The 39th Annual Northeast Iowa Holiday Craft and Bake Sale will take place on Saturday, November 2, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Decorah High School, 100 Claiborne Drive, Decorah. This popular community event is free and open to the public.
Attendees will have the chance to enter a raffle for a brand-new TV, with tickets available at the door for just $2 each or three for $5. In addition, free door prizes will be distributed.
As one of the largest craft sales in the tri-state area, the event will showcase nearly 80 vendors offering a wide variety of handmade crafts, unique gifts, and perfect holiday shopping options. A concession stand will be available throughout the day, offering snacks, beverages, and treats to enjoy while attendees browse.
Hosted by the Decorah Performing Arts Boosters, the sale directly supports the music, speech, and drama programs at Decorah Community Schools. Proceeds help cover student entrance fees and admissions to contests and festivals throughout the year, providing valuable opportunities for student growth and achievement.
The Decorah Performing Arts Boosters is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and all donations are tax-deductible.
Access to Decorah’s West Main Street parking lot is CLOSED for construction. The trail will remain open, but access to Dug Road/Trout Run Trail will be unavailable at this location until further notice. Please use alternative trail heads or access points at this time.
Decorah High School will host a Veterans Day breakfast and program for veterans and their families on Monday, November 11.
Coffee will be served in the high school cafeteria starting at 7:30 a.m., and breakfast will be served to veterans and their family members beginning at 8:30 a.m.
The Veterans Day program will be held in the high school auditorium at 9:45 a.m. The VFW Color Guard will post the colors, and the DHS Wind Ensemble and the DHS Concert Choir will perform throughout the program.
An essential part of the breakfast and program is recognizing military men and women connected to Decorah. Those who would like to submit a photo of a family member who has served or is serving in the military to be added to the “Wall of Veterans” should bring a copy of a photo (no larger than a 5 x 7) to the Decorah High School office. Pictures can also be emailed with information to denise.gulrud@decorah.school. The following information should be included:
Name of person
Military branch
Years served or serving
Wars or conflicts fought in
The deadline to submit photos and information is Friday, November 1st. Those with questions can contact Denise Gulrud at Decorah High School at (563) 382-3643 or denise.gulrud@decorah.school.
Parking will be available in the lot on the west side of the high school. Veterans and their family members can enter through either the auditorium doors or the doors off the west parking lot.
Pledge of Allegiance
9:30 a.m. TJ Schissel – Rural Waste Coordinator
Re: program updates and possible action
9:45 a.m. Michael Kueny – County Engineer
Re: road projects updates
10:15 a.m. Andy Van Der Maaten – County Attorney
Re: legal questions regarding agenda & other issues
10:30 a.m. Rachel Brummel and Wendy Stevens
Re: Natural and Historic Resources report
11:00 a.m. Road Tour – Festina Sewer project
(Meet Tom Madden on site at 11:30 a.m.)
Consent agenda: approve minutes, approve claims, accept and file departmental reports, approve liquor licenses, approve fireworks permits. Any matter on the Consent Agenda will be removed from the Consent Agenda and discussed as a regular agenda item upon the request of any Board member.
Community Services Building Updates
Committee reports
Luther College is celebrating Indigenous Peoples Heritage Month in November with a series of events. Guest speakers will highlight Indigenous perspectives on educational leadership, regional history, and current events. Film screenings and an extraordinary planetarium experience will reveal more about Native American cultures.
Micki Abercrombie-Donahue, vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion and associate professor of education at Whitworth University
Wednesday, Nov. 6: “Indigeneity, Relationality, and Reciprocity: Transforming Models of Leadership in Higher Education,” Center for Faith and Life Recital Hall, 7 p.m.
Micki Abercrombie-Donahue will explore how Indigenous perspectives on leadership, grounded in principles of relationality and reciprocity, offer transformative models for higher education. Abercrombie-Donahue is vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion and associate professor of education at Whitworth University in Washington. This discussion will highlight the importance of community, interconnectedness and mutual care in reshaping leadership practices within academic institutions. This event is made possible by the Lucille Price Endowed Lecture and the Luther College Department of Identity Studies.
“The identity studies department is thrilled to continue our focus on Indigenous studies this year with Dr. Abercrombie-Donahue’s visit to campus,” said Char Kunkel, professor of sociology and identity studies department head at Luther College. “She brings not only strength in leadership but also research-based suggestions for transforming higher education in both leadership modeling and multilingual education, which leads to greater student retention for all. Her lecture and interactions are not only timely for Luther College but for the country.”
Thursday, Nov. 7: “The Business of Baskets: Weaving Economic Ties Between the Bethany Indian Mission, Ho-Chunk Families, and Lutheran Ladies’ Aides in the Mid-20th Century Midwest,”Pulpit Rock Brewery Event Room, 7 p.m.
Anna Peterson, associate professor of history at Luther College, will explore the ways Ho-Chunk women and their families negotiated the effects the Bethany Indian Mission in Wittenberg, Wisconsin, had on their lives and took advantage of the opportunities it presented through the making and selling of black ash basketry. While Bethany missionaries often saw this work as unnecessarily burdensome and outside of the scope of their call, the basket weavers and their families put pressure on the Mission to act as a conduit between the basket makers and basket buyers. In this way, they used the Mission and its contacts to ensure ancestral basket weaving survived in the face of great adversity. Luther College played a significant role in the history of the Mission. This event is sponsored by the Luther College Department of History.
Friday, Nov. 8: Anishinaabe Star-Knowledge Film+Planetarium Experience in Valders 206 and 205 (Planetarium), 7 p.m.
This multimedia evening will leave you looking up. The program will start in Valders 206 with a 25-minute film, “Living in Balance: Anishinaabe Star Knowledge.” The film highlights Anishinaabe stories of constellations and moons in relation to contemporary insights about environmental changes. Immediately following the film, attendees will move next door to the Luther College planetarium for a presentation, given by physics professor Jeff Wilkerson, featuring key elements in “Living in Balance.” The planetarium has a maximum capacity of 30, so this part of the program will be on a first-come, first-served basis. This event is sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Public Engagement.
Jessica Engelking of the Great Plains Action Society
Jessica Engelking, representation director with the Great Plains Action Society, will address the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR). The Great Plains Action Society addresses the trauma that Indigenous peoples and the Earth face and builds power in Indigenous communities. Engelking’s talk will focus on the crisis of Native American communities when relatives go missing. Come learn about this issue and how we can reduce and end violence against Indigenous communities. This talk is sponsored by the Center for Intercultural Engagement and Support.
Join the Center for Intercultural Engagement and Support for a screening of Chloe Zhao’s independent film, “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” (2015). The film follows two siblings, living on Pine Ridge Reservation, who face challenges after their father’s death. The brother considers leaving for Los Angeles, but it would mean separating from his beloved sister. Zhao is the director of “Nomadland” (2020) and “Eternals” (2021).
The Decorah High School Vocal Music Department will present a fall choral concert at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, October 21 in the DHS Auditorium. The concert will feature four choirs: Ninth Grade Treble Clef Choir, Ninth Grade Bass Clef Choir, Viking Chorus, and Concert Choir.
Choirs will perform pieces by Laura Farnell, Andrea Ramsey, Tracy Wong, Melanie DeMore, Sarah Quartel, José Maurício Nunes Garcia, Alice Parker, Rosephanye Powell, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. In addition, arrangements of the Irish folksong “Mairi’s Wedding” and “Dear Theodosia” from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton will be featured.
The choirs are under the direction of Jason Rausch and Dean Beckman. Collaborative pianist is Lani Himegarner. Additional instrumentalists include Oliver Brummel, Liam Chamberlain, Natalie Goodner, Lauren Severtson, and Ezra Vorvick.
Brad Chamberlain was introduced to the Luther College community today as the president-elect for the nationally known liberal arts college located in Decorah, Iowa.
The college’s current provost, Chamberlain was selected by the Luther College Board of Regents to become the 12th president of the institution, a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Brad Chamberlain, President-Elect of Luther College
“It is my distinct honor to accept the offer of the Board of Regents to serve as your next president,” Chamberlain told the assembled crowd of students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members at the Center for Faith and Life. “My wife Julie and I are humbled by your faith in selecting us to lead Luther into its next phase.”
With a career of over two decades at Luther, Chamberlain began as an instructor in chemistry in 2001, and has risen through the academic and administrative ranks. He will take over from current President Jenifer K. Ward, who announced earlier this year her intention to retire during the upcoming academic year.
Introducing Brad Chamberlain as President-Elect of Luther College
Learn more about Luther College President-Elect Brad Chamberlain, the college’s current provost, who was selected by the Luther College Board of Regents to become the 12th president of the nationally known liberal arts college.
“The board was looking for someone who could understand the macro challenges facing higher education and then translate that into the specific needs of Luther College,” Board of Regents Chair Bob Paulson said. “He cares deeply about his colleagues, about students, about the community—the Decorah community as well as the Luther community—and his ability to connect with people along with his breadth and depth of experience set him apart.”
“Brad is a remarkable leader and remarkable human being,” said Shannon Duval, vice chair of the Board of Regents and co-chair of the Presidential Selection Committee. “Whenever the college has asked him to step up and lead a different area or to learn a new set of skills for the benefit of the college, he has said yes. Once again today, he is saying yes. His ability to know the college, help maximize our momentum and have a vision for Luther makes him the perfect choice to become the next president.”
Chamberlain will be the first president to have been promoted from within the college in more than a century; Luther’s third president, Oscar L. Olson, was a faculty member before becoming president in 1921.
“It is unusual to have an internal candidate with the breadth and depth of experience he has, both a long tenure as a very successful and respected professor but also as an administrator who has had the opportunity over the past years to hold a number of essential positions,” Paulson said. “It also was important to the board that we not lose momentum. We have had some major recent accomplishments and there is still a lot of work to do.”
“Our search consultants shared with us that he brings a national-caliber set of experience and skills, and they made clear that we have a national candidate right in our backyard,” Duval added. “He could go to a lot of different places, and yet he has chosen Luther, he has chosen Decorah, and he has a deep and abiding love for both communities. Our ability to attract and retain a talent like him is a huge win for Luther College.”
Watch Brad Chamberlain’s Remarks at the Livestreamed Announcement Event
In his remarks, Chamberlain drew attention to five pillars of his vision for Luther College: build pride, restore belief, strengthen community, clarify identity and enact focus.
“When people think about a college that is drawing excellence out of students, I want them to think about Luther College,” Chamberlain said. “Students arrive at Luther with a set of dreams, and we help them achieve those dreams. But we also want to plant within them dreams that are bigger than the ones they brought with them to college.
Chamberlain spoke to specific ways to use Luther’s identity to focus on the college’s immediate future.
“I want to create alignment around our purpose,” Chamberlain continued. “As I see it, Luther College inspires and equips students to courageously serve the common good. I want us to reclaim that identity as the standard for preparing students for lives of meaning and purpose in service to the neighbor. What I think Luther does well is model and build that sense of focus upon others rather than focusing upon self.”
Chamberlain spoke both to the on-campus gathering and to the wider Luther community of alumni via live streamed video about the power and value of liberal arts education in today’s economy.
“At liberal arts colleges, we talk about the power of ideas, and we teach our students how to evaluate ideas and connect ideas, how to activate ideas,” Chamberlain said. “This is what I think the world needs right now. As we look at the challenges that society is facing, these are not necessarily technical challenges—they are adaptive challenges. This is what a place like Luther College prepares students to do. They are prepared to lead and to serve, but above all, through their leadership and service to others, to make everyone around them better.”
When people think about a college that is drawing excellence out of students, I want them to think about Luther College. Students arrive at Luther with a set of dreams, and we help them achieve those dreams. But we also want to plant within them dreams that are bigger than the ones they brought with them to college.
Brad Chamberlain
President-Elect of Luther College
More About Brad Chamberlain
In his administrative career, Chamberlain’s most recent position as provost began with his appointment as the interim in August 2022, then the permanent selection in December 2022. Utilizing his decade of experience within the academic enterprise, Chamberlain brokered new academic programs and shepherded Luther through a successful interim evaluation by the Higher Learning Commission. He also expanded the Office of Student Success with the addition of Advising, the Career Center, the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching and the Writing Center to create an integrated student success model, the first of its kind at Luther.
Prior to provost, he was the vice president for mission and communication from 2019 until 2022. Chamberlain led the implementation of Luther’s first integrated brand strategy. It included the integration of newly identified brand pillars, a refreshed visual identity, social media strategy and a redesigned luther.edu website. In addition, Chamberlain developed the college’s first strategic internal communications plan and co-led the COVID Response Team, under which he provided leadership for the development of a set of indicators and alert levels that provided a flexible and phased approach for all curricular and co-curricular operations during the height of the pandemic.
Brad Chamberlain advising a first-year student at registration in 2015.
Joining the college in the fall of 2001 as a visiting professor, Chamberlain has devoted his entire academic and administrative career to Luther. In the classroom, he progressed through the ranks, earning tenure in 2007, becoming a full professor in 2014 and chairing the chemistry department from fall 2014 until spring 2018. A chemist with a specialty in polymers and plastics, Chamberlain has many international, national and regional publications and presentations ranging from the American Chemical Society to the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Starting with research-based grants and external awards, Chamberlain has generated more than $800,000 in total awards. He is also the co-owner of a patent related to his work in polymers. His collaborative research with students was a hallmark of his time in the classroom, with more than 60 mentored undergraduates, three-quarters of whom entered graduate or professional programs and received a wide range of honors, including a Goldwater Scholar and 11 senior honors projects.
In parallel with his research and teaching, Chamberlain began a career of academic leadership at Luther, serving the first of his two terms chairing the college’s Academic Planning Committee in 2006. Leading the shared-governance committee charged with oversight of Luther’s curricula, Chamberlain co-facilitated a revision of the college’s general education curriculum and brokered the creation of new interdisciplinary majors.
Between his two stints with Academic Planning, he was co-director of the College Science Enrichment Project and Luther’s campus director for the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. Both programs sought to uplift STEM disciplines utilizing external grants. As a part of a 16-institution consortium to broaden support for underserved populations, more than half of the students who participated in the Stokes Alliance program obtained admission to graduate and professional programs.
The Chamberlain family in Norway in May 2024: Drew Chamberlain, Luther College class of 2026; Brad Chamberlain; Julie Torkelson Chamberlain, Luther College class of 1996; and Liam Chamberlain, a Decorah High School senior.
Graduating magna cum laude with his bachelor’s in chemistry from Gustavus Adolphus College, Chamberlain earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Minnesota. Before joining the Luther faculty, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University. A lifelong learner, Chamberlain has continued his education with professional certifications ranging from fundraising management from Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, to diversity, equity and inclusion from Cornell University’s online campus. He is set to complete his latest professional certification in strategy from the Harvard Business School’s online program in January 2025.
A frequent speaker at Chapel and Luther’s student-led worship services, he is the husband of Julie Torkelson Chamberlain, and the couple have rooted their family in Decorah. A 1996 graduate of Luther, she taught middle school English, worked part time in Luther’s admissions office for 15 years, and now serves as the lead pastor of a local congregation. Their oldest son, Drew, is a three-time American Rivers Conference swimming champion and 14-time all-conference junior swimmer for the Norse. Their youngest, Liam, is a senior at Decorah High School.
With Leaf Collection starting on Monday, October 21st, the City has a new way for residents to view where the leaf vacuum has been and where it will be next.
The Leaf Vacuum will begin in Ward 1 with the crews working through an entire Ward before moving on to the next.
As a reminder, please place your leaves behind the back of the curb; they can not be placed in the street. Please remove any other sticks or yard waste from the leaf piles as the vacuum can not pick that up.
Call City Hall at 563-382-3651 with any questions.
Amy Nam, Luther College adjunct faculty in music for harp and composition, was awarded second prize in the World Harp Competition, held during the 2024 Dutch Harp Festival in Utrecht, Holland, in April 2024.
The winners of the 2024 Dutch Harp Festival’s World Harp Competition are Kevin Le Pennec (center), first prize and audience award; Amy Nam (left), second prize; and Ariel Sol (right), third prize. Photo: Elizabeth Jaxon, courtesy of World Harp Competition.
“I was very excited,” said Nam about the experience. “I was the last to play in the semi-final round. It was a whirlwind. I was so happy to get to go, because all of the contestants’ programs were unique and interesting.”
Unlike many musical competitions that set the repertoire for participants, the World Harp Competition allows each contestant to create their own 45-minute program. “It’s whatever you want to play, anything involving you playing the harp,” said Nam. “There are all kinds of harps, even electric harps, folk harps and classical harps. It encourages creativity and pushing the harp outside the box.”
Nam’s program is entitled “Cosmic Fragments: Words and Music About Life, the Universe and Everything.” According to harpcolumn.com, “Nam’s program featured works written within the last century, alternating poems and prose with short works for solo harp, and reflecting on themes of the human experience in the context of the cosmos.”
It included compositions by multiple composers, including Nam’s own work, played on the acoustic concert grand harp, a small electric harp and a large floor pedal harp that was electroacoustic. Between playing, Nam recited selected written works by authors ranging from Italo Calvino to Mary Oliver over a background of electronic interludes composed by Sean William Calhoun.
Nam described her program as “a sweeping and quirky musical-poetic survey of human experience and the universe we inhabit. … It grapples with the most profound aspects of our existence: impermanence, imagination, suffering, wonder and potential.” Nam premiered the program in April, before the World Harp Competition, at Luther College’s Weston H. Noble Recital Hall.
“I’m left with three things,” Nam said about the competition and its results. “One was increased weight and credibility with my name. There’s also the program that I’ve developed that’s unique and that I can take places, such as other festivals. It’s something personal to me that has been worked to a high level. Finally, going to that competition and seeing other contestants in a whole festival with other harpists from around the world was very inspiring and energizing, and I will run off that energy for a long time.”
Leave the gremlins at home and join us for an evening of pumpkin carving or painting, just in time for Halloween, all while enjoy Impact Coffee drinks specials!
Thursday, October 24th from 5:00-7:00pm at Impact Coffee, specials are TBD at the moment.
