MARILYN HAGERTY: UND hoopsters spread warmth on ice-cold week

• Marilyn Hagerty

Marilyn Hagerty

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Dear Shirley,

It looks as though the honeymoon is over. The balmy weather we enjoyed earlier in January turned frigid this week. This is the kind of weather that calls for a hat and gloves. You don’t stand and chitchat on the corner of Third and Demers downtown. And unless you are positively zany, you don’t walk across the UND campus wearing shorts. Even the squirrels in my backyard know enough to go under cover.

But there is a glow around Grand Forks. Coach Brian Jones and his UND hoops team beat the NDSU Bison in a big game here Tuesday night. How sweet it was! And at the same time, Coach Gene Roebuck and his UND women were chalking up a win over Harvard — way out there in Cambridge, Mass.

Do you people down there in Tucson keep track of the Arizona basketball teams? I know you paid attention when Lute Olson was the coach!

I am kind of fascinated by an event coming up here this weekend. It’s called Sunshine Fest 2012. There will be a 3k to 5k walk/run Saturday morning. My guess is more people will choose the inside of the Ralph rather than the trails outside.

The Sunshine Fest is sponsored in memory of Shannon “Sunshine” Larson who died of dehydration while hiking a couple years ago. Her parents are Van and Dee Larson, and they are networking with others to help raise funds for a Hospitality House in Grand Forks.

Van Larson talks of the need for something like a Ronald McDonald House — only for people of all ages — right here in Grand Forks. It would be a place for people from out of town to stay while they have patients in the hospitals here. Last year was a good start. Van Larson thinks it will take three years to raise $2.5 to $3 million needed.

Seems far-fetched, doesn’t it, Shirley? But I won’t count Larson out. Years ago, when his mother, Carol Larson, slipped and fell on the ice, he developed Sure Foot. That’s the gripper for the bottom of shoes that turned into a big business.

Grand Forks is laced with interesting people, Shirley. Our city is not so big and we get to know them.

Well, today one of our city’s long time leaders is turning 100. He’s Gale Satrom and friends are invited to help him celebrate. The party begins at 1:30 p.m. at Valley 4000 Wheatland Terrace.

You know, Shirley, it used to be a major news story when someone reached 100. Now it is something very special, but there are many more people whose lives stretch out a century. Same thing with weddings. Fifty years ago the golden anniversary used to be rather rare. Now we have people commonly celebrating 60 and 70 years of marriage. And some go beyond.

It seems as though the last of the snowbirds have left town by now. There are a few who wait and do February and March in your sunny south desert.

Love from your sister Marilyn trying to find peace and joy while keeping warm along the west bank of the Red River of the North.

P.S. If you are planning to celebrate Chinese New Year, you should lay in a supply of fortune cookies this weekend, it starts Monday, and it is the Year of the Dragon. MH

Reach Marilyn Hagerty at mhaterty@gra.midco.net or at (701) 772-1055.