June 2024

Sleepy Eye FFA attends Timberland Leadership Camp

Forty-three Sleepy Eye FFA members traveled to Sibley State Park near New London June 3-6 for Timberland Leadership Camp, a getaway focused on teamwork and sharing between FFA chapters.Chapter Advisors and State Officers do all of the programming, activities and food for the camp for the week, which included a hike to Mount Tom, teamwork activities, survival in the forest, archery and sessions about writing goals and the various opportunities in FFA.

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Man suffers life-threatening burns at Sleepy Eye plant

A workplace accident at the Balchem plant in Sleepy Eye resulted in severe, life-threatening burns for an area man who now faces a long and difficult recovery while his family and friends rally around him.Juan Montemayor, 51, suffered second- and third-degree burns over about 65 percent of his body when he was scalded by 200-degree water at the plant, formerly known as SensoryEffects, around 3:30 a.m.

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Ball game to thank local vets and those still serving

The Sleepy Eye Baseball Association will host its first Military Appreciation Night this summer at an American Legion game in July.Players will wear special jerseys at select home games during the season to promote the event, which was made possible through Sleepy Eye’s American Legion Post 7 and an anonymous donation, association vice president Brandon Streich said.“This allows Sleepy Eye and local communities to celebrate the important contributions (of military personnel) both home and abroad,” Streich said in the association’s announcement.

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Performance of the Week

Leavenworth’s Jackson Huiras (SEHS Class of 2022) went 4-for-6 with three stolen bases, a double and an eighth-inning solo home run to left center to break a 6-6 tie against Essig in a game that began June 2 and ended June 4 following a postponement.Leavenworth’s 7-6 victory kept it atop the Tomahawk East League, where it was 5-0 as of Sunday.Send “Performance of the Week” nominations to dforster@cherryroad.com.

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Case against former pastor lacked religious element, judge rules, dismissing charges

A former Sleepy Eye pastor was giving emotional support to a girl at his church around the time their relationship turned sexual, but there was no evidence she sought spiritual help from him, a judge found in dismissing the criminal case against the man.That distinction was at the center of Brown County District Judge Robert Docherty’s written explanation for dismissing the charges against Nathan Luong, who faced three felony counts for his relations with the girl, who prosecutors alleged was 17 when they began having sex in 2019 or 2020.

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Windy City

The high winds that lashed Sleepy Eye on May 6 split this tree in half on the 200 block of Linden Street southwest, sending part of it onto Jim Windschitl’s car.

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