Looking Back on 2021

January: With COVID-19 still looming over us, we started the year with school in hybrid learning. While elementary students were back to a full time school day, high school students were still attending part time and distance learning the other part.

High School sports were back in play, with restrictions and smaller game schedules. 

Mia Thompson and Paige Breckel were both named Academic All State for their roll on the Win-E-Mac Patriots volleyball team. 

Patriot Alex Jacobson was named Academic All-State for 9-Man football.

The Win-E-Mac Triple A Award nominees were Felicity Andrews and Gavin Walker. The triple A award encompasses academics, athletics and arts in it's candidates.

The kids at The Clubhouse Childcare Center were able to spread some joy as they traveled around the community, including outside of McIntosh Senior Living to sing songs for the residents who had been quarantined for so long.

McIntosh held it's Community Blood Drive on January 27th, after a year off. The blood drive collected a total of 47 units of blood products for patients in need. A total of 52 individuals volunteered to donate blood and 43 were able to give blood.

After 47 years at Wild Rice Electric, CEO, and McIntosh native, Steve Haaven,retired.

February: The Win-E-Mac high school students were able to shift back to daily in-person learning beginning on February 8th with the option of distance learning still available. 

A near miss as a semi-truck came close to hitting the home of McIntosh resident Jim Wertish.

The 2021 Win-E-Mac School District Spelling Bee was held at 9:00 on Thursday, January 28th in the Arts & Events 

Center. Ten spellers--four from fifth and sixth grade, and two from seventh grade--competed in the Bee. In the end, Joy Neubert, a seventh-grader, was the champion and will be competing at the Regional Spelling Bee on Wednesday, February 3rd. The Regional Spelling Bee will be held in a virtual format this year. Taking second place was Adylaide Hickman from fifth grade. Taking third place was Nathaniel Spry from sixth grade. In all, 95 words were used in the competition over the course of 16 official rounds (plus a practice round). The championship word was "nutrients". 

Polk County launched an “Equitable Property Value Hub” website to help ensure fair and transparent property appraisals for local property owners.

Jim Ferden currently Board Chair at Win-E-Public Schools, was  re-elected to a fourth term on the Region 1 Information Management Services (Region 1) Board. Ferden represents Win-E-Mac School on this nine member Board. Region 1.

The COVID-19 pandemic did not stop the annual midwinter fun of the One-Act Play performances across Minnesota. Each year, Win-E-Mac School participates in the MSHSL One-Act Play competition, and in 2021 it was no different, just performed in a different way. Twelve Win-E-Mac students played twenty-one characters, covering thirteen scenes with the play submitted by video to the MSHSL.

The evening of Saturday, February 27, 2021 the Friends of Rydell and Glacial Ridge Refuges Association hosted a Candlelight Ski and Owl Prowl event at Rydell National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) near Erskine, MN.