Thanks for joining us for Part
2 of the best of land special.
It's a second night of recapping some of
the most memorable stories of the past
year from our dear friend Boyd Hooper.
So many of Boyd stories will leave
you smiling and fill your heart full,
but others will leave you in
awe of the human spirit.
And that's what tonight's
collection of stories are.
You're going to meet people
who are a shining light.
Despite so much darkness around them.
So we begin with a teacher helping her
students in a way few could imagine.
She is teaching from a hospital
room and among the lessons is
something we can all learn from.
School in a classroom.
I have 14 now in the waiting rooms.
Feature in a box.
Pop done 21 kindergartners
aware their online experience
is also defined by what's
beyond the screen here at the
Doctor talent of Kelly Kline. I
am at the doctors house. You're right,
the doctor's house is 5 year old speak
for Lakes Medical Center, Wyoming, MN.
Where this morning, the kindergarten
class from Falcon Heights Elementary has
accompanied their teacher to chemotherapy.
Go Raina go Raina there helping me be strong.
Because it's real easy to go down. The whiny
Kelly has every right to go down that road.
A 32 year teacher at the same school
she attended a wife and mom who first
battled ovarian cancer five years ago,
then went back to her life
until cancer found Kelly again.
Set a really bad feeling.
That's something might be
up, something cruelly confirmed
on the 5th anniversary of Kelly
last chemo treatment. Now
that it's returned, it's
not curable. It's terminal,
So what to do next?
Dose trace show your board. She is my
inspiration every day. Beth Becky,
School Principal knows most in Kelly
shoes would take Aleve. Take a look at
your recording sheet.
When Kelly came to me and said.
Please don't make me.
I said absolutely not.
Let's figure it out together. Parents
were notified, their children
would see nurses coming and going.
It's amazing to watch it. Cliff.
Did you have a different idea?
Opening doors for discussion.
I think it might turn
yellow a little bit
between Cliff Fergus and his parents.
He has cancer.
Are they what are they giving
her when she's there?
Treatment, what is that?
Like some kind of medicine?
Yeah, congratulations. Lucky duck.
The chemo won't cure Kelly.
The aim to slow her cancer down the
last time around I had a posse of
friends that went with me to chemo every
week and with COVID I can't have that.
So what better way to spend four or
five hours than with five year olds?
Your new posse, yes, exactly
Kelly's hair and eyebrows
are starting to thin.
The gingerbread girl a topic she'll
soon be addressing with her class.
I I want them to see that
cancer isn't a death sentence.
You can still be happy and playful
and silly and funny and energized.
Do you have something to share?
It still Lego Star Wars toy
abes mom Sarah Doski couldn't
have asked for a better teacher.
I can't imagine what she would do in person.
If she can do this from there ready
scientists, you are looking good.
I give them a lot of cheers.
I'm their best cheerleader
woo Hoo so that they can.
They can know that they can
do anything in this world.
Maybe they'll invent a cure for cancer.
Wouldn't that be wonderful?
And they'll think of you when they do.
I hope so. Wowie wow wow scientists
Kelly Klein that was so smart
teaching. While she teaches
all right, I'll see you in
boy Dupport Carol Levin News, Wyoming.
Kelly Kline's daughter started a GO
fund me page to help pay for her moms
treatment and for ovarian Cancer Research.
We do have a link to that and the
land of 10,000 stories section of our
website at care11.com now to a story
about an ice rink in a backyard.
Minnesotans know those are special places,
skate scraping, laughter echoing.
They mean family, time and community,
but they can also mean a whole lot more.
Valentine's and Roses can say
affection, but in Foley MN a
backyard hockey rink says love.
I've tide seven pair skates. Today,
the rink where Beth Harrison,
my hands are gonna fall off.
Daughter Riley and son Beckham can
be found at a time in their lives.
They have never felt more lost.
I feel a lot of responsibility for.
For my family, he's always
been the best dad ever.
It's it's always been. For his kids,
Beth's husband, Brad,
the kind of dad who designed a
luge course for his children.
Post their outdoor movie
nights absolutely.
And talk is reluctant wife.
Into a backyard rink
I was completely against it.
I didn't want the upkeep.
I didn't want to deal
with it so I said fine,
you know, but I'm hands off
Brad, on the other hand was all in.
This was his accomplishment.
It was a way for him to spend
tons of times with the kids.
The high school hockey player
turned hockey coach to his kids.
Built both the rink and the
life of which he dreamed till
everything came apart. He was
diagnosed January 21st. Of 2020
of small cell carcinoma of the prostate,
Beth had wrongly thought she'd
prepaid her family's cancer dues
after her own battle with stage three
breast cancer three years earlier,
a battle her husband couldn't win,
Beth and Brad spent all of last
summer at a lakeside campsite,
making memories with their
children before sharing with them.
What fall would bring?
We just held him. And tried
to answer their questions.
But it was the hardest
thing I've ever had to do.
Also hard for Beth's husband who recorded
for his wife and kids. This video.
I hope that
you know. They can. Well, they can be OK.
We've been gone. Or that you know.
I just worry a lot.
It's going to be hard.
Brad's hockey friends asked if there
was anything they could do. You wanna do
something? You don't know what to do?
The only thing that I couldn't
do myself was this rink.
All Beth needed to say we're
tightening group US hockey families for
this tight knit group
to show up November 1st.
Study brands hand drawn blueprints and
assemble his ring 12 days before he died.
Barely able to get to his bedroom window,
Brad looked out and saw love.
So this time of year. Was one of
dad's favorites, obviously. Yeah,
now a season later
and he loved to skate with you guys,
his wife and kids. Are bringing
Brad back to his place.
You OK? It was a way to keep Brad
with the kids for a little bit longer.
Brad's rink, now lovingly tended
by the half of his marriage
that once hadn't wanted it.
He would be very proud that I did it.
Then he would know that
I did it for the kids.
Just like he would have three
months since Brad's death, no no,
Beth, her kids, and an assortment of friends.
Spend every free minute on the ice.
President, if they are here.
It was then Brad is here to your party.
He was the best dad. He really was
Boyd Hooper Care 11 news OK
You wanna help me Foley?
Beth has been sharing her experience
with her breast cancer and losing
her husband and a beautiful blog.
You can find that in the land
section of our website as well.
The worst kind of anniversary we lost.
Our daughter Hannah in the
accident and the best kind
of mail. It's 28 years and we've never
missed any. Never missed the one
right when we need it.
Remember next?
Welcome back to the best of Boyd
Hooper's land of 10,000 stories.
You know, it's not an easy job for
authorities to respond to the hundreds
of crashes on our roads every year,
but it turns out the head of
the Minnesota State Patrol is
responding in a way that goes far
beyond what his job calls for.
Sure is the sunrise.
The envelopes arrive in the mailbox.
Never missed a year.
No more predictable than the rain
that card has always arrived
by the 9th of December.
Foreseeable as February Snow
Mat on the anniversary of Andreas death.
Please know that we remember your loss
from the desk of the chief of
the Minnesota State Patrol,
the note that will soon arrive
again in the mailbox of Matt Bovee.
Never missed the one never
missed a sympathy card on the
anniversary of the crash that took
the life of Andrea Bovee Mats.
Wife, they received the first one first
anniversary and I was blown
away by that one and then. Here we are.
You're going into year 7. Andrea
was killed by a distracted driver
while biking with her children.
Made you cry it did Erika
Bodle and daughter Havana have received
a card every November since their
car was struck by a drunk driver,
nearly killing of Anna,
she broke her neck essentially and
leaving her injured, still going
on six years now he hasn't forgotten.
Indiana, as another year passes.
Deanna Carlson's brother Chris died in
a motorcycle crash in 20. Oh seven,
then they just kept coming every single year.
It's like he knows when. We need it.
Matt ****** knows, because Colonel
****** had a good teacher, the
whole idea of sending a card
on the anniversary of a death
started with a guy named Sergeant
Tom Ludford, who retired Trooper
Tom Ludford. I just keep
it with me all the time.
Barb Degnan has carried his name on
a card in her wallet for 28 years.
I lost carrying her connection to the
trooper who investigated the crash
that killed her son Dan while home
from college on Christmas Eve 1992.
For all the time that Tom was alive.
He would call every Christmas Eve.
You could be sure that we're doing OK.
And 11 years ago when Tom Ludford died,
that's when I decided to pick up where
Tom left off and continue that tradition.
We have not forgotten your loss.
A cardinal instead of a call.
Sincerely Colonel Matt ******.
But just as meaningful to
Barb and her husband John.
And when you lose a child,
that's the thing you don't want to happen.
You don't want to have
them forgotten. Which also
helps explain why each year on the
anniversary of Trooper Ledford's death,
a bouquet of flowers arrives at the
State Patrol from Barb Degnan and
you haven't missed a year either.
How could I do that? No, I never miss
you. It's a relationship that
I say I wish we never had,
because that would mean
that their son was alive.
But out of that tragedy,
good things have happened.
Please, no, we
haven't forgotten about your loss.
Sharon and Bruce Pearson
also know that to be true,
we have received 15.
And this year will be the 16th,
not a year missed since a young Sergeant,
Matt Leinart, investigated the crash
that critically injured the Pearson
16 year old daughter Bethany and
killed their 14 year old daughter
Hannah. I know we had
tears that he would send
a personal card
and then they keep coming year after year.
Now it's. It's a joyful thing.
We know that we're never forgotten
as good deed and that's a good man.
Please know that we remember your loss.
One man inspired by another.
Without a doubt he's smiling about
this. I I couldn't stop because to
stop I think would indicate that that
we've forgotten and that's not true.
Sincerely, Matt Langner
mailing it in sincerely, Matt ******.
Wait, please know you're in
my thoughts and prayers.
Sincerely, Matt ******.
Boyd, Hooper. Care 11 news.
Colonel ****** told us he sends cards
every year to more than a dozen families.
He knows it's not possible
to reach every single one,
but says other troopers maintain similar
relationships with other families.
A remarkable story hidden in plain sight.
That's all original.
We didn't even know
I was on the fire department.
Saving history this is very emotional next.
Welcome back to the second night of
the land of 10,000 stories special.
There's an effort underway to preserve
a piece of Minneapolis history
that many may not even know about.
It involves a building with a
painful past and a story people
want saved for future generations.
In one of those buildings we pass by.
But don't necessarily see.
History is ever so quietly.
Simmering a new day for the old
building at 45th and Hiawatha
is an amazing opportunity and
for the African American firefighters long
time coming followers in others footsteps.
The old staircase? That's all original
more than a century has passed
since the building they are seeing
for the first time was built to be
Minneapolis 1st and ultimately only all
black fire stations opened in 1907.
Joseph waters. Is the firefighting
historian who's been doing the
research on the men who served here?
Oscar Clark, Archie Spence,
and James Cannon just three found
in the record so far served this
station their entire career,
but Joseph says potentially dozens
of African Americans worked and lived
in this space over the 34 years.
Stationed 24 was open.
They broke the ground for us.
Charles Rucker joined the Minneapolis
Fire Department 21 years ago.
This what would be called the
end where he's risen to the rank
of fire motor operator.
If the system is in place, how it was.
Back in the day I would have been
the one in control of the horse.
This area is the day area on a
tour of Charles Fire Station.
This is a war etalons dinner
reminders of another time.
This is my room here.
When white firefighters refused to sleep
in the same beds occupied by black
firefighters during the shifts before them.
That's why there was a
segregated black fire station,
and when that station closed in 1941.
Things got worse.
Basically, since this station closed,
there weren't African Americans on
the Minneapolis Fire Department
for almost a 30 year period.
Retired Judge Lejeune Lang should know.
Yeah, she worked as a young volunteer
paralegal in the early 70s on the
federal lawsuit that forced the
Minneapolis Fire Department to open
its hiring process to minority.
That whole up there represents
where the first fire pole was.
Now, she's organized this
tour and taking the lead.
On gaining historical status
for the old fire station to
protect it from demolition as the
neighborhood redevelops around him,
these are the original boot lockers.
John being the fireman, what do you,
who currently owns the building he
leases to others captains is supportive
of the effort to preserve it, as is.
This is the basement,
the Minneapolis African American
Professional Firefighters Association
of which Charles Rucker is president.
This is very emotional because they
paved the way for us to be on the job.
And have these nice careers that were
having so we can raise our families
and serve the Community backers.
Envision a museum where children can visit.
We just seen y'all if we wanted to say hey,
like these kids from a neighborhood
summer program who just happened to
walk by during the firefighters tour.
You can also become a, uh, a paramedic.
Another rung on the ladder,
helping the next generation.
I am actually assistant
chief of administration.
Progress on our God still
being built brick by brick.
On a strong. Foundation,
thank you for coming Boyd, Hooper,
Carol Levin News. Minneapolis
the Minneapolis Fire Department
is currently made up of 400
and three men and women.
62 of them are black,
including the Fire Chief Brian Tyner.
We'll be right back.
15 years of storytelling.
Hundreds of videos all in one place.
Land of 10,000 stories.
The complete collection re
watch your favorite stories or
use the interactive map to find
new stories across our state.
Go to care11.com/land.
If you want to watch more of
Boyd's land of 10,000 stories,
the complete collection is available at
care11.com/land.
It is worth your time and Boyd if
you're watching tonight we all love you.
We're praying for you and we can't
wait to see you when you get back.
Thanks for joining us. Good night.