Download a photo of head librarian Larissa Schwenk.
Download a photo of Evan Curtin.
Download a photo of Meg Moynihan.
GRANITE FALLS, Minn. — On the next Compass program, learn about how local organizations are offering assistance to rural farmers and families experiencing crises and trauma. This special will air Thursday, May 28 at 9 p.m. and will rebroadcast on Sunday, May 31 at 12:30 p.m. It will be viewable online at www.pioneer.org/compass after the original airing.
Amanda Anderson from Pioneer PBS talks with Evan Curtin, the executive director of the Southern Minnesota Crisis Nursery in New Ulm. The SMNCN offers 24-hour childcare services for three kids at a time (six children in non-pandemic times) aged birth to 12, for up to 72 hours. “We don’t define what that crisis is,” said Curtin, “so it could be anything from domestic abuse to just needing a break, which I think a lot of parents are feeling right now with the quarantine.” The SMNCN also has a family advocate program because Curtin believes that “if you give people the tools and treat them with compassion, they can make good decisions and they can get themselves out of the reasons that they’re using the nursery in the first place.”
Meg Moynihan is a senior advisor at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, “but I also have a double life. In my other life I am Meg Stuedemann, an organic dairy farmer in Le Sueur County.” Moynihan tells her personal story of overcoming stress and trauma after she and her husband, Kevin, received a letter from their dairy co-op in 2016 telling them they would no longer be picking up their milk. “When our problem resolved at Derrydale Farm and we climbed to the edge of our hole … I went back to the department of agriculture and said, ‘Do you know how bad it’s getting out there?’” Moynihan recalls. “And so we’ve really tried to enhance what we’re doing and work with other agricultural partners across the state to kind of weave a net that people don’t fall through.”
Finally, Larissa Schwenk, head librarian of the Montevideo, Granite Falls, Clara City and Milan libraries, talks about one particular genre of books that inspired a whole new group of people—some people who had never gone into her libraries before—to be excited about reading. Schwenk’s view is the latest installment of The View From Here.
Viewers with story ideas and issues they would like to see discussed on Compass are encouraged to contact Pioneer PBS via email at yourtv@pioneer.org or call the station at 1-800-726-3178.
About Pioneer PBS
Established in 1966, Pioneer PBS is an award-winning, viewer-supported television station dedicated to sharing local stories of the region with the world. For more information visit: www.pioneer.org.
