Neighbors are invited to the annual Honor Roll dinner.
As part of an annual citywide event to recognize volunteer service, several St. Anthony Park residents will be honored for their dedicated service to the community: Cindy Thrasher and Julie Glowka, Sue Connor and Sherm Eagles, and Deanna Seppanan.
Neighbors are invited to show support for the honorees by attending the dinner recognizing Honor Roll recipients from across the city on Friday, Jan. 31, 5:30-7:30 p.m., at the University of St. Thomas Binz Refectory, 2115 Summit Ave. Email amy@sapcc.org to RSVP. Admission is $10 in advance and $15 at the door.
There will be live music, dinner, cocktails and special guests.
Meet the 2014 District 12 honorees:
Sue Connor and Sherm Eagles
Sue Connor and Sherm Eagles have devoted countless hours, days and weeks to improving lives in the community for several decades. Their organizing and continuing coordination of the St. Anthony Park Community Gardens is but one example.
They were instrumental in efforts resulting in District 12 purchasing the garden site, and have spearheaded the planting and maintenance of the prairie garden next to the Community Gardens. They have written grants, letters and met with many people to obtain support and money for other community endeavors as well.
Eagles has long worked on city and district committees to seek the best and most enlightened directions for environmental and traffic programs in our community and in broader St. Paul. He has been an early leader in sustainable food efforts and a longtime diligent moderator of the neighborhood email group.
Connor and Eagles are community treasures who have benefited all in St. Anthony Park. We are thankful for their lives and their work.
Julie Glowka and Cindy Thrasher
Julie Glowka and Cindy Thrasher have been organizing the Fourth in the Park festivities for St. Anthony Park for more than a decade. They stepped up at a time when the former leaders had reached the end of their energies and had made it known the event was in danger of ending if others didn’t come forward.
Glowka and Thrasher did, bringing together a team of volunteers that have put this signature community event on every year since. This is the only Fourth of July parade in St. Paul, and it is enjoyed beyond the neighborhood’s borders, regularly bringing local and state notaries to participate. It is year-round work that takes skill, energy and passion. These two women possess an abundance of all three.
Deanna Seppanen
Deanna Seppanen responded to the demise of her local playground, Monkey Island, by organizing neighbors, leading negotiations with the city, working with planners and playground experts as well as helping to coordinate fundraising efforts. The result is a new playground financed by local individuals and institutions with labor provided by the city.
Seppanen’s ability to bring her neighbors together proved critical in convincing the city and donors to support this effort and restore a beloved community space.
