Yes, we have Veterans Day in the fall, and Memorial Day in the spring. But our service men and women sacrifice their time and safety every single day of the year, to preserve our freedoms.

At many homes, there is an empty seat for one who is serving, or one who made the ultimate sacrifice for our Country. We honor our veterans every day. And we think there is no better time to express our appreciation, than during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. We hope you will join us at any of our 700+ participating locations, to show our veterans and their families – that we will not forget. We will never forget.

To make a $15 wreath donation for a Fort Snelling Wreath, click here.  For every 2 wreaths sponsored, DART will donate a third.

Honor our fallen veterans and let’s fill Fort Snelling with wreaths.

Northfield is officially a Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Community (Proclamation November 11, 2015)

Invitations for the Northfield Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Proclamation Celebration go in the mail Tuesday, October 27, 2015. If you would like to receive an invite – email Virginia Kaczmarek (virginia@ northfieldymca.org) and we’ll get one in the mail for you! Everyone is welcomed – we encourage all military personnel, veterans and their families to join us – Nov 11th 7pm Middle School.

Announcement: Guess who will be our honorary speaker at our Northfield Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Proclamation and Celebration Wednesday, November 11? Mary Pawlenty – the woman who started these programs! We are overwhelmingly excited!

Military Appreciation Night at the MN Wild is just around the corner. This event takes place on November 10th at 7pm, where the Wild will be taking on Winnipeg.

Tickets are first come first serve starting with Lower Level Corners for $55. The Wild will honor military during the intermissions and throughout the entire game. This game sells out fast every year. To access the offer at the link below. You will need a .mil or .gov etc. email. If you do not have an government email, call Lindsay below to get the DD214, VA Card, etc. for the tickets.

For more information on tickets, click here.

October 10, 2015, Northfield American Legion members, Rick Hillard (Commander) and Virginia Kaczmarek (Adjutant), represented our district (District 3) by spending the day learning about local, state and national support for veterans.  The training was held in New Ulm.

The news spread quickly on Friday when Annette Kuyper sent the email saying Northfield’s Beyond the Yellow Ribbon was approved by the state organization to become a Yellow Ribbon Community.  For a copy of the full article by the Northfield News, click here.

The email from the director of Military Outreach for the Minnesota Department of Military Affairs was short and sweet.

“It is a pleasure to announce that your action plan has been unanimously approved by the state of Minnesota Yellow Ribbon Action Plan Review Board,” Kuyper said. “The Board was very impressed with the synchronization of effort in your community to support service members, veterans and military families.”

Those on the steering committee and others who have been working tirelessly for months (years for some) to make this a reality were certain the efforts would pay off, but nonetheless, they were happy when the announcement came Friday morning.

“I can’t tell you how good it is to finally know this is a reality,” said Tom Franklin, chaplain for the American Legion and one of the original steering committee members when the effort was first launched a couple of years ago. “While it has been a long time coming it is well worth it.”

For Northfield service members, veterans and military families, confirmation means there will soon be a comprehensive network in place that connects and coordinates agencies, organizations, resources and employers for the purpose of creating access to resources for those in need of them.

Co-steering committee chair Virginia Kaczmarek said that to be recognized and proclaimed a Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Community took a lot of work from city officials, staff from the Northfield Police Department, Northfield Hospital, Allina Health, service clubs, the VFW and American Legion, Northfield’s faith-based community, the Chamber of Commerce, the business community and the Northfield School District.

“This was a joint effort and truly a network of Northfield community people from all sectors joining together and putting together a plan that will support our military staff, veterans and military families no matter what their needs might be,” she said on Friday.

Kaczmarek said the organization has taken a three-pronged approach in getting this far. The first, she said, is all the people, from all sectors of the community, working together to put an action plan in place that will support service members, veterans and military families.

The second step, she said, is to celebrate this accomplishment.

“It took a lot of work and no matter what everyone was asked to do in preparation to achieve this, they did not hesitate and stepped up to the plate to provide an action plan that has impressed the state of Minnesota,” she said.

And the third step, and maybe most rewarding, she said, will be to actually have an impact on military service members, their families and veterans.

“No matter what they ask or need support in, we can be there as a community with resources and support from around the state to provide support whenever needed,” Kaczmarek concluded.

To celebrate this historic accomplishment, Northfield Beyond the Yellow Ribbon will host members from the state BTYR organization, state dignitaries and community members in a proclamation ceremony set for Nov. 11 (Veterans Day) in the Northfield Middle School auditorium.

Northfield will become the 272nd Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Community in the state and the last community with a National Guard armory.

Reach Managing Editor Jerry Smith at 645-1136, or follow him on Twitter.com @NewsNorthfield

Mary Dack, from Bell Mortgage is using the Pay it Forward program from Bell State Bank and Trust to donate $1000 to Northfield’s Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Network.  The Beyond the Yellow Ribbon network is a partnership with the Minnesota National Guard and the state of Minnesota and is a group of Northfield citizens who want to help make things a little easier for our local deployed and returning service members, veterans and their families.”

Mary has been a Loan Officer and resident in the Northfield community for over 20 years and is excited to participate in this wonderful program for Veterans and their families.

For more information, visit the Northfield Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Facebook page.

Attached picture left to right:  Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Committee Members:  Tom Franklin, SFC Kristopher Nelson, Virginia Kaczmarek, Jerry Smith, Mary Dack, Rep David Bly and Todd Bornhauser.

The Northfield Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Network, in partnership with the Minnesota National Guard and the State of Minnesota, wants to help make things a little easier for deployed and returning service members, veterans and their families. 

As a community, our first challenge is to achieve official status from the State of Minnesota to be a Yellow Ribbon Community.  Committees of Northfield people are forming and working together in key areas such as Faith based, public safety and judicial, city leadership, veteran organizations, civic organizations, businesses, social services and medical providers and education and people in support of youth. If you would like to join the conversation to help us achieve this status – email us at NYellowRibbon@gmail.com

Mission

The Northfield Beyond the Yellow Ribbon mission is to recognize the sacrifices being made by our military members, veterans and their families at home and to provide a support network for families while their loved ones are deployed