(bright music) - Welcome to "Almanac North", I'm Maarja Hewitt.

We have a great show full of women who are shaping our region as guests today.

First, we're joined by high schooler and LGBTQ+ Advocate, Olivia Morin-Swanson live at the desk.

Then we visit Karen McTavish and her crew at McTavish Quilting Studio and Fabrics to learn about their art and their role in the community.

Later, we're joined in studio by the organizer for the Rosie Awards, Ali Carlson.

The Rosie Awards recognize women in the area that are active in the community and, quote, "Get stuff done."

And finally, on Almanac this evening, our crew spent some time with Kristy June Olson as she shares her story as a sound engineer.

That's what's in store on tonight's "Almanac North".

Ambulances, the entities that rush to your aid during a medical crisis, need emergency care themselves.

In a bill sponsored by Representative Dave Lislegard, DFL-Aurora, HF3932 would allocate up to $122.5 million to public and private ambulance services throughout the state.

The money would be a one-time funding in fiscal year 2025, the House Health Finance and Policy Committee approved the bill on a split voice vote Tuesday, and referred it to the House Taxes Committee.

"The situation is real and serious for our smallest communities," said Cap O'Rourke, executive director at the Minnesota Association of Small Cities.

He said one source of the problem is low reimbursement rates from Medicare and Medicaid.

Representative Anne Neu Brindley, Republican North Branch, expressed frustration that the legislature did not act last year when the state had the largest projected budget surplus in its history.

She said, quote, "We knew this problem existed and we didn't fix it when we had the chance to do so."

In his supplemental budget requests released Monday, Governor Tim Walz calls for spending $16 million to address the problem.

In response, Senator Andrew Lang, Republican Olivia, criticized Governor Walz saying, quote, "This is not a luxury, in many cases, it's life or death."

"This is a problem that has been building for many, many years," said Representative Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, the committee chair.

To receive funding, an ambulance service would need to file an application showing its revenue and expenses.

State officials would need to certify the aid amount for each provider by December 1st, and payment would be made by December 26th, 2024.

According to the 2023 State of Minnesota EMS system report, over 730,000 EMS responses were made in 2022 of which over 520,000 resulted in EMS transportation.

Well, now, I am joined in studio by LGBTQ+ advocate, Olivia Morin-Swanson, Olivia, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- Now, can you just share a little bit about your upbringing and how that shaped your perspective, excuse me, on LGBTQ+ issues?

- Yeah, so growing up with lesbian moms has always led me to kind of question norms and question, you know, is this way always right?

And a lot of the time, growing up in elementary school, I'd get the question, "Well, your parents are lesbians, how can you also be Christian as well?"

Which I found this question to be really confusing to me, obviously.

But what I decided was that I wanted to delve deeper into looking at, okay, why are these perspectives about the church being on one side and the LGBTQ community being on the other side of a wall?

Why does that happen?

And kind of what can we do to break down those barriers?

- So what role has your faith and involvement in St. Paul's Episcopal Church played in your life?

- Yeah, so growing up at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, it has always been a 100% welcome to everybody, every single person is welcome there.

And my family especially found that they just felt absolutely encompassed by all the warmth and light and they never were put down for their sexuality or anything like that, which is obviously a big part of who they are.

And the idea that, at some places, they have been put down for that, we just found was really unfair.

And as I got older, I kept hearing about, "Oh, this happens all the time, but not many people talk about it."

And what happens is when we don't acknowledge that that hate is still happening, then nothing changes.

- So you recently did a ton of research, a presentation, you went to London?

- [Olivia] I did, yeah.

- Tell us how that all came to be and how you got the chance to do that.

- Yeah, so basically, I had these two kids on my lacrosse team from overseas and they said how awesome it was to be in America and how much they just enjoyed being overseas.

And I decided, why the heck don't I do that?

So I kind of told my parents one day, I'm like, "Hey, could I possibly do this?"

And they said, "Okay, well, you have to figure out how to get it done."

So I started working, I washed dishes at Sir Ben's Tavern on the Lake, it's very fun.

And I started researching and I decided that the International Baccalaureate Program was the best.

I only wanted to do one semester so that I could be here for lacrosse season again.

And going back now, I realize the whole year would've been easier, but it was the whole idea of getting all that freedom, being able to explore so many different ideas was probably the best decision I've ever made in my life.

- And so, then how did you pick the topic for your research and presentation, and why did you pick the topic?

- Yeah, so for the grade 10 curriculum in the International Baccalaureate Program, I was in the Middle Years program, it's called.

And for grade 10, they have the students do a personal project.

And this personal project ends up with a 15-page report, thankfully, I did not stay long enough to have to write the 15-page report.

But I decided, you know, they said, "You can pick any topic you want, any idea that you want, but you have to have a product."

And I decided I always kinda liked the TED Talk format of things, I liked how you could share your truth kind of and make a nice presentation about how it all works together of whatever idea you want.

So I picked that I wanted to do an idea that was really prevalent to me.

And two big parts of my life are obviously my moms and the church.

And over time, I've realized, you know, this happens to all people, most people in the LGBTQ community where you'll hear that they're being put down by a community that says that they love everybody, which I just don't find that to be fair.

- So what did you find from your research?

Any surprising things to share or big takeaways for people?

- Yeah, so the research overall was awesome.

At first, starting a new project like that, it's very hard to get started, especially with there's no one clear answer.

And what I figured out was that I had to deliver this talk in a way that I'm not at all putting down any other dominations, I'm not putting down any other ideas, but rather opening my arms sort of and allowing people to ask questions and kind of join in with their ideas of, hey, maybe we can take a different approach to this that's healthier for everyone.

And it was awesome, I got to interview people at the Anglican church that I went to back in London.

I interviewed my Reverend Maggie Nancarrow here at St. Paul's Episcopal in Duluth.

I got some really awesome ideas.

Our friend in the congregation, Brad Brunfelt, he gave me a really good perspective about the three-legged stool, it's this idea of scripture, tradition and reason.

And I also looked at how time period, especially, and scripture, very much so have a different idea then that they do now, based on time period when written and biblical interpretation, which I figured out is better known as Biblical hermeneutics.

- Oh, so you're only a sophomore in high school, which I'm mind blown by, and you've already done so much for advocacy.

What's the future for, you know, advocacy for you?

Because, you know, you have a lot ahead of you.

- Yeah, I hope that I can continue to, not so much prove this point, but encourage others and invite others to have this conversation with each other and with their families, and acknowledge that this is a problem where LGBTQ+ individuals are being put down by the Christian community.

And you know, there is so much more that I could do, so much more that I could look at with this.

But I see that small things are the way to build up to big differences.

And I'm just very excited that now I've opened these doors to having these conversations, I've had some awesome conversations with my friends here, my friends in London, my family members, my family friends.

And I find that, once you start just talking about it and kind of debunking the myths that, you know, the Episcopal church or just the church community is on this side, and the LGBTQ community is on this side, that once we start having those conversations, everything kind of dissolves, that wall kind of dissolves.

- It's just the beginning.

Olivia, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- Well, next, we are headed to McTavish Quilting Studio and Fabrics to meet the women who run the shop, teach classes and empower everyone who visits there to be their very best.

- Hi, I'm Cheryl from McTavish Quilting Studios and Fabrics.

- Hi, my name is Pam Limmer, and I am an instructor here at McTavish Quilting and Fabrics.

- My name is Karen McTavish and I own McTavish Quilting Studio and Fabrics.

We are a quilt shop in the UMD area of Duluth, Minnesota.

- We have a quilt guild, several quilt guilds in Duluth actually.

But McTavish Quilting Studio participates mostly in the modern quilt guild 'cause we are a modern quilt shop.

And in that respect, we are teaching and so we're teaching hopefully younger people, we're sharing with each other, we're encouraging each other and just being all around good buddies.

- So in 2015, my best friend, Cheryl Dennison and I decided to open a storefront in Duluth, Minnesota and we were just quilters, so we were selling long arm quilting machines, we were providing classes, quilting for hire.

Cheryl became an expert at computerized quilting and I continued my work with custom machine quilting.

And then we started to rent out machines so other people could learn how to quilt on these giant big machines.

- I came in for a couple years in renting the machines, that's how I got to know Karen and Cheryl and I was down here so much, might as well work.

But I have seen so many people come in and I see how Karen treats people.

It doesn't matter who walks in that door, she treats 'em all the same, and people know they can just come in here and they will come in here just to talk to Karen, they will come in here for advice, you know, the quilters will come in and they know they can always get help.

And I think that's probably the biggest impact that they know they can always walk in this door and someone will help 'em.

- Quilting is very, very much therapeutic self-care.

There is something about working with your hands, working with a needle, working with thread that's very therapeutic.

So there's this, it lessens anxiety and we encourage a lot of younger people who walk in off the street when they're like, "I think I wanna sew, but I don't know where to go," and then we kind of lead them in the right direction.

We'll start them doing very basic beginner type of work and then, you know, ultimately, we wanna keep advancing their skill level.

Just yesterday ,we had a gal off the street who brought in her sewing machine, no questions asked, we gave it a shot, we fixed it, and she just knows that she'll be supported when she walks in, it didn't cost her a dime, you know, we just wanna keep her going and keep her sewing.

And we sat with her maybe six months ago just teaching her how to run the machine and asking her what she wants to make.

And it was really, you know, we love doing that.

And so, if we feel like there's a spark in somebody, we try to nurture it.

- I see quilting, in general, empowering people in the community because it is an outlet for creativity, gives them a great hobby that has an end product, which is wonderful.

- So one of the things about quilting is that you have a really big object to gift somebody, like for a wedding quilt or, or graduation quilt or a baby quilt, you know, it can be any size project.

It's a big gift of love.

The thing is about quilting, you're putting your love and you're thinking about every stitch about the person you're giving it to.

Literally, it's like a blessing, you're putting this thing on top of somebody so they're safe and warm at night.

It's a very loving, motherly thing to do.

- It's such the hobby that I love so much that it keeps your mind occupied, it keeps your body busy.

I think that just makes you a little bit more fulfilled if you can do something.

I mean, I don't wanna sit and be a couch potato, I don't do the skiing and a lot of the outdoor winter stuff.

So having something to do to stay really busy.

- Oh, quilting is a great hobby.

Like I said, it gives you that end product.

So there's something you're getting from it.

It's a wonderful gift giving hobby and everybody should give it a try.

- We are now back in studio with Ali Carlson, the organizer of the annual Rosie Awards.

Ali, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you for having me.

- So can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind the Women's Today Rosie Awards?

This was the seventh year?

- Yep, our seventh year doing it.

Gosh, we were sitting together seven years ago and we thought, we get so many story ideas about remarkable women in our community, and with only having eight issues of the magazine out a year, and just a handful of profiles in each one, there was a lot of women that weren't getting talked about, you know?

And so, we thought, what more can we do?

Let's throw a party.

(chuckles) - I love that, so what was the vision and the goal for the award ceremony, it was a party.

- It was a party.

- Yeah, to celebrate.

- We wanted to honor as many people as we can in this community.

I mean, every year, we get 60, 70 nominations of different women and I get, like, invested in all of them.

You know, like I feel like I get to know these women because you get like an inside scoop into their story and everything that they do.

And my goodness, it's so much more than just, you know, a nine to five job.

Like, it's 80 hours a week that some of these women, 100 hours a week that they're doing community work to make Duluth better.

- And so, there's several categories.

Can you tell us a little bit about the different categories?

- Yeah, yeah, we thought to have different categories to kind of maybe organize it better for, you know, how the women are going to be grouped together.

We've got categories ranging from volunteerism or mentorship or a Trailblazer award, the Silent Advocate, right?

That woman that just, she could be your neighbor and you have no idea how much she is doing actually for the community because she doesn't talk about it.

- And I love the Silent Advocate Award because there are many people who are doing good things.

- Yeah.

- And it goes unnoticed.

- Yeah.

- But, you know, it's good to lift those people up.

- Yeah, those are some of my favorite stories to read.

- So how do you evaluate the nominations?

Is there criteria or?

- There's not really criteria.

We have a group of judges and they are past Rosie winners.

- [Maarja] Oh, nice.

- And so they volunteer their time and they come back and they go over all of the nominations that have come in.

And we get together for lunch and they discuss everyone in there and they decide on the winner for that year.

- Do you do anything to like ensure fairness or inclusivity?

- We do ask that if you've got any conflicts of interest, any information, anything that could object your decision, we do ask that you step out just because we want it to be fair, and it's all about being positive, right?

We don't want any negative anything associated with these women, and just to not wanna tarnish the idea and the concept for everyone else.

- So you just had the seventh annual party, the celebration, the award ceremony.

Can you tell us a little bit about this year's winners or past winners?

Just to get an idea of who we're talking about.

- Yeah, so these women are everyone's neighbors.

They're their aunts, mothers, friends.

One winner this year, so, every year, I cry, like, it's just, it's gonna happen.

This year, the one that got me, there is a woman who volunteers, she takes photographs of stillborns, - [Maarja] Oh.

- Babies who haven't made it, and she will take those photographs in the hospital so the families can have something afterwards, you know?

Right then, it's not something that they're ready to see or want, but two years down the road or something, those photographs, they're priceless.

- Yes, yep, oh gosh, yes.

- And she does that based on her personal history, which she has, you know, shared, her nominator shared, and then she shares it in her story as well.

- Oh yeah, that's a beautiful story and a much needed service in any community.

Any other women to lift?

- Oh goodness, our volunteers in that category, it's very hard because these women are volunteering hundreds of hours a year.

Right, like, you feel really good about you have a couple hours here and there in a month.

But I mean, the one woman, the winner this year, I wanna say it was like 250 hours in a year that she volunteers on top of her full-time job.

- [Maarja] Wow.

- Yeah, so it's like a second full-time job.

- And those people are really making an impact on our community.

- They are.

- And when we need, so what do you think, the Rosie Awards, being acknowledged, the celebration, how do you think that's impacted the recipients themselves and their careers and maybe just moving forward in their volunteer work?

- We hope that it lifts them up and it shows them that what they're doing matters.

You know, sometime we can get wrapped up in the day to day and not remember the purpose or the reason behind doing this, and we just hope that by being acknowledged and celebrated and being able to share their story, that these women know that what they're doing matters.

And we hope that they are able to continue to do that and inspire other women.

- Yeah.

- I mean, I kid you not, these stories, they are all inspiring and it's so hard and it's so hard for these judges to pick their winners every year.

- Oh, I believe it, any future plans for the Rosie Awards?

- Well, if it grows any larger, we will outgrow the room that we're at the DECC.

(chuckles) - So, hopefully, that's- - So, hopefully, yeah.

- Yep.

That's the goal.

- We max out at about 250 people.

- [Maarja] Okay.

- So if it gets any bigger, we'll have to maybe go to another room there or explore other options.

- Well, Ali, thank you so much for joining us.

- Yeah, thank you.

- It was a great conversation.

Now the Almanac team met up with a music engineer, Kristi June Olson, also known as That Sound Lady.

Let's learn more about her journey.

(intriguing music) - I started audio engineering just as like a summer internship through Earth Rider Brewery.

I was a music teacher and figured, oh yeah, this is a nice little gig for a music teacher to do during the summer.

I like to be really involved in the performance as an audio engineer.

I do a lot of shaping according to the song, I'm pretty responsive in that way, there's a lot of engineers that just kind of like set it and forget it.

But I like to be a part of the performance, you know?

So that it's a really awesome kind of, I don't know, inspiring experience for everybody.

It kind of just like elevates the whole thing.

Yeah, it's been interesting to be a woman in this field and having a lot of bands show up and, you know, go talk to like my male intern and ask him all the questions, whether it's like their first day there and they just assumed that like the guy's in charge.

Yeah, I saw a lot of that right away in my first couple of years.

The more that people around here and in the cities have kind of gotten to know me and respect me, the less I see that.

As a mom of a young kid, you know, I work late evenings and then I gotta get my kid to the bus stop in the morning.

But it also does pair pretty well with needing to have that much flexibility to be able to start working at three in the afternoon or one o'clock or 8:00 PM.

Yeah, it's hard to find a gig that's flexible enough to work with audio engineering and freelancing.

I started On The Record zine for a few reasons.

One of them is, you know, I'd be mixing all of these shows and, you know, some artists would come in and there's like hardly anybody there.

And I'm like, what?

This artist is so great, this crowd should be huge.

Or I'd talk to some friends of mine later about the shows that I'm mixing and they're like, "Oh, I didn't even know, oh okay."

So we've had a real issue in the Twin Ports with just a lack of promotion.

People really didn't know about the shows going on.

There's a lot of pressure between the artists and the venues, for quite some time, it was the artists would rely on the venues to promote the shows, but the venues would rely on the artists to bring in a crowd, and all of promotion just kind of got lost for a lot.

And the arts community here is so interconnected and there's so much excitement around it too.

So I think that Duluth and Superior have done a good job of building up like an energy and an environment of art and music and theater.

We just, you know, we needed this extra little piece of infrastructure to, like, keep it going.

I would tell any little gal who wants to be a music engineer to just listen to music and, like, listen deep to music, you know?

Like, and identify why, why you like something, why you don't like something, what is it about that thing that makes it what it is?

You know, get real specific, to the nitty gritty.

'Cause the more you practice really intently listening to music, the more specific you can be as an audio engineer and the better you're gonna be at it because you know what you're listening for.

(cool music) - Before we go, here's a look at what you might be up to this weekend.

Saturday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, you can dye an Easter egg or two, then launch them with a wrist rocket.

The Northern Expressions Art Collective is hosting Egg-splosion 2024 at the Harrison Community Center in Duluth.

A light breakfast of donut holes, mixed fruit and juice will be served.

This event is free and designed to be fun for all members of the family, regardless of age.

Also, Saturday from 1 to 4:00 PM at the Oldenburg House in Carlton, a conversation about local historical women plus tea and goodies put on by the Carlton County Historical Society.

After the conversation, across the street at the Carlton Greenhouse, a flower arrangement DIY, tickets are $50 per person.

And all weekend long, you can visit the 46th Annual Home and Sports Show at Yanmar Arena in Grand Rapids, hosted by JCI Grand Rapids.

Saturday, March 23rd from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM, and Sunday, March 24th from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, admission is $2 at the door with kids under 12 free.

Well, it looks like there's a lot of fun waiting for you out there this weekend.

I'm Maarja Hewitt.

Thank you for joining us on "Almanac North".

I'll see you all next time, good night.

(bright music) (bright music continues) (bright music continues)