br />
you would find at a swing dance,”<br />
Lemke said.<br />
As the group has grown more<br />
comfortable playing together,<br />
they’ve widened their repertoire to<br />
include more contemporary pieces.<br />
“We do new songs fairly regularly.<br />
So, maybe a member brings<br />
a new song along for us to read,”<br />
Lemke said. “We kind of have this<br />
standard set, where we’ve played a<br />
lot of music together already, so it<br />
doesn’t take as much rehearsal, and<br />
then we can just spend more of the<br />
rehearsal on the new stuff.”<br />
The music is good for listening,<br />
but its rhythms also invite dancing.<br />
Along with providing wedding<br />
guests with tunes to swing to, Hollander<br />
Jazz had a new opportunity<br />
this July when they performed at<br />
the Sioux Center Arts picnic in Central<br />
Park. Midwest Swing Dance Co.<br />
was on hand to lead outdoor swing<br />
lessons at the event.<br />
Whether a performance involves<br />
dancing or not, Hollander Jazz invites<br />
vocalists to perform with the<br />
group. Lemke’s wife, Amanda, is<br />
one of the group’s regular soloists.<br />
“I think the audience just appreciates<br />
the variety that it brings,”<br />
Lemke said. “When our vocalists<br />
join us, we have a lot of Frank Sinatra,<br />
Michael Bublé — kind of those<br />
crooner songs, which are a lot of<br />
fun.”<br />
Drew and Amanda are veterans<br />
of the arts scene in Orange City, and<br />
along with performing with Hollander<br />
Jazz, the two regularly contribute<br />
their talents to the Orange<br />
City Tulip Festival Night Show, the<br />
musical production that accompanies<br />
the spring festival each year.<br />
This spring, the Lemkes are slated<br />
to direct the show, a production of<br />
the popular musical “Footloose.”<br />
Lemke said he’s grateful to contribute<br />
to a thriving arts scene in<br />
Orange City, whether theatrical<br />
productions or performing jazz.<br />
“A lot of the people I play with,<br />
it’s just a common love of ours,”<br />
he said. “It’s been really surprising<br />
how easy it is to find people who are<br />
kind of like me — they just wanted<br />
to find another platform to play.” <br />
16 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
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18 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
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PREPARATION |<br />
Sowing<br />
TEXT BY GEORGIA LODEWYK | PHOTOS SUBMITTED<br />
THE SEEDS<br />
for the Tulip Festival<br />
The 83rd Tulip Festival May<br />
16-18 is set to bring in an<br />
estimated 100,000 visitors<br />
to Orange City.<br />
The parade, food, and vibrant<br />
display of Dutch traditions puts<br />
the Sioux County seat community<br />
on the map for many out-of-state<br />
guests, but the seemingly seamless<br />
production to an outsider is the<br />
result of hundreds of hours, and<br />
months of planning, for many in<br />
the city.<br />
For many Tulip Festival volunteers,<br />
the event is as present as<br />
ever even when it is far in the future,<br />
from the costumes to sew, tulips<br />
to plant, and the queen’s court<br />
to choose.<br />
The tulips<br />
Planting tulips is an art, one that<br />
Nora Mulder has down to a science.<br />
It starts in October; when the<br />
fresh bulbs have been received<br />
from the Netherlands, and the temperatures<br />
are just at 60 degrees.<br />
That’s when the weather is perfect<br />
for planting the 15,000 bulbs in<br />
Orange City’s downtown Windmill<br />
Park, which serves as the center for<br />
many Tulip Festival activities.<br />
This year, a group of 20 volunteers<br />
organized by Nora Mulder<br />
and John Buntsma, took the lead<br />
on planting them.<br />
“The city fills up the dirt and gets<br />
it ready for us,” Mulder said. “Then<br />
we come in with little hand garden<br />
tools, and we plant them about six<br />
to eight inches deep.”<br />
For Windmill Park, the volunteers<br />
operate with the plan from<br />
the Tulip Town Bulb Company, operated<br />
by Keri and Dan Drescher.<br />
The Dreschers provide instructions<br />
on where to plant the different<br />
tulip varieties, and volunteers<br />
arrange them three inches apart.<br />
These tulips account for nearly<br />
one-third of Orange City’s estimated<br />
50,000 tulip bulbs that are<br />
planted each year.<br />
20 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
Mulder and her husband, Brett,<br />
owned the Tulip Town Bulb Company<br />
for 10 years before selling the business<br />
and home to the Dreschers in 2<strong>01</strong>7. The<br />
Dreschers carried on the tradition, but<br />
Mulder hoped to increase the number<br />
of bulbs in Windmill Park.<br />
This year, the volunteers spent eight<br />
hours planting in Windmill Park over<br />
the span of two days. Seeing the fruits<br />
of their labor is an even longer process.<br />
“Really, nothing happens until<br />
spring,” Mulder said. “They just go dormant<br />
for the winter. And then once it’s<br />
nice in the spring, then they start their<br />
growth process.”<br />
In Iowa, tulip season runs from early<br />
April to early June. It’s a short time<br />
frame, but they are perennial, meaning<br />
the flowers return from the same bulb<br />
two or three seasons. But Mulder said<br />
they bloom the best the first year, so the<br />
city digs them up and plants new bulbs<br />
each year.<br />
“They’ll gather all the tulips and let<br />
them dry over the summer,” Mulder<br />
said. “And then they do let city people<br />
take the bulbs and plant them themselves<br />
in their own gardens.”<br />
The court<br />
Orange City crowned its 20<strong>24</strong> Tulip<br />
Festival queen on Nov. 20.<br />
Avery Kelch will be joined by fellow<br />
high school seniors Becca Boersma,<br />
Amelia Calsbeek, Kylie Kurtz and Ella<br />
Poppema to make up the Tulip Court.<br />
The role is an honor for Orange City<br />
teenagers. They are first chosen by the<br />
public in October and then compete in<br />
a pageant in November to choose the<br />
queen and her court.<br />
Lauren McDonald, head of the<br />
Queen’s Committee, said her job as<br />
the “court mom” is to make sure the<br />
girls are having fun and preparing well<br />
for these upcoming projects. She also<br />
is in charge of media training, helping<br />
the court prepare for the onset of interviews<br />
and attention.<br />
In January, they begin planning for<br />
the road show, one of their biggest outreach<br />
opportunities that takes the court<br />
SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 21
Planning and plantings start<br />
months before annual May<br />
tulip-filled extravaganza<br />
to nursing homes, schools, Pella’s<br />
Tulip Time Festival and the Iowa<br />
State Capitol.<br />
“We’ll brainstorm and get on paper<br />
what the girls want to talk and<br />
share about the festival,” McDonald<br />
said. “It’s more local, helping people<br />
know what’s coming.”<br />
Beyond the training, McDonald<br />
said it is important for the girls to<br />
spend time together. The Orange<br />
City Tulip Festival, at its heart, is a<br />
chance for community and connection,<br />
and the court is no different.<br />
Over winter break, the girls<br />
participated in gift exchanges and<br />
Christmas parties together, bonding<br />
before they enter a busy season later<br />
in the spring.<br />
McDonald, who was a member<br />
of the Tulip Court when she was a<br />
senior at M<strong>OC</strong>-Floyd Valley High<br />
School in 2<strong>01</strong>2, said forming relationships<br />
is one of the best parts of<br />
the experience.<br />
In addition to the road show, the<br />
girls are looking forward to another<br />
event: the Tulip Festival Extravaganza<br />
on March 20, where they will<br />
unveil their costumes to the public<br />
for the first time.<br />
“They’re absolutely gorgeous from<br />
what I’ve seen so far,” McDonald<br />
said.<br />
The costumes<br />
When Queen’s Committee member<br />
Amanda Haverdink attended her<br />
first Tulip Festival after college, she<br />
knew she wanted a Dutch costume.<br />
After she married her husband, Aaron,<br />
an Orange City native, she got to<br />
work, sewing two intricate costumes<br />
with a design from the village of<br />
Marken, Holland.<br />
Much of the N’West Iowa community<br />
gets involved through wearing<br />
traditional dress, often participating<br />
as “street sweepers” who prepare the<br />
downtown streets for the parade.<br />
Many also walk in the parade, organized<br />
by the province that their<br />
style of dress is from. Though to an<br />
outside eye, many Dutch costumes<br />
may look the same, there are more<br />
than 60 different costume patterns<br />
from 22 different provinces.<br />
Some of the most intricate<br />
“One thing that has always been a priority in Orange City is authenticity.<br />
22 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
Rebecca Boersma, Ella Poppema, Kylie Kurtz, Amelia Calsbeek and queen Avery Kelch make up<br />
the 20<strong>24</strong> Tulip Court. The high school seniors spend the months leading up to the festival getting<br />
to know each other and participating in the Road Show, in which they make public appearances.<br />
designs are worn by the members of the<br />
Queen’s Court. The presiders over the<br />
Tulip Festival wear a different design<br />
of dress every year, their outfits coordinated<br />
from literally head to toe — from<br />
hats to socks and footwear.<br />
Until the completed dresses are unveiled<br />
at the extravaganza in March, the<br />
exact design and what province of Holland<br />
it originated from, remains a mystery<br />
to everyone outside the Tulip Court<br />
and the Queen’s Costume Committee,<br />
the group behind designing and creating<br />
the costumes. The three-person<br />
team, made up of Haverdink, Denise de<br />
Vries and Marlys Hop, spend hundreds<br />
of hours each year developing the design,<br />
sourcing the fabric, and stitching<br />
the dress and accessories.<br />
“One thing that has always been a<br />
priority in Orange City is authenticity,”<br />
Haverdink said. “We want it to be<br />
as close to what it actually would have<br />
been as possible.”<br />
For that reason, the costume committee<br />
conducts extensive research on<br />
the region of Holland the dress originates<br />
from. Sometimes, patterns already<br />
exist, but that is not always the<br />
case. Last year, the team developed the<br />
court’s dresses from the city of Leeuwarden<br />
in northern Holland. They<br />
looked at pictures and ordered samples.<br />
Once they had a cohesive pattern<br />
and sourced all the fabric, they waited<br />
for the tulip court announcement in<br />
November before they could start sewing<br />
with the exact sizing.<br />
The sewing process itself is intricate<br />
and, at times, tedious. Skirt fabrics,<br />
cross-stitching, beadwork, lace and<br />
hats all take hours to create and get<br />
exactly correct. The job is not for the<br />
faint of heart, but Haverdink said piecing<br />
the project together, building a pattern<br />
and a design, and working through<br />
the challenges is a rewarding process.<br />
“I love the challenge of creating<br />
something new that’s never been done<br />
before,” Haverdink said.<br />
She started sewing at 6 years old,<br />
and now has been sewing Dutch costumes<br />
for 14 years.<br />
Haverdink, de Vries and Hop work<br />
several years in advance when it comes<br />
to costumes.<br />
They know the Tulip Court’s 2025<br />
dress costume before 20<strong>24</strong>’s design has<br />
even been unveiled, keeping the Tulip<br />
Court the best dressed at the festival for<br />
years to come. <br />
We want it to be as close to what it actually would have been as possible.”<br />
— AMANDA HAVERDINK QUEEN’S COMMITTEE MEMBER<br />
SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 23
“Our community has a promising<br />
future we want you to be a part<br />
of. Orange City is a safe, nurturing,<br />
family-friendly community in<br />
one of the healthiest counties<br />
in Iowa, and we are healthy in<br />
many ways. Our businesses are<br />
thriving. Our unemployment is<br />
low. Our aspirations are high.<br />
Experience the arts and culture<br />
of our community and witness<br />
the dynamic growth of our main<br />
street, educational facilities,<br />
healthcare resources, and more!”<br />
Deb De Haan - Orange City Mayor<br />
a great community to visit<br />
a vibrant place to live<br />
Read about our community<br />
Vibrant.OrangeCityIowa.com<br />
<strong>24</strong> <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 25
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26 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 27
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| COMMUNITY<br />
Milestones<br />
MAKING<br />
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY<br />
MIKAELA MACKEY<br />
Kanaal Huis is<br />
the first part of a<br />
multiphase-housing<br />
project called The<br />
Canals. Orange City<br />
Area Health System<br />
pursued the 36-condo<br />
complex to encourage<br />
simple, community<br />
living.<br />
The 55-plus population is<br />
changing, so Orange City is<br />
changing with it.<br />
Post-retirement is no longer a transition<br />
for people to hit the brakes on<br />
the bustle, but for many, it’s the chance<br />
to vacation, downsize and be active in<br />
ways they haven’t ever had the opportunity<br />
to.<br />
Kanaal Huis is an<br />
Orange City Area<br />
Health System project of 36 condos<br />
and is the first part of a multiphase<br />
project for 55-plus living, called The<br />
Canals.<br />
“Transforming into the next stage<br />
of life and a new way of living was really<br />
not a difficult decision for us, and<br />
Kanaal Huis is attractive for many reasons,”<br />
said 74-year old Bruce Mouw.<br />
He and his wife, Cathy, were the first<br />
people to move into Kanaal Huis. As<br />
SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 29
Thirty-six-condo complex<br />
Kanaal Huis introduces a<br />
unique concept for 55-plus<br />
living in Orange City.<br />
The Canals’ pioneers, Bruce said they<br />
have had no regrets.<br />
“No lawn mowing, dealing with<br />
leaves in the fall, snow shoveling and<br />
my favorite, no more cleaning out<br />
the gutters,” Bruce said. “We plan on<br />
traveling more, and this living option<br />
gives us the freedom to do that.<br />
Kanaal Huis has so many amenities: a<br />
well-equipped gym, a party room with<br />
a kitchen for holiday gatherings — we<br />
are looking forward to that — and<br />
gathering places.”<br />
One of the goals of Kanaal Huis was<br />
to provide residents an opportunity to<br />
build “vibrant lifestyles,” tagging Orange<br />
City’s slogan.<br />
Orange City Area Health System<br />
CEO Marty Guthmiller said one vibrant<br />
way of living is stepping into<br />
The Canals community. However, that<br />
community is going to look different<br />
from other senior homes.<br />
“We’re not forcing community on<br />
anybody,” Guthmiller said. “An owner<br />
at Kanaal Huis would not be forced to<br />
do anything. It’s not like activity in a<br />
nursing home, for example, or anything<br />
like that.”<br />
The goal for Kanaal Huis is it will be<br />
resident led. There are currently only<br />
two condos accounted for, but once<br />
that number grows, Guthmiller said<br />
there will be an internal committee<br />
that determines the rules and activities<br />
for Kanaal Huis.<br />
“Ultimately, we want them to take<br />
control and make their own rules out<br />
there. It’s their place,” he said. “We’re<br />
there to help and guide as we need to,<br />
but we don’t want to be in a director<br />
kind of role.”<br />
One of the ideas a resident has already<br />
proposed is to have an aboveground<br />
garden. Guthmiller’s response:<br />
“Let’s do it.”<br />
Being affiliated with the Orange City<br />
FOR MORE<br />
INFORMATION<br />
To learn more about<br />
Kanaal Huis, inquirers<br />
may reach out to Ryan<br />
Warnke, director of<br />
ancillary services for<br />
Orange City Area Health<br />
System, at Ryan.Warnke@<br />
ochealthsystem.org or<br />
Marty Guthmiller, Orange<br />
City Area Health System<br />
CEO, at Marty.Guthmiller@<br />
ochealthsystem.org.<br />
30 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
Orange City Area Health System CEO Marty Guthmiller has<br />
overseen the development of Kanaal Huis since its inception. Vision<br />
Builders made it all a reality, completing construction in December.<br />
Area Health System, there is an array of activities and<br />
resources for Kanaal Huis residents to tap into.<br />
Although Guthmiller reiterated that no Kanaal Huis<br />
resident is required to participate in any Kanaal Huis<br />
activity, he hopes options are ample.<br />
“For example, we employ physical therapists. There’s<br />
a very well-equipped fitness room in Kanaal Huis. What<br />
we can do is have the physical therapist come over once<br />
a month, once a quarter, periodically whatever that<br />
might be, to simply instruct people how to use it. How<br />
do you use this fitness room, how to use the equipment,<br />
why is it important, and then if people want to do that,<br />
great,” Guthmiller said. “If they don’t, nobody is going<br />
to babysit them over it so that’s totally up to them. But<br />
there are those kinds of things.<br />
“Dietitian would be another one, yoga is another one,<br />
and diabetes, eating healthy, are all types of things that<br />
the health system can bring to bear because of the resources<br />
that we have and because of our involvement<br />
with this,” he added. “Things like a wine and cheese<br />
gathering on a certain night, a cooking demonstration<br />
class, with a bingo or trivia night kind of thing. Simply<br />
to promote community and simply to say, ‘Hey, you<br />
know even though it’s winter and 30 below zero right<br />
now, we can still have trivia tonight.’”<br />
Kanaal Huis held its ribbon cutting on Dec. 19. A<br />
month later, Orange City mayor Deb De Haan said<br />
she has no concern if condos fill up slowly. In fact, it is<br />
rather expected.<br />
“With any new concept, especially I think in conservative<br />
northwest Iowa, we always think, ‘Oh, I don’t<br />
know if I want to be the first one to go out there.’ People<br />
like to see the final project,” De Haan said. “Once it<br />
catches on with our citizens, it’s going to take off. You<br />
just have to be a little patient.”<br />
She predicts Kanaal Huis will have a waiting list in<br />
10-15 years.<br />
The benefits of Kanaal Huis extend to even after residents<br />
leave the building.<br />
Bruce Mouw, for example, said Kanaal Huis living<br />
eliminates many of the housekeeping responsibilities<br />
and maintenance of being a landowner while on vacation.<br />
Guthmiller said one of the beauties of condo ownership<br />
is being able to lock the door and leave Orange City<br />
for months at a time without worrying about break-ins,<br />
home damage or even having a warm home to return<br />
SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 31
to.<br />
De Haan agreed that the concept<br />
of Kanaal Huis fits Orange City residents<br />
remarkably.<br />
“We have a lot of people that classify<br />
as snowbirds. and they go to Arizona,<br />
Florida,” she said. “They can<br />
basically just lock the door, and you<br />
know your home is going to be safe,<br />
and it’s going to be taken care of.”<br />
Besides fear of the unknown, De<br />
Haan and Guthmiller said the hardest<br />
part about catching the vision<br />
of Kanaal Huis will be leaving one’s<br />
home.<br />
“It’s not that I’m outside that demographic<br />
either myself. I’m 55-plus,<br />
and I’ve been living in my house for<br />
30 years. So, I understand that. But at<br />
the same time, I know that we don’t<br />
need, use, want, all the stuff that we<br />
have,” Guthmiller said. “My situation,<br />
we raised a family of three boys, we<br />
have five bedrooms in our house; we<br />
don’t need a house with five bedrooms<br />
anymore. We don’t need the stuff<br />
that’s in the five bedrooms anymore.”<br />
One of the biggest things Guthmiller<br />
said he learned from studying<br />
other 55-plus condos was that people<br />
surprise themselves with their own<br />
desire to downsize. After studying<br />
the Woodbridge community in Sioux<br />
Center, a 55-plus home also built<br />
by Kanaal Huis’ constructors Vision<br />
Builders, Guthmiller said time and<br />
time again condo owners would sell<br />
more possessions than even they expected<br />
wanting to.<br />
“When there was some concern<br />
by an individual moving from a<br />
house to Woodbridge, in that case,<br />
but the same would apply to Kanaal<br />
Huis, they would often secure storage<br />
units,” he said. “They needed a<br />
place for all their stuff. And they said<br />
almost all of the time, by the time the<br />
people moved into Woodbridge, they<br />
found out they no longer needed their<br />
storage unit. They downsized, they<br />
simplified, and they were able to just<br />
close the door and go to Florida for a<br />
month without worrying about anything.”<br />
The priority of Kanaal Huis is to<br />
provide the option of a new way of<br />
life for the citizens of Orange City who<br />
have loved their community for years.<br />
Part of the equation though includes<br />
benefits for new families.<br />
“With seniors, or 55-plus folks<br />
moving out of houses, there are nice<br />
houses. There are sometimes really<br />
nice houses. They’re houses that often<br />
have been used to raise a family,”<br />
Guthmiller said. “Those houses are<br />
very much in need in our community<br />
for young families today. And with a<br />
person moving out, they free up inventory<br />
in our community, and they<br />
better themselves by moving into an<br />
environment that’s simplified.”<br />
With both personal and community<br />
benefits overflowing, Guthmiller said<br />
he is excited to watch Kanaal Huis<br />
and The Canals “blossom out there.”<br />
However, the Mouws see one benefit<br />
as preeminent.<br />
“One of the main attractions for<br />
us is we are now able to bypass the<br />
waiting line to assisted living if that<br />
is in our future,” Bruce said. “Cathy<br />
has a somewhat compromised health<br />
situation and knowing that our needs<br />
will be met is assuring. We did have<br />
to scale down, because we lived in a<br />
four-bedroom, three-bath home. But<br />
we’re finding out the old adage ‘less<br />
is more’ is true, and the minimalist<br />
approach to life ‘it’s better to do than<br />
to have’ is also worth trusting.”<br />
The Mouws said they look forward<br />
to others taking the leap they did and<br />
having neighbors and a community<br />
develop around them.<br />
32 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 33
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34 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
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BUILDING TEAM |<br />
Internatio<br />
TEXT BY GEORGIA LODEWYK | PHOTOS SUBMITTED<br />
It was easy to spot the Northwestern<br />
College celebration after<br />
the men’s soccer team snagged<br />
the Great Plains Athletic Conference<br />
postseason title on Nov. 9. Fans rushed<br />
to flood the field, waving a unique<br />
array of flags from Germany, Spain<br />
and the Netherlands. Bench players<br />
and coaches immediately joined and<br />
embraced teammates following the<br />
emotional 2-1 win against Morningside<br />
University that sent them to the NAIA<br />
national tournament.<br />
“Winning with a team is one thing,<br />
but winning with your closest friends<br />
is like another level of joy,” said senior<br />
midfielder Marco Alessio.<br />
It was a proud moment for the second-seeded<br />
team that also won the regular<br />
season title in 2021 and finished<br />
fourth in the GPAC in 2022.<br />
The Northwestern soccer program<br />
credits its success to many factors —<br />
chief among them being the way it has<br />
created a team that crosses continents<br />
and cultures. Together, the 25-player<br />
varsity team built a brotherhood by<br />
bonding over the world’s most beloved<br />
sport in an area that may first seem unlikely:<br />
Orange City.<br />
It has been an intentional move for<br />
head coach Dan Swier to recruit international<br />
students to the Red Raiders’<br />
soccer program. Many NAIA and NCAA<br />
schools have followed a similar trend<br />
in recent years. Now, the United States<br />
hosts more international students than<br />
any other country in the world.<br />
Northwestern College soccer coach Dan Swier has intentionally recruited international students<br />
to be a significant part of his program. Colorful flags waved after a victory reflect that diversity.<br />
“It’s gotten easier to recruit internationals,<br />
and it’s gotten harder to recruit<br />
really good players from here in the<br />
states,” Swier said.<br />
Northwestern College’s soccer success built on<br />
worldwide recruiting, winning relationships<br />
Swier, who has served 16 seasons as<br />
head coach, said students from other<br />
parts of the United States are less likely<br />
to play NAIA if they go to a college farther<br />
from home. That leaves him a narrow<br />
radius — a mostly local radius — to<br />
build an entire team around.<br />
The NAIA has looser eligibility restrictions<br />
and recruiting guidelines<br />
than the NCAA, which makes it an appealing<br />
option for many international<br />
students looking to be student athletes.<br />
Two-year captain Alessio was one of<br />
these students. The midfielder joined<br />
the team from Chioggia, Italy, in 2020.<br />
“In Europe, it’s very hard to both<br />
36 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
onal<br />
INFLUENCE<br />
study and play a sport at a good level,” he said.<br />
“Here, everything is organized for you to be able<br />
to study in the morning and in the afternoon<br />
practice with your team.”<br />
Alessio got connected with Northwestern<br />
through a recruiting agency. He said Swier impressed<br />
him, especially because of his honesty<br />
about the program and area.<br />
“I say, ‘OK, you’re not coming to Miami,”<br />
Swier said. “You’re not coming to New York,<br />
you’re not coming to L.A. You’re coming to a<br />
tiny community in the middle of the country<br />
that’s going to be cold in the winter. It’s an hour<br />
and a half from the nearest airport. How do you<br />
feel about that?’ And nine out of 10 guys say,<br />
‘I don’t care. Really, I just want to come, and I<br />
want to study, and I want to play soccer.’”<br />
That was almost Alessio’s exact response,<br />
and not long after he was on a plane and heading<br />
toward Orange City. When he arrived, he<br />
joined a team that was almost as diverse as the<br />
game of soccer itself; made up of not one, or<br />
two, but players from nine countries, with students<br />
from Spain, the Netherlands, Germany,<br />
Ireland, Great Britain, Colombia, Chile and, of<br />
course, the United States, as well as him being<br />
from Italy. Alessio called this diversity a “treasure,”<br />
something valuable that makes the team<br />
stronger on and off the field.<br />
“Many players from different countries have<br />
different ideas of soccer and the way of playing,”<br />
Alessio said. “It’s not that one wants to say he’s<br />
right and the other ones are wrong; we just add<br />
our point of view, our ideas to this bucket, that<br />
it becomes more and more full of knowledge<br />
and insight and perspectives.”<br />
Different countries and cultures bring a<br />
unique flair to the game of soccer, from America’s<br />
fast-paced, straightforward play to Brazil’s<br />
emphasis on flair and complexity. Swier said<br />
learning to combine those styles into one can be<br />
challenging, but with healthy communication<br />
between the coaching staff and players they can<br />
create a cohesive way of play without quelling<br />
how a player expresses himself on the field.<br />
Yet the team is not all international. Swier<br />
is intentional about staying as close to a 40-<br />
60 ratio of international students to American<br />
students as possible.<br />
“We’ve always said that students from other<br />
countries have something to offer us here. But<br />
then we also have something to offer to them.<br />
We want them to come here and experience our<br />
culture,” Swier said.<br />
This camaraderie established intercultural<br />
connection and friendships that have impacted<br />
other parts of Northwestern student life.<br />
Martha Draayer, director of intercultural<br />
development at Northwestern, said the soccer<br />
team is just one way the college is seeing an uptick<br />
in their international population. She credits<br />
Northwestern’s mission and vision, positive<br />
alumni testimony, and sports recruitment as<br />
three ways the campus is growing in diversity.<br />
SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 37
“Here at Northwestern, because<br />
of the growing racial and ethnic diversity,<br />
we can spend time getting to<br />
know other people’s cultures through<br />
personal engagement and getting to<br />
know our neighbors,” Draayer said.<br />
For international students, there<br />
are many American “culture shocks”<br />
to experience. Food, language phrases<br />
and certainly the weather.<br />
Alessio experienced true Midwestern<br />
living during the winter of 2021,<br />
where he found temperatures so brutally<br />
cold, he considered transferring.<br />
“I didn’t even know it could get that<br />
cold in a place that was not the North<br />
Pole or the South Pole,” he said.<br />
Junior forward Alejandro Ruiz experienced<br />
similar differences when two<br />
American teammates, Nikko Helderop<br />
and Riley Aarbo, visited his hometown<br />
of Valencia, Spain, over winter break<br />
in 2022. Valencia reaches highs of 60<br />
degrees in its coldest months, so Ruiz<br />
watched his teammates walk down the<br />
streets in shorts and hoodies while locals<br />
dressed in thick jackets and gloves.<br />
“For people in my hometown, that<br />
weather is cold, you know? But for<br />
them, it was like fall,” Ruiz said.<br />
Ruiz transferred to Northwestern<br />
after his freshman year at Hannibal-<br />
La Grange University in Missouri.<br />
His first year at Northwestern was<br />
difficult, and he did not see the playing<br />
time he wanted. Ruiz dealt with<br />
the frustration through forming close<br />
friendships with his teammates, helping<br />
him see the game as a source of<br />
fun community instead of stress.<br />
This past season, he started every<br />
game, becoming one of Northwestern’s<br />
key players.<br />
“Of course, we’re focused on soccer,<br />
but we’re playing for fun,” Ruiz said.<br />
“This year was like playing soccer with<br />
friends instead of teammates.”<br />
The team’s inclusive culture is<br />
something that helps the Raiders<br />
stand out on and off the soccer pitch.<br />
“If you come to Northwestern,<br />
you’re going to automatically be included<br />
in our brotherhood,” Swier<br />
said. “Every person has value. Every<br />
person has a story, and nobody’s story<br />
is wrong. It’s who you are, and the day<br />
you come here, we welcome you as<br />
you are.”<br />
The team has been through plenty<br />
of ups and downs together. Following<br />
their success in the 2021 season, they<br />
entered fall of 2022 full of confidence,<br />
only to have Alessio, a key player and<br />
captain, tear his ACL in the second<br />
day of training camp. Losing Alessio<br />
was a crushing loss for the team from<br />
which the Raiders never fully recovered,<br />
and they underperformed. But<br />
Swier said it was more than just what<br />
happened on the field; the team’s<br />
mindset that year also struggled.<br />
In the offseason, team members<br />
came up with three new “program<br />
pillars” to motivate them to be strong<br />
players and strong teammates. Swier<br />
said the players compete hard in<br />
practice but step off the field as best<br />
friends that celebrate each other’s<br />
wins. This atmosphere strengthens<br />
the team, so much so that Swier contributes<br />
some of the Red Raiders’ success<br />
to it.<br />
“They had these relationships,” he<br />
said. “The winning was just a byproduct<br />
of that.” <br />
38 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
Whether you are looking for a place to build your dream home,<br />
or you have your sights on a new business venture, Orange City<br />
has a wide variety of shovel-ready residential and commercial<br />
lots available. Let our community make your dreams a reality.<br />
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For more information about your economic development opportunities,<br />
contact our community development director Ryan McEwen or visit<br />
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Residential Lots<br />
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SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 39
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40 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
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SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 41
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42 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong><br />
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| PICTURE THIS<br />
Life<br />
lens<br />
through the<br />
Jenni O Photography captures<br />
memories through photographs<br />
TEXT BY KATE HARLOW<br />
PHOTOS BY JENNI OSCHNER, JENNI O PHOTOGRAPHY<br />
Every time the shutter closes on Jenni<br />
Oschner’s camera, she captures memories<br />
that will be treasured for years to come.<br />
Whether that memory is of the moment when a<br />
groom sees his bride coming down the aisle, of a family<br />
laughing together or a high school senior dreaming<br />
of the future — Jenni<br />
feels honored to be a<br />
part of the memory.<br />
Her life as a photographer<br />
and as the owner<br />
of her own business,<br />
Jenni O Photography,<br />
based in Orange City<br />
where she lives with<br />
her family, is an example<br />
of what someone<br />
can accomplish when<br />
you have the talent and<br />
passion for your work.<br />
It’s a life and career<br />
that all started with a<br />
bit of chance.<br />
Jenni grew up in Sioux Center, and after graduating<br />
from Unity Christian High School in Orange City, she<br />
went on to study public relations with a concentration<br />
in art at Northwestern College in Orange City. It was<br />
when she was in college that a job in photography<br />
SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 43
found her.<br />
“When the Northwestern<br />
Beacon needed a photographer,<br />
I joined and<br />
eventually became the<br />
photo editor of the newspaper<br />
for my junior and<br />
senior year,” Jenni said of<br />
the student-operated publication.<br />
It’s a passion that Jenni<br />
was a natural at.<br />
“Photography came<br />
easy to me. I love all mediums<br />
of art and still practice<br />
some and am always picking up and learning<br />
more such as watercolor, gouache, acrylic<br />
painting, embroidery, line art and a lot more.<br />
But photography is just what makes sense to my<br />
soul,” Jenni said. “I don’t know if I ever planned<br />
on it paying the bills, but it is now my full-time<br />
job that feeds our family.<br />
“I did other jobs through 2<strong>01</strong>2 as well while<br />
JENNI O<br />
PHOTOGRAPHY<br />
www.jenniophotography.com<br />
I was building up my<br />
business. It never felt<br />
like a decision I actively<br />
made. It has always<br />
been something<br />
I love doing that also<br />
happened to end up<br />
being my full-time<br />
job.”<br />
She officially started<br />
her business in 2008<br />
and photographed<br />
senior portraits and<br />
weddings. She and<br />
her husband, Kyle, relocated<br />
to Texas while<br />
he attended graduate<br />
school and then it<br />
was onto Minneapolis<br />
for two years while<br />
he interned. All the<br />
while, she continued<br />
to photograph special<br />
moments.<br />
Jenni and Kyle moved back to Orange City in<br />
2<strong>01</strong>2 when Kyle was hired at Northwestern in<br />
the college’s strength and conditioning program.<br />
While the couple settled down back in Orange<br />
City and started a family, they have a 5 and<br />
3-year-old, Jenni’s business has enabled her to<br />
indulge in one other of the great loves of her<br />
life — travel. She photographs special moments<br />
in and around Orange City but often is hired for<br />
weddings and photo shoots in faraway places.<br />
“I have always loved to travel. Before I went to<br />
college, I had already seen more than 45 states<br />
thanks to all the camping trips we would go on,<br />
and now I’ve made it to 49 and many countries<br />
too,” Jenni said. “I’ve learned to be comfortable<br />
sleeping anywhere if I have to, just for the experience,<br />
getting up early for the best light, staying<br />
up late for the Milky Way in dark sky country,<br />
etc. Being uncomfortable for a little can help<br />
make incredible lifetime memories.<br />
“My parents love to travel, especially my<br />
mom. She’s the reason I’ve been to Alaska, and<br />
I hope I can go back with her someday. On our<br />
wedding day, she told Kyle to please, instead of<br />
giving me things, give me experiences. And that<br />
is pretty much all we do. I’ve always treasured<br />
my memories of seeing and experiencing the<br />
world with my parents, and now I get to do the<br />
same with Kyle and the kids.”<br />
While it is true Jenni loves to travel, she’s<br />
44 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
“There is beauty everywhere<br />
and sometimes it’s harder for me to not<br />
take photos of life than to get my<br />
camera out, I enjoy it so much.”<br />
— JENNI OSCHNER<br />
OWNER OF JENNI O PHOTOGRAPHY<br />
quick to point out that it isn’t her favorite part of<br />
her job. Whether she’s taking photos in N’West<br />
Iowa or in France or South Africa, it’s all about<br />
the people.<br />
“Most importantly, for me, is that I get to be<br />
there for people’s most extraordinary moments. It<br />
is an honor to be able to witness that — weddings,<br />
births, family milestones, funerals sometimes, senior<br />
portraits — these are all big, big moments in<br />
a person’s life, and I get to be a part of that,” Jenni<br />
said.<br />
“Anytime someone hires me to be their photographer<br />
the gravity of this is not lost on me. It’s<br />
all very exciting, but in the end, the hand squeeze<br />
and sweet teary glance between a groom and his<br />
mom, that’s everything. Or how every groom<br />
twists his ring around his finger while he gets<br />
used to the new feeling. Or mom’s face when she<br />
sees her daughter coming down the aisle, I mean,<br />
honestly not a whole lot of people get to see her<br />
at that moment, and that’s everything.”<br />
Jenni stays busy with her business and her<br />
family. In addition to the seniors, families and<br />
weddings she photographs, she also enjoys helping<br />
small businesses and brands distinguish<br />
themselves. She’s worked with artists, a florist,<br />
hospitals, a woodworker and a chocolatier.<br />
A camera is an integral part of Jenni’s career,<br />
but viewing life through the lens of a camera is<br />
just a part of who she is.<br />
“There is beauty everywhere and sometimes it’s<br />
harder for me to not take photos of life than to get<br />
my camera out, I enjoy it so much,” Jenni said. <br />
SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 45
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46 <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 20<strong>24</strong>
SPRING 20<strong>24</strong> | <strong>OC</strong> MAGAZINE 47