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SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4<br />
■ Lyrical dancers add to worship<br />
■ Smit dives into women’s fertility<br />
■ Church celebrates 125-year mark<br />
SIOUX CENTER<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
Perfect<br />
Vander Hart inspires<br />
musicians of all ages
2 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
ON THE COVER<br />
| CONTENTS<br />
SIOUX CENTER<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4<br />
FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER<br />
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<strong>24</strong><br />
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EDITORIAL STAFF<br />
Kirsten Elyea<br />
Eric Sandbulte<br />
Morgan Sachen<br />
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Thea Sterrett<br />
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Sioux Center <strong>Mag</strong>azine is published by<br />
Iowa Information Media Group, Sheldon,<br />
Iowa. For advertising rates and other<br />
questions, please contact us by phone:<br />
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36<br />
Discovering<br />
God’s design<br />
Creighton Model education<br />
leads to life changes<br />
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE<br />
7<br />
31<br />
40<br />
Central Reformed<br />
Church plans year of<br />
celebration<br />
Events highlight 125 years of rich<br />
tradition, all based in faith<br />
Dancing devotion<br />
Studio takes lyrical routines on the<br />
road to perform in area churches<br />
American State Bank<br />
Sports Complex<br />
Dome creates environment for sports,<br />
no matter Iowa weather conditions<br />
Copies of Sioux Center <strong>Mag</strong>azine are<br />
available from participating Sioux Center<br />
businesses. We welcome suggestions<br />
and story ideas.<br />
©2<strong>02</strong>4 Sioux Center <strong>Mag</strong>azine<br />
No material from this publication may be<br />
copied or in any way reproduced without<br />
written permission from the publisher.<br />
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SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 5
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6 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
| FAITH<br />
“But when you see God’s faithfulness,<br />
you know He’ll carry us through. We know that<br />
His faithfulness will help us continue.”<br />
— JANET BOONE QUASQUICENTENNIAL TEAM CO-CHAIR<br />
year of<br />
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ERIC SANDBULTE<br />
CELEBRATION<br />
Much has changed in the last 125<br />
years, but the congregation at<br />
Central Reformed Church in<br />
downtown Sioux Center is as committed to<br />
a multigenerational vision of Bible-based<br />
worship as it was when it made a major<br />
change all those years ago.<br />
This year marks the 125th year since Central<br />
changed denominations. Established in<br />
1887, Central initially was a Presbyterian<br />
church and located at a different site. As<br />
was common for a Sioux Center church of<br />
that era, services were held in Dutch for its<br />
18 members from seven families. It was not<br />
Central Reformed<br />
Church has had a long<br />
history within the city.<br />
Originally established as<br />
a Presbyterian church,<br />
it switched to the<br />
Reformed Church in<br />
America in 1899.<br />
SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 7
until 1912 that English began to be<br />
incorporated more into its services.<br />
However, the church faced some<br />
difficulties soon after its founding,<br />
dropping down to five members. So,<br />
in 1899, the decision was made to<br />
change denominational affiliation, going<br />
instead to the Reformed Church<br />
in America, and the church building<br />
was moved to a spot just to the north<br />
of where the current building at 113 N.<br />
Main Ave. is located.<br />
After that pivotal moment in the<br />
church’s history, so much would<br />
change.<br />
The church took on the name Second<br />
Reformed Church in 1905 and<br />
became Central Reformed Church in<br />
1934. The current church building was<br />
constructed in 1959. Interestingly, the<br />
1899 denominational change would<br />
not be the last time the congregation<br />
would make such a switch; the congregation<br />
voted in 2<strong>02</strong>2 to leave the<br />
Reformed Church in America, and in<br />
2<strong>02</strong>3, joined the Alliance of Reformed<br />
Churches.<br />
There is much history at the old<br />
Sioux Center church that could be<br />
listed, but for the 13-member team<br />
planning this year’s celebratory<br />
events, the quasquicentennial is just<br />
as much about celebrating the people<br />
who have made Central their spiritual<br />
home. Together, they have come up<br />
with a list of events to span most of<br />
the year.<br />
The yearlong celebration began<br />
Jan. 7 with an announcement about<br />
what would be done for the quasquicentennial.<br />
“We had a fun little skit introducing<br />
the events of the year, and we also<br />
introduced the prayer walk, which<br />
was supposed to start the next week,<br />
but that was the blizzard week,” said<br />
quasquicentennial team co-chair Janet<br />
Boone.<br />
For the prayer walk, cutout footprints<br />
marked a path throughout the<br />
church. It was a call to the anniversary<br />
year theme, “Following in the<br />
footsteps of Jesus.”<br />
“You could walk through the church<br />
and pray for the different things happening<br />
here and outside the church,”<br />
Boone said.<br />
Then on Feb. 4, Central had a worship<br />
night featuring songs and music<br />
reflecting different styles popular over<br />
the last 25 years.<br />
“We’re mostly focusing on the last<br />
25 years being that we had a 100-year<br />
celebration and covered many things.<br />
So, we thought we’d focus on the most<br />
recent 25. That’s basically when the<br />
praise and worship team started here.<br />
8 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
AT A<br />
GLANCE:<br />
Church: Central<br />
Reformed Church<br />
Pastor: Jesse Henkle<br />
Address: 113 N.<br />
Main Ave., Sioux<br />
Center<br />
Services: 9:30 a.m.<br />
Sundays<br />
Phone: 712-722-1441<br />
Online: www.<br />
centralreformed.org<br />
Minerva Bomgaars and<br />
Janet Boone are organizing<br />
events throughout 2<strong>02</strong>4 to<br />
commemorate 125 years of<br />
Central Reformed Church<br />
being a Reformed church.<br />
Events highlight<br />
125 years in Biblebased<br />
tradition<br />
Music was really changing at the time in<br />
churches, bringing in praise songs in addition<br />
to hymns,” Boone said. “We had that<br />
and different stories about when it first<br />
started and who some of the early members<br />
were. We invited all of the past praise<br />
team members to come up and sing some<br />
songs together. It was a very fun night.”<br />
Events yet to come will include a trivia<br />
night in April, entering a float into the<br />
Sioux Center Summer Celebration Parade<br />
on June 8 and holding a golf day at The<br />
Ridge Golf Club on Aug. 4.<br />
The church also has big plans for Aug.<br />
10, a family fun day to be held at Heritage<br />
Village in Sioux Center. The baseball<br />
diamonds are going to be reserved for an<br />
all-ages kickball tournament, children’s<br />
games, crafts, plenty of good food and a<br />
cookoff.<br />
“This is probably going to be our biggest<br />
event,” said the other quasquicentennial<br />
co-chair Minerva Bomgaars.<br />
As of the most recent schedule, Nov. <strong>24</strong><br />
will be the final day of quasquicentennial<br />
year celebration. That Sunday, Central will<br />
have its 125th celebratory worship service<br />
with a Thanksgiving meal at Terrace View<br />
Event Center in Sioux Center to follow. Although<br />
the Thanksgiving meal is a regular<br />
part of the church’s annual events, the<br />
quasquicentennial team hopes to see some<br />
special guests this year.<br />
“We chose that day to invite past pastors<br />
back and join us for that day,” Boone<br />
said. “They have some special things happening<br />
at the meal and service.”<br />
The goal for all the special events<br />
throughout the year is to build community<br />
through the quasquicentennial celebration.<br />
The church takes pride in its multigenerational<br />
emphasis, and activities such<br />
as these help foster more of those crossgenerational<br />
relationships.<br />
“Within our congregation, people will<br />
get to know each other better and get to<br />
interact and work together. That’s why we<br />
tried to come up with ideas that have varied<br />
interests,” Bomgaars said. “We know<br />
not everyone is going to want to go to a<br />
music night or golf. But maybe they would<br />
like a trivia night and want to come to that.<br />
In each of those, you might have people<br />
together that might not have connected<br />
before. That’s the whole goal in this, to<br />
get that community building going on the<br />
whole year.”<br />
It is that camaraderie that made them<br />
feel welcomed when they joined the<br />
church. Both began attending after marrying<br />
their husbands, who were lifelong<br />
members.<br />
“I’m musical, so, of course, I got plugged<br />
in right away with playing organ and doing<br />
music stuff. So, I got to know people right<br />
off the bat. I learned a lot from people<br />
through the years,” Bomgaars said. “I just<br />
got plugged in right away and worked at<br />
the church office for a lot of years and got<br />
to know a lot of people and develop a lot<br />
of relationships that way.”<br />
And while there is gratitude in having<br />
a long-lived church, Boone said it is more<br />
important it continue to teach biblically<br />
based truths.<br />
“We do know we can’t just get comfortable,”<br />
Boone said. “We are being proactive.<br />
That was one of our goals in this, too. We<br />
want to look back, but we want to look forward,<br />
too. That’s why we chose the theme<br />
‘Following the footsteps of Jesus,’ because<br />
that indicates where we have been and are<br />
continuing to.<br />
“We certainly believe it’s important to<br />
look back because sometimes it’s hard<br />
to see that when you’re in the middle of<br />
something. But when you see God’s faithfulness,<br />
you know He’ll carry us through.<br />
We know that His faithfulness will help us<br />
continue.” <br />
SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 9
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SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 11
WELLNESS |<br />
Sioux Center is a city on<br />
the move, but some of its<br />
residents take that sentiment<br />
a step further, as the city’s sidewalks<br />
and recreation trails never lack for a<br />
few dedicated runners.<br />
For some, it’s a simple way to stay<br />
fit. Others find it to be a great way to<br />
relax and clear the mind. The appeal<br />
of working toward the next 5K or<br />
marathon also speaks to those with<br />
competitive natures. Regardless of<br />
what motivates them to put on their<br />
running shoes, the following three<br />
Sioux Center runners have found an<br />
activity that has changed their lives<br />
for the better.<br />
John Brantsen<br />
As a dairy nutrition consultant,<br />
a member of the Sioux Center City<br />
Council, a husband and a father, John<br />
Brantsen is a busy man. But running<br />
has become a part of the 46-yearold’s<br />
life as a way to stay fit despite<br />
his work and as a means of enjoying<br />
the outdoors.<br />
Working as a consultant for Midwest<br />
Precision Mixed Supplement<br />
keeps Brantsen on the road visiting<br />
dairies throughout the area. It’s work<br />
he enjoys, but all those miles behind<br />
the wheel take a physical toll.<br />
“I put on about 70,000 miles a year<br />
for work, driving. I sit a lot; I eat a<br />
lot of fast food. I found if I didn’t do<br />
something, a body can gain weight<br />
and get out of shape quickly,” he said.<br />
“When I started consulting in 2009<br />
or 2<strong>01</strong>0, I gained a lot of weight in<br />
a hurry. I went from being out and<br />
about and moving around to being<br />
more sedentary.”<br />
Then 35 years old, he knew he<br />
needed to make a change to keep his<br />
health in check, and running was the<br />
answer, since it was something he<br />
could do no matter where he was and<br />
could do at any time.<br />
While he and his wife were visiting<br />
Grandma’s Saloon in Duluth, MN, the<br />
RUNNERS GO THE<br />
DISTANCE<br />
12 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
TEXT BY ERIC SANDBULTE | PHOTOS BY ERIC SANDBULTE & SUBMITTED<br />
restaurant’s famous marathon caught his attention. His wife was<br />
skeptical at first since he had not been a runner before. But he had<br />
something to work toward, and soon made running a habit, going<br />
for quick runs around noon between appointments or later in the<br />
afternoon when people are not available.<br />
It turned into a new way of life, with many races to show for his<br />
efforts. For nearly four years, he has run one mile every day, with<br />
few exceptions. He has run the distance of a 5K — 3.1 miles — for<br />
the last two years.<br />
“Going forward, since Jan. 1, 2<strong>02</strong>2, I have run a minimum of a<br />
5K every day. That’s the minimum goal, and the goal is to average<br />
60 miles a week. That equates to 3,000 miles a year,” Brantsen said.<br />
To put that in perspective, that would be enough to cross the<br />
contiguous United States.<br />
Although there certainly is a solitary nature to running, Brantsen<br />
frequently makes time to run with friends he has made, going on<br />
different races all over, including some goofy runs, such as going<br />
around Lake Poinsett in South Dakota or a marathon inside the<br />
Empire Mall in Sioux Falls, SD. Sometimes these excursions take<br />
him quite far.<br />
Most weekends, he and his running buddies try to visit state<br />
parks throughout the region, such as the Oak Grove Park near Hawarden,<br />
Stone Park in Sioux City or Newton Hills State Park near<br />
Canton, SD. He also has enjoyed getting into ultra running, which<br />
can refer to any footrace longer than a marathon, providing runners<br />
with another challenge to work toward.<br />
“This year, I helped pace several people in their 100-mile races.<br />
Usually after 50 miles, they can take a pacer with them to keep them<br />
going. It’s usually through the middle of the night, and I had the<br />
opportunity to do that three times this year,” Brantsen said. “It’s<br />
a lot of fun to be a part of someone’s success to help them achieve<br />
their goals. Everyone thinks, ‘I can’t do 100 miles; there’s no way.’<br />
There are some low times when you get 75 miles in or so and it’s the<br />
middle of the night and 10 degrees outside and the fun has worn<br />
out and everything hurts. But then to have them finish and see that<br />
excitement they have; the sense of accomplishment is really cool to<br />
be around.”<br />
Whether in tranquil parks by himself or putting on miles alongside<br />
friends, running has provided Brantsen with not just a healthier<br />
body but a healthier mind and plenty of memories. It makes<br />
those times when he has to force himself to go out for a run worth<br />
it.<br />
“It’s so easy to not take that first step. I’ve been there. It’s so easy<br />
SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 13
Running routines provide health and peace of mind<br />
just to stay doing what you’re doing,<br />
comfortable in the house versus getting<br />
out and pushing yourself a little<br />
bit,” Brantsen said. “But then you take<br />
that first step and by the time you’re<br />
done, you have no regrets about it.”<br />
Lisa Christians<br />
Running seemed to come naturally<br />
to Lisa Christians. Although she was<br />
frequently in the habit of going out<br />
for walks or runs while in high school<br />
and college, she never took the step of<br />
joining school athletics.<br />
After that, she stuck with walking,<br />
but when she was 30, a friend pointed<br />
out she walked so fast she might as<br />
well run.<br />
“That’s how I got back into it,” said<br />
Christians, now 58. “It helps keep me<br />
steady. I just love it, love that feeling.<br />
Over the years, it’s been a real social<br />
thing for me, running with different<br />
people. I’ve done a lot of races, but I<br />
haven’t needed those to motivate me.<br />
They are fun to do, but I love to run<br />
for the sake of it.”<br />
The Dordt University academic records<br />
assistant tries to run at least 30<br />
miles each week — an Achilles tendon<br />
surgery four years ago made her reduce<br />
her mileage somewhat. She also<br />
has done eight marathons and numerous<br />
half marathons, although she has<br />
not participated in a race for several<br />
years. She counts the Boston Marathon<br />
as one of the most memorable<br />
races she has participated in. But it<br />
was her last marathon in Des Moines<br />
in 2<strong>01</strong>3 that she made her big personal<br />
accomplishment by completing it in 3<br />
hours, 29 minutes, 28 seconds.<br />
“I broke my goal of three hours and<br />
30 minutes, which was what I always<br />
wanted to do. After that, I thought,<br />
you know what? I’ll just retire from<br />
racing,” Christians said, although she<br />
has done a few half marathons since<br />
then.<br />
These days, she mainly sticks to<br />
running on the Sioux Center recreation<br />
trail, which provides miles of<br />
paved path. Unless it is too windy or<br />
too icy, she runs outside year-round.<br />
Christian is glad to see the activity<br />
has spread to her kids as well. Her<br />
youngest daughter has done a couple<br />
of Half Ironman triathlons, her son<br />
has gotten into biking and her middle<br />
child ran track as a sprinter.<br />
“I always say to them, ‘I can outrun<br />
you; I probably can’t beat you<br />
in a footrace, but I can outlast you,’”<br />
Christians said.<br />
However, she also joked with her<br />
friends about when she might have to<br />
stop running.<br />
“I say to my friends that when it<br />
starts to look like, ‘Who is that old<br />
lady running? She should really stop,’<br />
let me know.”<br />
Christians has noticed a difference<br />
in how she runs as she gets older. It<br />
requires more patience, and she is not<br />
as fast as she used to be, but there still<br />
is satisfaction in what she is able to<br />
accomplish and mental and emotional<br />
peace from it.<br />
“The friends I’ve met and made<br />
that I would never have associated<br />
with otherwise has been probably one<br />
of the best gifts for me,” Christians<br />
said. “You can get into a world with<br />
the people you go to church with and<br />
work with. My worlds kind of overlap<br />
through my work at Dordt and going<br />
to church, so having a whole different<br />
set of friends from a whole different<br />
part of Sioux Center and getting<br />
to know a whole different section has<br />
been something I loved.”<br />
Jen Vande Vegte<br />
Being a naturally competitive person,<br />
Jen Vande Vegte quickly fell in<br />
love with running, but it took a broken<br />
stroller for her to discover this.<br />
Going for walks with her newborn<br />
son in 2003 quickly became a habit for<br />
her, but she ran into trouble when the<br />
stroller broke. A co-worker gave her a<br />
Burley stroller, which could be used as<br />
14 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
a bike trailer or a jogging stroller.<br />
“Once I had that, I could start running<br />
with it, and I’d find myself going<br />
two miles with it today and then it became<br />
three miles,” Vande Vegte said.<br />
It went so well that in 2004, she<br />
entered her first race: the Tulip Festival<br />
Road Race. Since then, it has been<br />
a new way of life. She has been in 25<br />
marathons and an Ironman. Not bad<br />
for someone who did not do any running<br />
growing up.<br />
“Nobody loves waking up super<br />
early to get a run in, but it’s just part<br />
of things now. I wake up really early<br />
in the morning, and it just feels right.<br />
If I don’t start my day now with that<br />
run, the rest of the day feels weird,”<br />
she said.<br />
Now 46 years old, the Sioux Center<br />
Middle School secretary has kept<br />
up a regular schedule, running six to<br />
10 miles every day but Tuesdays or<br />
Thursdays, with the mileage increased<br />
when training.<br />
In addition to the Sioux Center recreation<br />
trails, she frequently makes<br />
use of the trail out to Sandy Hollow<br />
Recreation Area east of Sioux Center.<br />
Regardless of her route, she utilizes<br />
her Garmin smartwatch to track her<br />
distance, making sure she is reaching<br />
her goals. That device has been a<br />
game-changer for her.<br />
“I can’t remember running without<br />
it. It makes it a lot easier. Otherwise,<br />
you couldn’t weave through town and<br />
know how far you ran. You wanted to<br />
run in big squares, so you’d know how<br />
far you’d gone. Or I’d get in my car<br />
or on my bike after work and drive it<br />
or ride it to see how far I had gone,”<br />
Vande Vegte said.<br />
She appreciates running during<br />
the winter cold and the summer heat<br />
equally; to an extent, she likes the extreme<br />
weather the most.<br />
“Those are actually fun runs. You<br />
come back and you’re really frosty and<br />
your eyelashes are so long, you’re just<br />
one big snowball when you’re done,<br />
and chunks of snow are falling off. If<br />
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is just dripping on the ground,” Vande<br />
Vegte said. “I don’t know what it is<br />
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Vande Vegte said. “On family vacation<br />
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only one in the house, and we all went<br />
out for a run all together. That was a<br />
lot of fun. ‘Run’ — we were at 11,000<br />
feet in the mountains, so we kind of<br />
mostly walked.”
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CRAFTED WITH CARE |<br />
Brewing<br />
COFFEE & CONVERSATION<br />
TEXT BY RENEE WIELENGA | PHOTOS BY RENEE WIELENGA<br />
Finding a dilapidated 1930s<br />
round-roof building formerly<br />
home to an auto-parts store<br />
gave a young Sioux Center couple<br />
hope for their dream.<br />
Fourteen years later, The Fruited<br />
Plain Cafe owners Laremy and Rebecca<br />
De Vries continue to craft their<br />
business like their coffee, with care to<br />
be beautiful and useful, for the community.<br />
“The kind of community hub this<br />
place has become is a humbling<br />
thing,” said Rebecca, 43. “You start<br />
with a dream, a vision and your own<br />
desires of wanting to create a place<br />
where people can hang out and we<br />
can earn a living and you have ideas<br />
of how to create that kind of space and<br />
then it happens. We also realize that<br />
it happens aside from us in a way that<br />
keeps it all happening.”<br />
“There’s a symbiosis here,” said<br />
Laremy, 44. “We need a community,<br />
and we’re grateful for the community<br />
support that keeps us in business, and<br />
the community needs us, and I think<br />
they’re grateful for us, not only as a<br />
lunch space or coffee place but also<br />
as a space to meet old friends, make<br />
new ones, study, hang out, come on<br />
a date, relax.<br />
“Looking back, this place has allowed<br />
us to express ourselves, and<br />
it’s been well-received. It’s humbling,<br />
but there’s a pride in there, too, of<br />
being 14 years in business.”<br />
“We’re still asking ourselves if we<br />
remember the last 14 years,” Rebecca<br />
said.<br />
“It’s funny how time flies; it’s been<br />
a challenge,” Laremy said.<br />
“But it’s been worth it,” Rebecca<br />
said.<br />
The foundation for their dream is<br />
rooted in Laremy’s interest in coffee.<br />
The Pella native started his journey<br />
with coffee shops in high school<br />
as he worked for a friend’s mom, who<br />
owned a coffee shop. After graduating<br />
from Dordt College in Sioux<br />
Center, he and a friend opened The<br />
Humble Bean, a former coffee shop<br />
in the campus center. After meeting<br />
at Dordt, Laremy and Rebecca got<br />
married in 2004, then moved to the<br />
Netherlands for a year.<br />
“In Europe, the places that people<br />
hang out are not just a coffee shop or<br />
a bar — all bars have coffee, all coffee<br />
shops have beer on tap,” Laremy said.<br />
“We loved hanging out at those kinds<br />
of spots.”<br />
Then the couple moved to Annapolis,<br />
Maryland’s capital city, for three<br />
years where Laremy managed a coffee<br />
shop.<br />
Their first of three children was<br />
born while living in Annapolis. They<br />
began to consider where they wanted<br />
to raise their family as well as opening<br />
Couple’s café builds community downtown Sioux Center<br />
18 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
a coffee shop with a European<br />
vibe in mind. The couple had the<br />
opportunity to move back to Sioux<br />
Center, Rebecca’s hometown, for<br />
Laremy to fill a one-year role at<br />
Dordt.<br />
“We had no plans beyond that<br />
one year living in Sioux Center,”<br />
Rebecca said. “We looked at big cities,<br />
other Iowa towns. We were just<br />
looking around to see what fit and<br />
at some point, we started looking<br />
at what it would be like to open a<br />
coffee shop here.”<br />
A longtime vacant building formerly<br />
home to NAPA Auto Parts at<br />
172 N. Main Ave. piqued their interest.<br />
“A friend of mine knew about<br />
curve-roofed buildings like this,<br />
and we were able to look above the<br />
ceiling tile at the time and saw the<br />
big steel girders and thought we<br />
could do something cool with that,”<br />
Laremy said. “I remember when I<br />
was putting together proposals and<br />
going to banks, the building was always<br />
in my mind. This is where I<br />
wanted the shop to be. The whole<br />
business plan hinged upon this<br />
building. It was the first building<br />
we fell in love with.”<br />
“It’s hard to know why. It was<br />
pretty ugly,” Rebecca said. “All it<br />
was, was tile floor, drop ceilings,<br />
white wood paneling and rows of<br />
fluorescent lights, which was great<br />
for NAPA but not for a coffee shop.”<br />
They officially became owners<br />
of the building Labor Day weekend<br />
2009, but it was a long and messy<br />
process aided by Google SketchUp<br />
to design the cafe’s layout to<br />
transform the space into what’s<br />
SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 19
AT A GLANCE<br />
Business: The Fruited Plain Cafe<br />
Owners: Laremy and Rebecca De<br />
Vries of Sioux Center<br />
Address: 172 N. Main Ave.,<br />
Sioux Center<br />
Hours: 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-<br />
Thursday; 7 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-<br />
Saturday.<br />
Phone: 712-722-09<strong>01</strong><br />
Online: www.thefruitedplaincafe.com;<br />
Facebook<br />
affectionately called “Fruited” since it opened Jan. 22,<br />
2<strong>01</strong>0.<br />
“Thinking about the size of a space is always challenging,”<br />
Laremy said. “You don’t want it to be so big that it<br />
feels empty or too small that it feels tight, so over the<br />
years we’ve tried to figure out ways to carve out different<br />
spaces within this big warehouse building, and I think<br />
we’ve been successful at that.”<br />
Laremy designed the cafe’s seating areas to have various<br />
levels, one area of which has couches next to a piano<br />
so it can and has been used as a stage for musicians,<br />
church leaders and politicians.<br />
While the cafe portion of the building has seen minor<br />
changes in used furniture for seating, the rest of the<br />
structure has had other various changes including carving<br />
out a small studio for Donna Tea, owner of Cypress<br />
Massage, just a few years after opening. What was once<br />
the Backroom Bistro became Sidebar in 2<strong>02</strong>1, although<br />
the couple still carries on the Italian food tradition of<br />
the bistro with spaghetti nights the first Friday of each<br />
month.<br />
What is currently used as overflow seating on the north<br />
side of the building has housed stores like the former<br />
Hands Around the Plain to InClover.<br />
“To need an overflow space for guests, whether they’re<br />
studying, hanging out, whatever, because the front area is<br />
so full some nights is really awesome,” Rebecca said. “We<br />
actually started using some of those spaces for seating<br />
with COVID, so we could have social distancing, but it’s<br />
amazing to see how we’ve grown since then even.”<br />
“COVID was a weird year for us,” Laremy said. “Being<br />
in a small town, I think we had a couple important things<br />
going on. We had this community that really wanted to<br />
support us and see us thrive, so when we started selling<br />
ports of soup and to-go pizzas to stay in business, people<br />
were eager to support us. And people weren’t really going<br />
out of town, they were looking for a place to go so when<br />
we finally could open up, people came. We were thankful<br />
we had the space next door and the patio outside for<br />
people to do social distancing but also still be here.”<br />
When 2<strong>02</strong>0 closed, the couple found they had better<br />
sales that year than the previous year.<br />
“That’s humbling, seeing how much support we had<br />
for our small business. We’re so grateful,” Rebecca said.<br />
From homemade soups, salads, desserts and flatbread<br />
pizzas, the casual lunch options through the cafe have<br />
remained popular.<br />
“We didn’t realize how much people wanted that,”<br />
Rebecca said. “That quality grab-and-go kind of lunch<br />
has been something Sioux Center wanted and has been<br />
a staple for us.”<br />
20 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
Another unique aspect to the cafe is a former semicleaned<br />
up garage space dubbed the BackBack that The<br />
Ruralists, a band Laremy is in, began using as a rehearsal<br />
space in 2<strong>01</strong>6.<br />
“I can tend to be a bit of a hoarder and used that space<br />
for storage but having a knack for collecting speakers and<br />
sound system equipment and needing a place to practice,<br />
eventually the space got more cleaned out, and it felt like<br />
it would be a legit venue for loader music, not just for<br />
practices,” Laremy said.<br />
The couple reached out to local bands to do shows;<br />
other touring bands like Good Morning Bedlam also<br />
stopped by for a few years. Scheduling bands, however,<br />
has been harder since the coronavirus in 2<strong>02</strong>0, but the<br />
The Fruited Plain Cafe owners Laremy and Rebecca De Vries have<br />
worked 14 years to craft their business like their coffee, with care,<br />
to be beautiful and useful for the community.<br />
BackBack has since been used for Sioux Center Arts comedy<br />
events and the annual Pork ’n’ Bands fundraiser.<br />
“Having the BackBack is another facet of how we can<br />
serve the community, how we can express ourselves, how<br />
we can do stuff we think is fun and build a community,”<br />
Laremy said. “It aids the moneymaking side of the business,<br />
too, but being able to use this one building for all<br />
these things and seeing how much community support<br />
it has motivates us to continue.”<br />
Each aspect of the business gives the couple hope for<br />
the future.<br />
“Starting out, we knew we couldn’t strictly open a coffee<br />
shop in a small town that wasn’t used to spending<br />
money on just coffee, we needed to have more things to<br />
offer to stay open,” Rebecca said. “How we’ve done that<br />
has certainly changed in ways we didn’t expect or anticipate<br />
over the years, but it’s all kept us open supporting<br />
the community and the community supporting us, and<br />
we hope to keep that going for more years to come.”<br />
They, like their business, have undergone changes as<br />
well. What used to be more separate roles has become a<br />
blended mix for Laremy and Rebecca as business needs<br />
have changed and as their children have gotten older and<br />
have more activities.<br />
“Rebecca is also my duet partner, and we lead some<br />
church worship together and some school chapels together<br />
— we do a lot together,” Laremy said. “I couldn’t<br />
image doing business, doing life, without her.”<br />
“For better or worse, that’s us,” Rebecca said. “We<br />
wouldn’t have it any other way.” <br />
SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 21
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SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 23
LEGACY |<br />
Making beautiful<br />
MUSIC<br />
Gary Vander Hart lives out his Christian calling by teaching<br />
students to build and play their own instruments<br />
Most afternoons, the sidewalk<br />
leading up to Gary and Joan<br />
Vander Hart’s large yellow<br />
house on Fourth Avenue in Sioux Center<br />
is busy with foot traffic. Young students<br />
burdened by cello cases arrive at regular<br />
intervals. Others walk to the front<br />
step grasping sheet music and violins,<br />
classical guitars or violas.<br />
“Right now, I have 56 students,” Gary<br />
Vander Hart said.<br />
Vander Hart is 85 years old, but he<br />
continues to spend hours each day teaching<br />
private cello, viola, violin and bass<br />
lessons; he has a handful of piano and<br />
classical guitar students, too. Students<br />
as young as 8 make their way into the<br />
Vander Harts’ front parlor, where they<br />
are greeted by a large, red harpsichord<br />
that was built by Gary and painted with<br />
floral designs and biblical imagery by<br />
Joan.<br />
Just past the parlor, in the Vander<br />
Harts’ living room, sits a small pipe<br />
<strong>24</strong> <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ALEISA <strong>SC</strong>HAT<br />
organ from Philadelphia, the city<br />
where Vander Hart attended Westminster<br />
Seminary. Also on display is<br />
a seven-string Russian guitar, an ode<br />
to the years he spent teaching at several<br />
Russian seminaries after the end<br />
of the Cold War. During the 1990s and<br />
early 2000s, Vander Hart spent regular<br />
three-month stints in the country,<br />
teaching courses in biblical studies,<br />
church history and music.<br />
“I spent 15 years as a teacher in Russia,<br />
first in Moscow, then St. Petersburg,”<br />
he said. “I would go there six<br />
months out of a year.”<br />
His time in Russia was the late<br />
blooming of a seed planted decades<br />
earlier, at Calvin College in Grand Rapids,<br />
MI, where in his third year, Vander<br />
Hart decided to prepare for seminary<br />
and not earn a degree in music as he<br />
originally intended.<br />
“I decided I wanted to get to know<br />
how to read the Bible better, so I studied<br />
Greek and made Greek my major<br />
and philosophy my submajor,” he said.<br />
Music and mission would remain the<br />
great themes of his life, and while he<br />
changed his course of study in college,<br />
Vander Hart continued to play in string<br />
quartets and was concertmaster of the<br />
college orchestra all four years he attended<br />
Calvin.<br />
“I was playing quartet three times a<br />
week — I went through thousands of<br />
pieces of literature,” he said.<br />
The Russian guitar displayed in the<br />
Vander Harts’ living room is poised<br />
above a large concert harp, which itself<br />
looms above the sofa. The house<br />
is a veritable museum of instruments.<br />
Adjacent to the living room is another<br />
small room, the place Vander Hart<br />
has taught private music lessons for<br />
decades. The shelves are lined with<br />
musical literature — folk songs, classical<br />
pieces and “Twinkle Twinkle Little<br />
Star” for the beginners.<br />
“I start them in the first four weeks<br />
without holding the bow, so there’s<br />
no squeaks,” Vander Hart said. “They<br />
pluck it like a guitar, and they learn<br />
how to manipulate the right position<br />
— to play the melody.”<br />
This allows students — and their parents<br />
— to bypass the phase of learning<br />
that involves a good deal of dissonant<br />
screeching and croaking.<br />
“Then you just teach them how to<br />
use the bow with no fingers,” Vander<br />
Hart said. “You’re focusing on straight<br />
bows, at exactly the right place at the<br />
right speed. And then when you put the<br />
two together, you don’t get squeaks.”<br />
As a teacher, Vander Hart employs<br />
the Suzuki method, a mid-20th-century<br />
music curriculum and teaching philosophy<br />
created by Japanese violinist and<br />
pedagogue Shinichi Suzuki. Students<br />
learn to play music through imitation<br />
and repetition — much like a child acquires<br />
language — rather than through<br />
traditional methods that emphasize developing<br />
musical techniques by playing<br />
scales and other forms of technical<br />
practice.<br />
“It’s emphasizing playing beautiful<br />
music — beautiful music to enjoy right<br />
away,” Vander Hart said.<br />
Prodigy<br />
Vander Hart first picked up a violin<br />
when he was 6 years old. His family had<br />
moved to Denver from Teec Nos Pos,<br />
AZ, where his father worked at a mission<br />
among the Navajo established by<br />
the Christian Reformed Church in the<br />
early decades of the 20th century.<br />
“I was home from the Christian<br />
school, which was eight houses from<br />
school, for lunch,” Vander Hart said. “A<br />
man knocked on the door from Tabor<br />
Music School, saying, ‘Little boy, would<br />
you like to play a musical instrument?’”<br />
Vander Hart said, “yes.” In fact, he<br />
would like to play the trumpet.<br />
“So, the man said, ‘Well, go call your<br />
mom.’ My mom comes and says, ‘Get<br />
back to the kitchen and eat your lunch<br />
or you’ll be late for school,” Vander<br />
Hart said. “All I know is it’s four days<br />
later, I’m walking to Tabor Music<br />
School with a violin in my hand.”<br />
Vander Hart took to the instrument<br />
right away. Eventually, he discovered<br />
SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 25
he was among the rare set of musicians<br />
who have perfect pitch, which is<br />
the ability to identify or recreate a given<br />
note without a musical reference.<br />
“By the time I was in eighth grade,<br />
ninth grade, my father saw I was really<br />
excited about violin. So, he searched<br />
around and found the best teacher in<br />
Denver,” Vander Hart said.<br />
David Eisenberg was considered the<br />
finest violin teacher in the city. Eisenberg<br />
originally was on the path to becoming<br />
a concert violinist, but he began<br />
teaching after nerves led him to flub his<br />
Carnegie debut.<br />
“I studied for years with him, but he<br />
knew all the literature and knew the<br />
best publications,” Vander Hart said.<br />
“I was so inspired by his teaching that<br />
I practiced two hours a day on violin<br />
all through high school, and I learned<br />
the hardest literature — Paganini, Bach,<br />
Tchaikovsky, you name it. I was even<br />
considering being a concert violinist<br />
myself.”<br />
Nearly eight decades after he first<br />
held a violin in his hands, Vander Hart<br />
often is the one to preside over a young<br />
person as they handle the instrument<br />
for the first time. Students begin by<br />
learning the instrument’s contours —<br />
where to rest their chins, place their<br />
hands.<br />
Planting programs<br />
Vander Hart’s legacy in Sioux Center<br />
begins nearly 60 years ago, when<br />
he founded the first string program at<br />
Sioux Center Christian School, the K-8<br />
school where he taught music for nearly<br />
a quarter century.<br />
“I got some opposition when I started<br />
in Sioux Center,” Vander Hart said.<br />
“They said, ‘You’re going to mess up<br />
our band program here.’ So, I said, ‘I<br />
don’t want to bother anybody. We’ll<br />
do this before and after school.’ So,<br />
it didn’t interfere with the band program.”<br />
The string program at Sioux Center<br />
Christian was the third program<br />
of its kind founded by Vander Hart,<br />
who stumbled into music teaching<br />
after finishing his seminary degree<br />
at Westminster. As a stop gap before<br />
pursuing training as a Wycliffe Bible<br />
translator, Vander Hart began a string<br />
program at a private Christian school<br />
in Philadelphia. He also began teaching<br />
private classical guitar lessons at a<br />
music school in the same city, where<br />
demand for guitar lessons skyrocketed<br />
at the height of The Beatles craze in the<br />
1960s.<br />
“The Beatles came in, and they<br />
couldn’t find enough teachers. There<br />
were 300 kids that wanted to take guitar,”<br />
he said.<br />
The only problem? Vander Hart did<br />
not play the guitar. The owner of the<br />
music school told Vander Hart that he<br />
had a job if he could learn how to play<br />
and teach the classical guitar in short<br />
order.<br />
“He said, ‘What you have to do is, I’ll<br />
give you the eight volumes of Mel Bay’s<br />
guitar method, and if you can play the<br />
eighth volume, and play it well, you can<br />
be my teacher,’” Vander Hart said. “I<br />
learned that in two weeks. I had time to<br />
practice, and my fingers were burning<br />
hot in pain. I taught there for the rest<br />
of the year.”<br />
He next took a teaching job at New<br />
Holland Christian School in New Holland,<br />
SD, where he moved intending to<br />
eventually study at a school for Wycliffe<br />
Bible translators in the neighboring<br />
state of North Dakota.<br />
“At New Holland, I taught secondyear<br />
Latin, first-year German, American<br />
lit, English lit, general music, choir<br />
five days a week, and I started a string<br />
orchestra there,” Vander Hart said.<br />
He intended to renew his contract,<br />
but that year, the South Dakota Department<br />
of Education ruled all teachers<br />
must have a teaching certificate to continue<br />
teaching. Vander Hart enrolled at<br />
Dordt College in Sioux Center in 1965,<br />
and he began teaching string lessons<br />
“I tell the kids, ‘The violin has a soul. It knows when you’re in tune.<br />
And they believe me. And then I say, ‘No, t<br />
26 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
to students at Sioux Center Christian<br />
School before and after school.<br />
“So, that began this program here. I<br />
didn’t go back into missionary work,”<br />
he said. “I felt I had more talent in<br />
teaching violin than I did in preaching.<br />
And yet, I used all my seminary<br />
training as much as I could in teaching<br />
music.”<br />
After some early resistance, Vander<br />
Hart’s school orchestra program became<br />
well-established, and today the<br />
grade school supplies well-trained<br />
string players for high school orchestra’s<br />
across the region.<br />
“Eventually, we had enough good<br />
kids that in ’72, we started what we now<br />
call the Northwest Iowa Symphony Orchestra,”<br />
he said.<br />
NISO has doubled in size since then,<br />
and it includes around 80 talented musicians<br />
from across the tri-state region.<br />
Vander Hart still plays with the Sioux<br />
Center-based orchestra, which offers<br />
regular concerts at the B.J. Haan Auditorium<br />
on Dordt University’s campus.<br />
String Center<br />
Vander Hart retired from full-time<br />
teaching more than two decades ago,<br />
but his days remain full of music. He<br />
teaches a course in string pedagogy at<br />
Northwestern College in Orange City<br />
every other year, and along with tuning<br />
dozens of pianos a year, Vander Hart<br />
maintains a rigorous schedule of teaching<br />
private lessons.<br />
“Violin has a way of teaching stuff<br />
about music that you can’t quite as easily<br />
teach on other instruments. String<br />
players are constantly thinking about<br />
being in tune,” he said. “It’s not like a<br />
piano — already tuned for you — or like<br />
pushing a button on a brass or a woodwind.<br />
So, you’re going to be a better<br />
singer because you’re thinking about<br />
your pitch all the time.”<br />
Vander Hart also keeps himself busy<br />
with the business he founded in 1966<br />
and operates out of his historic home.<br />
“The Sioux County String Center is<br />
my business — I have the permit up on<br />
the wall,” he said.<br />
In his teaching studio, along with<br />
lesson books devoted to the Suzuki<br />
method and charts explaining the<br />
mathematics of musical harmony,<br />
there is a wall of small tools used in<br />
the repair and construction of string<br />
instruments.<br />
“In eighth grade, the first book I ever<br />
bought that I paid for with my own<br />
money was a book called ‘Violin Making<br />
as it Was and Is,’ a republication of<br />
a book of 1850 from England,” Vander<br />
Hart said. “I learned a lot about how to<br />
repair things from that.”<br />
He continued his training in adulthood,<br />
making frequent visits to the<br />
Sioux City violin shop owned by Harold<br />
A. Wall, a specialist in violin repair.<br />
Eventually, Vander Hart became<br />
the area’s only self-taught luthier, the<br />
term for a craftsman that specializes<br />
in building, restoring and repairing<br />
stringed instruments.<br />
“I serve eight schools in the area, and<br />
then I serve anybody else who needs<br />
string things,” he said.<br />
When a violin gets inadvertently<br />
If you play in tune, the violin sings. If you play out of tune, it won’t.’<br />
that’s not the reason.’” — GARY VANDER HART MUSIC TEACHER<br />
SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 27
trampled by a younger sibling, or its<br />
bow is in need of rehairing, Vander<br />
Hart is the one to call. He also maintains<br />
a supply of stringed instruments<br />
available to students for rent or purchase,<br />
doing work behind the scenes<br />
to provide high-quality instruments<br />
at affordable prices. He buys them at a<br />
discount from a large company in Alabama,<br />
although in the early years he<br />
imported instruments from Germany.<br />
“I now provide my cello players with<br />
instruments from the clearance corner,<br />
which means that online, you can see<br />
what’s wrong with this little instrument.<br />
It’s new but has a crack or it has<br />
a fingerboard unglued or peg missing,”<br />
Vander Hart said.<br />
Along a top shelf in his studio is a<br />
line of richly lacquered violins made of<br />
maple and spruce. They are available in<br />
half, three-quarter and full sizes, ready<br />
to grow along with his students. Larger<br />
instruments are stored elsewhere. He<br />
provides the labor for repairing the instruments<br />
he purchases for resale at no<br />
cost.<br />
“I can get my<br />
kids cellos for<br />
$1,000 that what<br />
the outfit would<br />
list for probably<br />
$3,200,” Vander<br />
Hart said.<br />
Along with repairing<br />
and restoring<br />
instruments,<br />
he also<br />
builds them from<br />
scratch, and in<br />
his basement,<br />
he keeps larger<br />
tools, including<br />
the wood bending<br />
iron he uses to<br />
create the curvature<br />
in an instrument’s acoustic chamber.<br />
Along with tools, there are shelves<br />
for storing the varieties of wood most<br />
suited to musical construction, for their<br />
physical qualities and their beauty.<br />
“It’s always spruce for the soundboard.<br />
Spruce is the strongest wood<br />
with the lightest weight. That’s why<br />
spruce is chosen for the masts of the<br />
clipper ships. Big winds blowing those<br />
things, they don’t crack off,” Vander<br />
Hart said. “The backs and sides are<br />
always made of maple. That’s because<br />
it’s a good reflective wood. It doesn’t<br />
have pores in it, so it’s smooth, and it’s<br />
strong.”<br />
In his basement there is a large<br />
storage area for wood, and along with<br />
stacks of unfinished maple, there are<br />
beams of heavy walnut, Sitka spruce<br />
from Alaska, mahogany from Honduras<br />
and Madagascar ebony.<br />
Along with building instruments<br />
for his own delight and use, to date,<br />
Vander Hart has helped well over 100<br />
students build their own classical guitars<br />
and more than 300 students build<br />
their own mountain dulcimers. The<br />
dulcimer is an American folk instrument<br />
that originated in the Appalachian<br />
Mountains in the 19th century.<br />
“The mountain dulcimer is an amazing<br />
instrument,” Vander Hart said. “It’s<br />
the easiest instrument to learn, and it<br />
will last a lifetime. It’s very sturdy —<br />
they don’t crack easily.”<br />
The dulcimer has just four strings,<br />
and he teaches his students a simple<br />
method of musical notation called tablature,<br />
which uses symbols to represent<br />
finger placement rather than pitch.<br />
Vander Hart regularly offers mountain<br />
dulcimer class during Dordt Discovery<br />
Days, a weeklong summer day camp at<br />
Dordt that draws students from across<br />
the region. The kits students use to<br />
build their own dulcimers are prepared<br />
by Vander Hart, who spends hours<br />
preparing each instrument’s scroll peg<br />
head, planing wood, and using pressure<br />
and heat to bend the wood used for the<br />
instrument’s sides.<br />
Teaching students to build and<br />
play their own instruments is one way<br />
Vander Hart has lived out his sense of<br />
Christian calling.<br />
“I tell the kids, ‘The violin has a<br />
soul. It knows when you’re in tune. If<br />
you play in tune, the violin sings. If you<br />
play out of tune, it won’t.’ And they believe<br />
me,” he said. “And then I say, ‘No,<br />
that’s not the reason.’”<br />
Then he gets out his charts, and<br />
Vander Hart explains the mathematics<br />
of overtones and the principles of<br />
harmony.<br />
“You see such order in music — the<br />
mathematics in music is awesome.<br />
That’s where we get our major chords<br />
from,” he said. “Our love for peaceful<br />
sounds — is this a cultural thing? No,<br />
it’s a created thing. God’s creation is a<br />
mathematical thing.” <br />
28 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
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30 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
| CULTURE<br />
Dancing<br />
Devotion<br />
TEXT BY ALEISA <strong>SC</strong>HAT | PHOTOS BY ALEISA <strong>SC</strong>HAT & SUBMITTED<br />
Sioux Center resident and longtime dance<br />
instructor Robin Van Es remembers when<br />
her young daughter, Kirbee, would escape the<br />
confines of her church pew and dance during the worship<br />
service.<br />
“She’s 28 now, but way back when Kirbee was 2 or 3,<br />
she would always dance during church, kind of in the<br />
aisle. And I thought, ‘Why don’t we dance in church?’”<br />
the 47-year-old Van Es said. “To me, who loves dance, it<br />
seemed to be the most logical expression of praise and<br />
worship.”<br />
Van Es founded Robin’s School of Dance in 1994 when<br />
she was still in high school, and over the years, her studio<br />
has grown, drawing students from across the region.<br />
The school offers classes in ballet, hip-hop, tap, jazz<br />
and contemporary, among other forms of dance, and is<br />
located at 16<strong>02</strong> First Ave. SW in Sioux Center. This year,<br />
Robin’s School of Dance will celebrate its 30th anniversary.<br />
Witnessing her daughter’s first tiny expressions of<br />
worship in church inspired Van Es to form a troupe of<br />
dancers that would learn a new lyrical worship routine<br />
each dance season and perform in area churches during<br />
Sunday worship services.<br />
SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 31
Portraying the love of God<br />
through their movement<br />
“When we started our church tour, I think that was<br />
probably about 25 years ago, and I had been teaching for<br />
four or five years,” Van Es said. “It’s honestly my favorite<br />
part of the dance studio. I think it’s good for our kids to<br />
feel like it’s not all about me, and it’s not about performing.<br />
They’re going to go and serve and portray the love<br />
of God through their movement.”<br />
The church tour started small and originally included<br />
a handful of dancers interested in liturgical dance. The<br />
dance troupe’s reception at the first church it ever visited<br />
was positive, but Van Es said she has encountered some<br />
resistance from area churches over the years.<br />
“The first one we went to, if I remember<br />
right, was a little Catholic church,” she said.<br />
“They were so welcoming, and it was so tiny,<br />
and at that point we maybe only had 10 kids<br />
doing it. But they were open to it, which was<br />
kind of unique — because there has been a<br />
little bit of resistance.”<br />
Especially at the beginning, many of the<br />
region’s churches held tightly to tradition,<br />
which dictated the range of liturgical expression<br />
that was permissible in their sanctuaries.<br />
Singing hymns, or even contemporary<br />
worship songs, was expected by most<br />
churchgoers, but dancing as a form of praise<br />
and worship was not.<br />
“Even in churches that are more open to<br />
it, there’s always some people in the church<br />
— not necessarily the older generation, but<br />
usually the older generation in the church<br />
— that just aren’t quite open to it,” Van Es<br />
said. “I have seen in the last 25 years a huge<br />
shift in that.”<br />
She has adopted a posture of gentle curiosity<br />
in the face of reticence.<br />
“It’s OK if you’re not open to it, but what is<br />
it? I just ask them to kind of open their heart<br />
and mind to it, and I’ll oftentimes show them<br />
a video of a past worship dance and just ask them to see<br />
if the spirit speaks to them,” Van Es said. “So often, if<br />
people are willing to have a conversation, or willing to<br />
look at one of our past dances, their eyes and their hearts<br />
are really opened.”<br />
In these conversations, Van Es also may point out the<br />
biblical precedents for dancing as a form of worship, including<br />
King David in the Old Testament, who was said<br />
to have “danced before the Lord with all his might.” The<br />
dance studio’s tagline is drawn from another biblical text,<br />
Psalm 149: “Let them praise His name with dancing!”<br />
“It’s a very natural way to praise and express faith<br />
32 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
and share the love of Jesus<br />
through movement,” Van<br />
Es said. “I think everybody<br />
thinks of the dualism of body<br />
and spirit, and body being<br />
evil and spirit being good.<br />
But when they see it, it’s kind<br />
of like, ‘Oh, but wait. The<br />
spirit can lead us to move<br />
this way.’”<br />
The studio’s church tour routine has been different<br />
each season, and in the past the group has danced to instrumental<br />
music, traditional hymns and contemporary<br />
Christian worship music.<br />
Over the years, Van Es said many churches have grown<br />
enthusiastic in their reception of her dancers, who have<br />
performed across a wide variety of denominations in<br />
communities all around N’West Iowa. After the troupe<br />
performs in a church, it is often invited back, she said.<br />
“There has definitely been a softening,” Van Es said.<br />
“We could almost do it every week of the year, and it’s<br />
just that our parents and students want to go to their<br />
own home churches for worship instead of traveling every<br />
“I think kids know how to just dance until we<br />
tell them they shouldn’t. Why do we tell them they<br />
shouldn’t? Just let them dance.”<br />
single Sunday.”<br />
For the first time this year, Robin’s School of Dance<br />
has two separate troupes that travel to area churches and<br />
participate in Sunday morning worship services. The studio’s<br />
original church tour took place twice a year, around<br />
Christmas and Easter, two important dates in the Christian<br />
liturgical calendar.<br />
“Simply because those seem to be exciting times in<br />
the church, and celebratory times, and the churches are<br />
always so beautiful, decorated at that time,” Van Es said.<br />
In recent years, the church tour has shifted to other<br />
times of year. Dancers typically spend several days a year<br />
traveling to as many regional worship services as possible<br />
on a given Sunday. The most church tour stops took place<br />
the last Sunday in January.<br />
“Oftentimes, we don’t get to stay for the worship<br />
service when we do share our routine because we’ll<br />
dance at the beginning of a 9:30 service in Rock<br />
Rapids, which is what we did last Sunday, and we<br />
go right over to Lester and do the end of their 9:30,<br />
then we quickly go right over to Rock Valley, and<br />
we do the beginning of their 11 o’clock service,” Van<br />
Es said. “We try to share with as many as we can.”<br />
Until this year, the church tour was limited to<br />
members of the studio’s competitive dance company,<br />
which this year includes 76 dancers of all<br />
ages who elect to participate in competitions. Their<br />
church routine includes all ages in a single performance.<br />
— ROBIN VAN ES<br />
DANCE INSTRUCTOR<br />
“They each have their individual sections with<br />
their small groups, divided by age and ability, and<br />
then they come together at the end for a big, kind<br />
Students rehearse a routine at Robin’s School of Dance in Sioux<br />
Center. Members of the studio’s competition company also<br />
participate in an annual tour of churches throughout the area,<br />
where they perform a lyrical dance routine during worship services.<br />
SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 33
of a beautiful pose,” Van Es said. “It<br />
looks like heaven to me — what in<br />
my mind I think heaven would look<br />
like.”<br />
For the first time this year, another<br />
group from the studio is making<br />
the church rounds, performing<br />
the church routine in area churches<br />
at different times of year.<br />
“We had so many people asking,<br />
‘Well, we don’t really want to be in<br />
competition or do that full commitment,<br />
but could we still do the church tour?’” Van Es said.<br />
“So, we started a new class called ‘Lyrical Worship.’”<br />
Anyone who enrolls in the course gets the chance to<br />
perform in a yearly tour of churches.<br />
Ashton native Jennifer Mangel, a 2<strong>01</strong>9 graduate of<br />
Sheldon High School, teaches the “Lyrical Worship” class<br />
and joined the studio as a teacher this season.<br />
“I have been teaching and dancing for a long time, so<br />
lyrical isn’t new, but I’m kind of putting it to a worship<br />
song. It’s light and airy,” she said, describing the style’s<br />
characteristic movements.<br />
These days, some churches still decline to be a stop on<br />
the church tour, but Van Es said most churches that have<br />
invited the troupe to perform in the past enthusiastically<br />
invite the dancers to return.<br />
“I’ve heard from people in congregations — they’ll<br />
even write the students notes and send them to the studio<br />
and say, ‘You know, I was really able to connect with<br />
God through this dance. I’ve never been able to before,’”<br />
Van Es said. “It’s just like how people learn differently in<br />
school — some of them learn visually or audibly, or they<br />
have to write things. I think it’s the same with worship.<br />
People sometimes just need to see movement to put to<br />
the words of these songs to really have it penetrate their<br />
heart.”<br />
Company dancer Paige Johnson, who is 16, has been<br />
participating in the church tour for years.<br />
“I would say the best part about doing the dancing in<br />
churches is seeing people’s reactions,” she said. “Sometimes<br />
we have people cry. One thing just makes it feel<br />
really important is that we could help someone else see<br />
God in that way. In a different way than just a normal<br />
church service.”<br />
Fourteen-year-old Nayibe Diaz is another member of<br />
the group.<br />
“It’s just uplifting, and it brings joy<br />
to everyone,” she said.<br />
Van Es said the joy inherent in<br />
dancing is part of why she has committed<br />
her life to making dance training<br />
accessible to young people in the<br />
region.<br />
“The essence of life movement, and<br />
I think kids know how to just dance<br />
until we tell them they shouldn’t,”<br />
she said. “Why do we tell them they<br />
shouldn’t? Just let them dance, you<br />
know? I think they almost all start<br />
out that way, until we tell them to sit<br />
still. And it’s like, ‘Don’t sit still. Keep<br />
dancing.’” <br />
34 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
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SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 35
HEALTH |<br />
Women’s menstrual cycles<br />
and days of fertility have<br />
been shrouded in mystery<br />
for centuries.<br />
And that’s how Trisha Smit of Sioux<br />
Center felt about her body while taking<br />
birth control for three years after she<br />
and her husband, David, married Aug.<br />
6, 2<strong>01</strong>1.<br />
“This didn’t feel like the right solution,<br />
like it wasn’t really getting at the<br />
root of our concerns about our fertility,”<br />
said Smit, 35.<br />
That all changed in 2<strong>01</strong>4 when Smit<br />
was given the recommendation to stop<br />
the birth control pill and switch to a natural<br />
family planning method called the<br />
Creighton Model FertilityCare System,<br />
or CrMS, by her family physician after<br />
the surgical removal of several fibroadenomas,<br />
or noncancerous tumors, from<br />
her breasts.<br />
CrMS relies upon the observation of<br />
biological markers that allows a woman<br />
to monitor and maintain her gynecologic<br />
and reproductive health. Additionally,<br />
CrMS allows couples to identify<br />
the days of fertility and infertility. These<br />
biomarkers also indicate abnormalities<br />
in a woman’s health and helps couples<br />
know when they are naturally fertile<br />
and infertile, allowing the couple to use<br />
the system either to achieve or to avoid<br />
pregnancy.<br />
After a few months of charting, Smit’s<br />
biomarkers revealed some red flags<br />
about her cycle she had been unaware<br />
of — low cervical mucus production and<br />
progesterone levels, both of which indicate<br />
concerns in being able to achieve<br />
D<br />
Creighton Model education<br />
leads Smit to life changes<br />
36 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
Discovering<br />
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY RENEE WIELENGA<br />
GOD’S DESIGN<br />
and maintain a pregnancy.<br />
Initially, Smit used natural procreative technology<br />
through CrMS to evaluate, monitor and maintain her<br />
menstrual cycles to achieve a normal state and avoid<br />
pregnancy. The couple then adopted the system and<br />
necessary treatment options based on her biomarkers<br />
to maintain two pregnancies to 37 weeks’ gestation<br />
and deliver two healthy boys — Parker, now 8, and<br />
Aiden, 5.<br />
Through this process Smit learned that fertility is<br />
observed as a part of health, not disease.<br />
“More importantly, I have learned how God has<br />
created our bodies and how He has designed it with<br />
precision and order. God has designed couples’ fertility<br />
in a unique way that can be managed naturally<br />
and allow our human sexuality to be broadened and<br />
deepened,” she said. “This deeper understanding of<br />
our bodies has allowed me to see our Creator in a very<br />
different perspective and continue to be in awe of His<br />
creation.”<br />
Unraveling the mysteries of her menstrual cycles<br />
led Smit to more discoveries and life changes.<br />
“A woman’s menstrual cycle is her fifth vital sign<br />
and can tell her a lot about her overall health,” Smit<br />
said. “Since I had a good understanding of my menstrual<br />
cycle, I was encouraged by a good friend to<br />
read ‘Fast Like A Girl’ by Dr. Mindy Pelz. The book<br />
describes how intermittent fasting and selective food<br />
choices can allow our ovarian hormones — estrogen<br />
and progesterone — to flourish.”<br />
After reading the book, Smit has been incorporating<br />
intermittent fasting during certain times of her<br />
menstrual cycle. Other times in a woman’s cycle require<br />
hormone-feasting foods consisting of protein<br />
and natural carbohydrates — butternut squash, sweet<br />
potatoes, spinach, broccoli, berries, etc. — to aid the<br />
production of estrogen and progesterones. She also<br />
began following the ketogenic diet while fasting,<br />
which is high in protein and healthy fats.<br />
“Balancing the hormone hierarchy is critical in the<br />
success of my ovarian hormones; therefore, I select<br />
foods that do not spike my blood sugar,” she said.<br />
“By balancing my insulin, it supports estrogen and<br />
progesterone, but if insulin or cortisol hormones are<br />
high, they start to accelerate the decline of my ovarian<br />
hormones. Therefore, intermittent fasting helps balance<br />
cortisol levels, stabilizes insulin and helps cells<br />
become more sensitive to sex hormones.”<br />
This education and knowledge developed within<br />
Smit a desire to share with other women so they, too,<br />
could understand how their cycles function. This allows<br />
women to confidently know how their bodies<br />
work and better appreciate the gift of their fertility.<br />
“God started placing the thought of becoming a<br />
FertilityCare practitioner on my heart in 2<strong>02</strong>0, but<br />
I was stubborn and kept pushing it to the side,” she<br />
said. “God continued to put women in my life that<br />
were struggling with similar situations I have gone<br />
through, and I was able to share my story.<br />
“In April 2<strong>02</strong>3, I saw that there was a lack of education<br />
regarding women’s health in our community,<br />
so I reached out to my practitioner and director at<br />
Ashwood FertilityCare Center to see what potential<br />
there was in this field. I decided to follow something<br />
FertilityCare Practitioner intern Trisha Smit of Sioux Center reviews Creighton Model FertilityCare System charts as part of her training to<br />
teach other women and help them learn more about their menstrual, fertility cycles and general wellness.<br />
SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 37
FertilityCare Practitioner intern Trisha Smit of Sioux Center<br />
holds up the variety of charting stickers connected with the<br />
Creighton Model FertilityCare System that she discovered in<br />
2<strong>01</strong>4 and has since learned to love. The program seeks to<br />
teach women of all ages about fertility cycles and general<br />
wellness.<br />
I was passionate about and God was placing<br />
it on my heart and applied for the Creighton<br />
Model Practitioner Program at the Saint<br />
Paul VI in June 2<strong>02</strong>3. I was accepted into<br />
the education program in August 2<strong>02</strong>3.”<br />
The practitioner education program started<br />
in October 2<strong>02</strong>3 in Omaha, NE, and Smit<br />
is in her internship until October 2<strong>02</strong>4.<br />
“The goal is to take my final exam in November<br />
2<strong>02</strong>4 after all case studies and internship<br />
requirements are met,” she said.<br />
“I have been honored that Kari Beadner,<br />
director of Ashwood FertilityCare Center,<br />
welcomed me into her FertilityCare Center<br />
as an affiliate to continue to serve women.”<br />
As a FertilityCare practitioner intern,<br />
Smit serves clients in-person and online two<br />
nights a week as a side job.<br />
Her full-time job is a project manager for<br />
Precigen Exemplar, a biotechnology company<br />
in Sioux Center that produces genetically<br />
engineered swine and is a company the 2<strong>01</strong>1<br />
graduate of Northwestern College in Orange<br />
City has worked for almost 14 years.<br />
“What drives me is that, in general, there<br />
is a lack of education to women regarding<br />
their menstrual cycles and how to navigate<br />
through them starting at puberty especially<br />
with PMS symptoms and irregular cycles,”<br />
Smit said. “I am passionate about educating<br />
adolescent girls and women on their<br />
menstrual cycle and vital information that<br />
can be obtained through charting. As more<br />
women become educated in understanding<br />
their unique cycle and not comparing it<br />
to a generalized app, it will empower them<br />
to make decisions regarding fertility and<br />
hormone regulation, which will lead to improved<br />
health and lifestyles.<br />
As an intern, Smit joins five FertilityCare<br />
practitioners serving Ashwood FertilityCare<br />
Center that together offer a free 90-minute<br />
live group introductory session about the<br />
Creighton Model.<br />
“As someone that was treated with infertility<br />
and has experienced two miscarriages, I<br />
want to show compassion to others that may<br />
be in similar situations and for them to know<br />
what resources that are available to them,”<br />
Smit said. “My desire is that couples would<br />
learn to appreciate their fertility and learn<br />
how to make decisions together regarding<br />
their fertility; and for women to be an active<br />
participant in monitoring and maintaining<br />
their own procreative and gynecologic<br />
health.” <br />
AT A<br />
GLANCE<br />
Name: Trisha Smit<br />
Position: FertilityCare<br />
Practitioner intern<br />
through the Ashwood<br />
FertilityCare Center<br />
Phone: 507-841-2082<br />
E-mail: trisha.smit.<br />
fcp@gmail.com<br />
Online: www.<br />
ashwoodfertilitycare.<br />
com<br />
38 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
novels.<br />
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VOL. 51 NO. 33 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2<strong>02</strong>4 www.nwestiowa.com<br />
FIRST IN A SERIES<br />
TEACHERS<br />
TAKE ON<br />
CHATGPT AS<br />
REVOLUTION<br />
HITS AREA<br />
CLASSROOMS<br />
BY ALEISA <strong>SC</strong>HAT<br />
A<strong>SC</strong>HAT@NWESTIOWA.COM<br />
Tournament time<br />
EGIONAL—When West<br />
Sioux High School junior<br />
Gregory Cook submi ted an<br />
outline for a speech for his<br />
online co lege-level speech<br />
course last semester, he<br />
received a notification it had been<br />
flagged by an artificial inte ligence<br />
detector as generated by A.I.<br />
“The online interface tha the college<br />
uses checks for A.I. and originality<br />
in each individual assignment, and<br />
one of my assignments I put in, it got<br />
flagged as A.I.-wri ten — but it wasn’t,”<br />
said the 16-year-old from Hawarden.<br />
It has been nearly a year since<br />
OpenAI unleashed ChatGPT on the<br />
public, and since then, it has become<br />
the fastest-growing app of a l time,<br />
outpacing similar applications, like<br />
Google’s Bard, and accumulating more<br />
than 180 mi lion users.<br />
In December alone, its website generated<br />
1.6 bi lion hits.<br />
The technology has only improved<br />
Postseason play gets underway for high school<br />
boys and girls hoop teams across N’West Iowa.<br />
See SPORTS Section C<br />
Tom Truesde l interacts with students in his first-year writing course at Northwestern Co lege<br />
in Orange City. Truesde l has led Northwestern’s response to new technologies like ChatGPT.<br />
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE<br />
The generative artificial inte ligence revolution already is quietly unfolding in N’West Iowa, bringing forth a<br />
wave of cha lenges and new po sibilities. Advancements in the field of generative A.I. are having a transformative<br />
impact on education, busine s, art and photography, and precision agriculture. This series wi l explore the farreaching<br />
implications of these powerful new tools. This introduction was generated with the help of ChatGPT.<br />
1 3<br />
IN<br />
since it first made a splash in March<br />
of 2<strong>02</strong>3 and the latest iteration of<br />
ChatGPT is more flexible, accurate and<br />
creative than its predecessor.<br />
In response to prompts from users,<br />
the chatbot can answer questions,<br />
write code and generate original<br />
essays, poems and even fu l-length<br />
It could, in theory, generate a lucid<br />
and we l-organized outline of a<br />
co lege-level speech on the topic of<br />
artificial inte ligence in education, as<br />
Cook was asked to do by his online<br />
Cook, however, did not complete<br />
the assignment with the help of a<br />
chatbot. Nevertheless, hi submi ted<br />
outline was flagged as A.I. generated<br />
by CopyLeaks, the plagiarism-detection<br />
software used by many co leges<br />
and universities to enforce academic<br />
integrity policies.<br />
“I’m not going to lie — I was a bit<br />
angry about it,” Cook said. “I wasn’t<br />
going to go o f on the teacher about<br />
it or anything like that — I wouldn’t<br />
do that. But it’s jus the fac tha these<br />
A.I. detectors are being put in place<br />
because some students are going to<br />
use A.I. to cheat, and the fac that I’m<br />
See A.I. on page A7<br />
CHATGPT WAS RELEASED NOV. 30, 2<strong>02</strong>2<br />
heart disease deaths<br />
are preventable<br />
Amy Jurrens addresses students<br />
during her public speaking course at<br />
Northwest Iowa Community Colege<br />
in Sheldon. Photos by Aleisa Schat<br />
IT HAD 180 MILLION USERS IN ONE YEAR<br />
ITS WEBSITE GENERATED 1.6 BILLION HITS IN DECEMBER<br />
<strong>SC</strong>HEDULE YOUR IMPORTANT PRIMARY CARE APPOINTMENT TODAY (712) 476-8100<br />
Orange City<br />
hospice care<br />
facility eyed<br />
Volkers sees need for care for<br />
people in their final moments<br />
BY ERIC SANDBULTE<br />
ESANDBULTE@NWESTIOWA.COM<br />
ORANGE CITY—Hospice care provides peace for<br />
people in their final moments, but finding a comfortable<br />
place to stay while receiving such services<br />
is a cha lenge in N’West Iowa.<br />
Jane le Volkers of Orange City knows from personal<br />
experience how valuable quality hospice care<br />
facilities can be, and she’s seeking to build a hospice<br />
care facility of her own in Orange City.<br />
Fundraising material describes the facility, named<br />
Evensong Hospice Home, as Iowa’s first and only<br />
nonprofit private-pay hospice home.<br />
“The name Evensong was in my devotions about<br />
four years ago,” Volker said. “It’s a Gaelic term for<br />
the end of the day, the last songs of the day or the<br />
last worship of the day. It can mean the last hour<br />
See EVENSONG on page A5<br />
IOWA<br />
INFORMATION<br />
MEDIA GROUP<br />
712.722.0511 • 1.800.<strong>24</strong>7.<strong>01</strong>86<br />
INSIDE:<br />
Jane le Volkers plans to build a new nonprofit,<br />
private-pay hospice home caled Evensong in<br />
Orange City. It wi l have four care suites for hospice<br />
patients, three senior apartments and two guest<br />
suites for visiting family. Photo by Eric Sandbulte<br />
Exhibit recalls<br />
author Suckow<br />
Hawarden native considered<br />
one of greatest writers in Iowa<br />
Church . B4<br />
Classifieds . B6-9<br />
BY ALEISA <strong>SC</strong>HAT<br />
A<strong>SC</strong>HAT@NWESTIOWA.COM<br />
HAWARDEN—The group gathered at Hawarden<br />
Public Library on Jan. 25 was there to discuss the life<br />
and work of a woman once considered one of Iowa’s<br />
greatest writers.<br />
“My first introduction to Ruth<br />
Suckow happened in 1976, when<br />
I began teaching at Dordt Co lege,<br />
and I was handed a book,” James<br />
Schaap said at the library event.<br />
Schaap is professor emeritus<br />
of English at Dordt University,<br />
formerly ca led Dordt Co lege, in<br />
Sioux Center, and he spent decades<br />
introducing hi students to<br />
great works of literature, including<br />
some, like Suckow’s, that had faded into obscurity.<br />
The book he was handed a l those years ago was<br />
a literary anthology that he went on to use in his<br />
See EXHIBIT on page A10<br />
People . B5<br />
Sports . C1-14<br />
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COVERED<br />
If it matters to you, it matters to us.<br />
Turn to Iowa Information Media Group for in-depth<br />
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School news • City and county government • Sports<br />
• Agriculture • Business • Lifestyles and features<br />
• Family news and obituaries • Advertisements from a wide<br />
nwest<br />
variety of businesses and retailers<br />
For immediate news, visit<br />
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the ever-changing content you’ll find here.<br />
SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 39
BY THE NUMBERS |<br />
77<br />
Turf space is big enough for:<br />
2<br />
1<br />
1<br />
2<br />
regulation softball fields<br />
regulation soccer field<br />
regulation football field<br />
9v9 soccer fields<br />
Football tournaments<br />
in 2<strong>02</strong>3<br />
100+<br />
softball games in 2<strong>02</strong>3<br />
n 200,000 visitors recorded in 2<strong>02</strong>3<br />
n 6,000 hours of scheduled activity,<br />
including 2,000 reservations in 2<strong>02</strong>3<br />
40 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ERIC SANDBULTE<br />
One year ago, Dordt University and the city of Sioux Center<br />
completed their latest project adding to the amenities the<br />
city has to offer: the American State Bank Sports Complex.<br />
The indoor sports facility features a brick-and-mortar entry building<br />
with a lobby, concession stand and Sioux Center Health Physical<br />
Therapy and Sports Medicine Clinic, but the real fun is found in the<br />
attached turf field housed beneath a fabric membrane dome, shielding<br />
activities from the fickle N’West Iowa weather year-round.<br />
First opened Jan. 20, 2<strong>02</strong>3, here’s a look at the facility by the<br />
numbers:<br />
American State Bank<br />
Sports Complex<br />
250 -by-470 -by-75 -foot<br />
air-inflated dome over<br />
artificial turf<br />
8,000-square-foot<br />
entry building with a<br />
concession stand<br />
3 regulation-size batting cages<br />
117,500 square feet of turf<br />
Dordt University baseball practice is<br />
one of the many activities making<br />
good use of the American State Bank<br />
Sports Complex in Sioux Center<br />
during the winter months. Besides<br />
athletic activities, the sports complex<br />
has also hosted youth groups and a<br />
church service.<br />
SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4 | <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE 41
page A2<br />
See A2<br />
See A7<br />
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OUTLET<br />
Store celebrates<br />
five year serving<br />
Christian school<br />
to the<br />
SIOUX CENTER<br />
NEWS<br />
Stay up to date on your hometown!<br />
SPORTS<br />
Warriors earn<br />
seven spots in<br />
state field<br />
SIOUX CENTER NEWS<br />
Rozeboom<br />
into<br />
role<br />
education<br />
education wasn’t<br />
Rozeboom had<br />
himself, but as he<br />
new role as<br />
Vol. 132 ~ No. 7 A Growing Newspaper for a Growing Community www.nwestiowa.com 712-7 2-05 1<br />
to the Sioux<br />
School and<br />
Middle School, it’s<br />
OUTLET<br />
Rozeboom has become<br />
nter intermediate and<br />
schools a sistant princi-<br />
Photo by Eric Sandbulte<br />
Pam Tebow<br />
to speak at<br />
fundraiser<br />
celebrates<br />
serving<br />
school<br />
See A2<br />
“In Sioux Center, institutions are commi ted to each other. While leaders rotate<br />
in and out, there’s that expectation and desire to work we l together for services to<br />
continue. … It’s built into the DNA here and it’s a pre ty great thing to celebrate.”<br />
— JOSH BOWAR,<br />
SIOUX CENTER CHRISTIAN <strong>SC</strong>HOOL HEAD OF <strong>SC</strong>HOOL<br />
A l Seasons Center lifeguard, swimming instructor and Dordt University student Avery Koopmans of Sioux Center<br />
reviews a swimming technique with her level 4 cla s made up of Kinsey Elementary School third-grade students<br />
during le sons Feb. 6. Photo by Ren e Wielenga<br />
Splish, splash fun<br />
IOUX CENTER NEWS<br />
role<br />
SPORTS<br />
Wa riors earn<br />
seven spots in<br />
state field<br />
See A7<br />
Vol. 132 ~ No. 7 A Growing Newspaper for a Growing Community www.nwestiowa.com 712-7 2-05 1<br />
education wasn’t<br />
Rozeboom had<br />
himself, but as he<br />
new role as<br />
to the Sioux<br />
Intermediate School and<br />
Middle School, it’s<br />
page A2<br />
Chase Rozeboom has become<br />
Sioux Center intermediate and<br />
middle schools assistant principal.<br />
Photo by Eric Sandbulte<br />
Pam Tebow<br />
to speak at<br />
fundraiser<br />
“In Sioux Center, institutions are commited to each other. While leaders rotate<br />
in and out, there’s that expectation and desire to work we l together for services to<br />
continue. … It’s built into the DNA here and it’s a pre ty great thing to celebrate.”<br />
— JOSH BOWAR,<br />
SIOUX CENTER CHRISTIAN <strong>SC</strong>HOOL HEAD OF <strong>SC</strong>HOOL<br />
much as a kid.”<br />
A l Seasons Center lifeguard, swimming instructor and Dordt University student Avery Koopmans of Sioux Center<br />
reviews a swimming technique with her level 4 cla s made up of Kinsey Elementary School third-grade students<br />
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them to<br />
Splish, splash fun<br />
during lessons Feb. 6. Photo by Ren e Wielenga<br />
I enjoyed so much as a kid.”<br />
In fact, Koopmans is helping<br />
that program — the<br />
partnership betw en the A l<br />
Seasons Center and the<br />
school district and Sioux<br />
Center Christian School to<br />
swimming le sons<br />
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44 <strong>SC</strong> MAGAZINE | SPRING 2<strong>02</strong>4