(bright music) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) - Welcome to "Almanac North."

I'm Maarja Hewitt.

- And I'm Brett Scott.

Thank you for joining us.

Tonight, Chancellor Nies joins us to talk about his first year at UMD.

- We're also checking out the latest segments of "Making It Up North" and "Venture North."

- That's all coming up, but first we begin with headlines this evening.

The Superior National Forest is proposing recreational fee changes for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to support education, maintenance, and enhance the visitor experience.

Planned improvements include upgraded campsites, portages, and entry points.

Public comments are being accepted through September the 2nd.

Open houses will be taking place in Ely and Grand Marais in July with a virtual option also available.

Full details and comment submission are available on the Superior National Forest website.

If approved, changes could take effect in January of 2027.

- Once again, tonight we are excited to share a segment from our new show "No Filter," which is a conversational interview series that explores the rich tapestry of Northern life through informal conversations with diverse, intriguing people from the region.

- Each episode is bringing a fresh voice to the screen, focusing on the unique perspectives, personal journeys, and life experiences shaping the Northern community.

- We'll share a short sample of our conversation here on "Almanac North," but we invite you to explore full episodes of "No Filter" on the PBS North YouTube channel.

Full episodes will be available there soon.

- Hi, I am Kristen Vake, the host of "No Filter."

We are in Hibbing, Minnesota today, and we have a guest we are so excited to share with you.

(vibrant music) Welcome to "No Filter."

Today we have a guest who has had a lifelong love of the outdoors and summer camps, and she actually turned that into her career.

We are excited to introduce you to Bridget Maruska.

Bridget, welcome to "No Filter."

Thanks for joining us.

- Kristen, thanks for having me.

- So excited to have you here.

You know, I try not to be biased, but I am from Chisholm and you are the Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Chisholm, so I'm so excited to talk all things, go Blue Streaks.

- Go Blue streaks indeed.

I'm learning all about it since I've taken that role.

- How long has it been?

- I'll be going on three years in May.

- Okay.

- So almost, almost tenured.

Would that be tenured, three years?

I don't know.

- Almost.

- Yeah.

- And how has it been so far?

- Incredible.

Yeah.

The community of Chisholm has been one of the biggest delights of my transition to the Iron Range.

I can see why they call Chisholm the center of the universe and where all things happen.

It really is such a vibrant community and it's growing and the people that I work with are hands down the best group of coworkers I've had in my entire life, so- - That's awesome.

- Yeah.

- So you grew up in Duluth, right?

- Correct.

- Okay.

So talk a little bit about your childhood growing up.

What did Bridget love to do?

- Well, I love to play outside.

I am an outdoor focused, oriented person.

Growing up, my family didn't do a lot of trips or anything like that.

It was the kids went outdoors and found whatever path they could find or creek they could discover.

And so it was me and the neighborhood kids playing with pine cones.

I remember we would create adventures for the pine cones and I went to summer camp and that was like the bigger outdoor adventure that I did get to have.

And that was what solidified my love for paddle sports and not mountain biking so much, but paddle sports, archery even.

We did all of the things.

Horseback riding.

I ended up riding quite a lot in my youth.

So yeah, I just was an outdoor person.

- So when your parents called for you to come home for dinner when you were a kid, were you the kid that was like, "I'm not ready yet, I gotta stay outside"?

- Yeah, you have to wait for the second call.

You never come in on the first call.

- Yes.

Yes.

- Yeah.

- So where did you go to school in Duluth?

- I went to Duluth Denfeld for high school and so I grew up right by the ore docks where the iron ore from the Iron Range was put onto ships.

And so I grew up with the sounds and the smells of iron just on the opposite end of the industry in Denfeld.

And then I went on after high school to Lake Superior College, which I loved because of just the diversity in the student population.

Having older adults in your classes was amazing because they asked all the questions you were too shy to ask as an 18-year-old.

And getting my AA through Lake Superior College was phenomenal.

And then I went to UWS, so I stayed in the Duluth area, but jumped to Superior.

And yeah.

- I went to UWS as well.

- Did too?

- And I loved it because coming from Chisholm, I think my graduating class was around 60 students, so a university felt daunting to me.

But UWS, they really pushed the smaller class sizes and that was true, there were smaller class sizes.

So I really enjoyed it.

And it was just right over the bridge.

Close enough.

- Yeah.

And the commute over the bridge is beautiful.

- It is.

- So every day making that drive was not a problem.

- Lake Superior is a wonder.

Oh, man.

So in high school, were you into sports or were you just focused on that outdoor stuff?

- In high school I was not so much into sports.

I liked volleyball, so I did become the manager.

I think there was a perception of me being too short to play, although I tried out and that might haunt me for the rest of my life that I didn't make the team.

But then I became manager and got paid to be at the games.

So I started realizing what is important in life and a career making money in high school is so beyond volleyball, I didn't care for the sport so much, which is interesting now in my current role as Parks and Rec Director.

In rec, there's all these team sports.

And so I'm trying to pull the passion that maybe wasn't there in my earlier years and find it now.

But really focusing in on kids is what I love.

And so any sport, if you see the kids having fun in 'em, that is what's important to me, it's not the winning.

So I bring that to the table in my career now.

But I was into English in high school and I was the editor of the high school newspaper my senior year, and that was the stuff that I loved.

- And what did you love about that?

- Besides the instructor, Mrs. Bonovitz, who was like my height and she would take me to lunch.

I thought she was so special.

I think putting together stories and sharing people's stories.

And then I liked punctuation, so I was good at editing.

- So it's interesting that you say you didn't make the volleyball team.

By the way, I don't think height is a prerequisite for playing volleyball.

I know plenty of good volleyball players who are your height, not my height.

(laughs) We're kind of on opposite ends of the spectrum, you and I.

But I love that you found a way around it to still be involved, but you got paid.

The players were not getting paid to be there every day.

You were.

Did you always have that savvy mindset?

- No, I fell into that just 'cause I liked the sport.

- [Kristen] Okay.

- But then I think my priority shifted and I realized that when I can make money, I should make money and so yeah.

I went on to become a camp counselor in high school, so I'd spend my whole summer away making money and playing with kids and that was fantastic.

- And was that, do you think, sort of what drew you then into the role you have today?

- Yeah.

Yep, it did.

(low music) - Our guest this week is University of Minnesota Duluth Chancellor Charles Nies.

Charles, thank you for joining us this evening.

- Excited to be here.

Thank you for having me.

- A pleasure to have you.

And you're just hitting a year in Duluth, one full academic year.

What stands out from your year in Duluth so far?

- Yeah.

Well, it's been a great year.

I moved here on Grandma's Marathon weekend last year, but didn't attend any of the activities, so I'm super excited to see what that's like.

And so still haven't experienced a full year in Duluth yet.

But from the academic year, I think the pieces that really jumped out is we've got amazing students that are just really working closely with our faculty in some of the discovery and research that they're doing.

And so it's been really fun to learn from them about the projects that they're taking on, the way that they have been able to be curious and use their classroom experience to then ask different questions and then do some research to discover that.

And so it's been a lot of fun doing that.

I'm new back into Minnesota.

I grew up here, but now I'm back.

And so also reintroduced to the world of hockey.

We didn't have a lot of hockey back in California.

And so being able to cheer on the women's and the men's hockey teams this year and their accomplishments was super excited as well as all of our athletic programs, but I think it was just fun to kind of relearn the rules of what happens on the ice, so.

- Keeps you busy in the winter too- - Absolutely.

Absolutely.

- When you're freezing.

Probably wishing you were still in California.

So what were some of your top goals when you moved here to the University of Minnesota Duluth?

- Yeah, I think a big goal was that the university had a transition in leadership for a few years and so there were a lot of opportunities for the new chancellor coming in to hire that senior leadership team.

And so that was a big focus, to be able to put some of those other pieces in place to add some of the stability for the campus through those hires and so that's been super successful, excited about that work and who we now have been able to bring together as a team here at the university.

I think the other big piece for me was to spend a year really learning the partnerships with the Duluth community and who are those different opportunities for us to strengthen those partnerships and working really closely with the other educational entities here in the community, whether that's the K-12 public school district or working with the community colleges or our partner just around the corner from us at St. Scholastica.

And so a big focus for me was kind of learning those players and developing strong relationships so we could really advance our educational mission collectively.

As well as then just learning more about what the university is doing.

I think one of the pieces that I was told when I took the job was the opportunity to kind of tell the story of the University of Minnesota Duluth to audiences.

And we've got a great story to tell.

And so for me, the first year was really learning a lot of that story so that I can help kind of shout it wherever I get a chance and the opportunity.

- It is a great story.

- It is.

- So you've spent time working in academia all across the nation in different locales.

Do you see unique challenges or opportunities at University of Minnesota Duluth?

- Yeah, I see unique opportunities and I think part of those opportunities is, again, strengthening some of those partnerships with the other educational entities that are here.

Working really closely with John Magnus, the superintendent of the public school district, as well as Pat Rogers from Lake Superior College and Barbara McDonald from St. Scholastica to really say, "How do we really elevate the educational opportunities and what we have here in the city of Duluth?"

I think that was one of the opportunities that exist.

We've got a lot of youth in our communities that may not necessarily know all of the educational pathways and the careers that those could lead to and so how do we partner together to really help with the community's workforce needs and think about the educational pathways that that creates.

And so I see that as a great opportunity that we have because we've got such strong educational partners here, as well as great connections with the Duluth community.

And so when we did the initiative, which is now called the Duluth Promise, we pulled in the Chamber and we pulled in APEX and we pulled in the city's workforce development to say let's partner on this and let's really think about how the educational units can come together to support the community through kind of our mission that leads to that larger community mission.

And so that was super exciting to be able to see that as an opportunity and really glad to be able to think about how we can create those stronger partnerships.

- So I'm sure you're very busy.

I'm sure your schedule's packed with meetings.

Do you ever have time though to go out on campus and connect with students?

And if so, what are you hearing from them?

- Yeah, I try really hard to make that connection.

And so at least once a month I do what I call Student Hours and I go into the Kirby Student Center and just set up a table, chairs, coffee, cookies, whatever, and just hang out in the Student Center just for students to stop by and talk and have questions of me or to share their stories or their experiences.

So I try to do that at least once a month.

I also had a great collaboration with our chefs in our dining center on campus.

They have been doing these pop-up chef tastings and they wanted to do a collaboration with me on that.

And so I said, "Let's do it."

So we worked really hard and we locally sourced as much of the project as we could to really create a small bite that reflected Duluth and we made 600 of them.

And we went back into the Kirby Student Center and passed out free samples of this great little bite that we were able to create, working really closely with a lot of the local farmers and local honey makers and all of that to be able to do that.

So that was super fun.

And all of that gives me that chance to just have more of an informal conversation with students where they don't feel like they have to come into the chancellor's office and have a conversation.

And so I'm learning really about the experience they're able to have at Duluth because we're kind of in that right size institution where we're not so big that you don't know your professors, but we're not super small, that we don't have some of the experiences that a college campus can create.

And our students are really valuing that and talking about their relationships they have with faculty and the opportunities and the doors that opened up in ways that has been really exciting to learn about.

And so that I think is every opportunity they have, they'll say, "Did you know that I had a chance to do this?"

Or I had dinner with a student and he was graduating and said, "I'm not sure what I'm gonna do next."

And I was like, "What do you wanna do?"

And I was able then to connect him with a colleague at Essentia, and now Ethan works there and he's got this great job and this great career.

And so just being able to be part of those conversations has been a lot of fun.

- And when you're not on campus, I understand that you're also providing a voice for the larger University of Minnesota system.

How do you represent Duluth in that area and make sure that things are balanced and Duluth has a voice?

- Yeah, that's a great question.

So the president of the University of Minnesota started the same day I did.

So we're newbies on the same day.

But she asked me to co-chair the University of Minnesota's strategic plan, so the next plan for all five campuses in the University of Minnesota.

And so that has really allowed me to have conversations across the state about what the contribution is that the University of Minnesota brings to the state of Minnesota, and then what distinctively we offer at Duluth that is different from part of that five campus university system.

So I'm able to talk about the research, I'm able to talk about the collegiate experience, but the small campus feel.

But I'm also able to talk about the connection to the city of Duluth, which I think is unique and distinctive, that our students don't feel like they're just here for a short term stay, but they feel really connected to Duluth and that is a statement about the community itself.

Yeah.

- We wanna keep them here, right?

- Absolutely.

- That's right.

- That's the goal.

- Yeah.

- Thank you so much for joining us tonight.

- Thank you for having me.

It's been a delight.

- Thank you.

- We're sending you to "Venture North" now at the Park Point Rummage Sale.

♪ The big sale is here (cheerful music) (cheerful music continues) - Hi, my name is Rory Strange.

I help my wife coordinate the Rummage Sale.

So helping with the Rummage Sale means that I put up garbage cans in the morning, help answer questions that people may have, and generally encourage people throughout the year to make sure they keep this day in mind so they can come down.

Park Point Rummage Sale is 43 years old this year and was started to protect the Art Fair Weekend.

So if you peel it back, this is the start of the summer.

We have the Rummage Sale, we have Grandmas, and then we have the pinnacle of events down here, which is the Art Fair.

And so it was really to kind of shift the focus this weekend to helping people clean out, spring cleaning, you know, kind of kickstart the summer and then also keep that week of the Art Fair garage sale free.

Well, there aren't any vendors, so to speak.

I mean, we have some food trucks, which is kind of neat, mini donuts, things like that.

But it's really up to the individual homeowners if they want to partake in the sale or not.

And so that's what's kind of cool about it.

It's a community event and again, no pressure to be involved, but if you want to be involved or even help your neighbor, do things like that, that's what it's all about.

Plus, good deals.

So anybody can do it.

And the caveat behind that is that it needs to be on private property.

You can't come down, set up on public property and say, "I'm here to be involved with the Rummage Sale."

We, again, can encourage the community to be involved.

You will find though, that there are families where they'll have family members that live in other parts of the city come down and take advantage of that one brother or sister, mom or dad that lives down here and says, "Hey, do you mind if we set up?"

that's what's nice about it.

I think the biggest memory that I have is I had an old Star Wars collection and to see a bunch of kids come through and sit there and clean it all out, they were so excited about it and I really didn't have anything else to do with it anymore.

But to see somebody walk away that happy with, "Look what I got!

Look what I got!"

And then later to find out that there were some awfully good pieces in there too.

So yeah, that's probably the good memory.

Best thing I ever got was a Red Wing crock, and I actually got it the night before the sale, had it sitting out by the side of the house, somebody came by and offered me, what, two times what I had paid for it.

And so it was like, "Absolutely!"

So that was a good deal.

I think the community appreciates all of the people that come down here and shop and friends are made, bargains are had.

So I think that's what's kind of cool about this whole thing is it brings a lot of people together.

There are people that will come down year after year and stop at the same place and "What do you have for me this year?"

So I think that's the nice thing about this event is it's very homegrown in a sense.

So that's what I appreciate about it.

♪ The big sale is here - This week's "Making it Up North" features Rick Dildine, the Artistic Director for the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis.

- I'm Rick Dildine.

I am the still fairly new Artistic Director at the Children's Theatre Company here in the Twin Cities.

As the Artistic Director, I'm ultimately responsible for the artistic vision and the productions we put on stage.

Each year we have about 200,000 people that come to see our work, and we plan these shows months, years out for the folks of the Twin Cities.

This upcoming season is my first season as Artistic Director, and I wanted to do something that was upbeat, adventurous, and music filled.

So the whole season is celebrating that energy.

I also wanted to do something that focused on mentorship, teamwork, collaboration, curiosity, all things that I think are really important to young people.

When we start putting a season together, we typically start with one show, and that one show then leads to the next one and the next one.

And then we start seeing what are the themes that are bubbling up?

The things that jumped out to us this year was mentorship.

I think as adults, one of the great things that we can be focused on is how are we mentors to young people today?

So shows like "Treasure Island," "The Wizard of Oz," "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," all of those look at mentorship, teamwork, and collaboration.

So when we're putting together a season, it is a rolling conversation.

There are a lot of folks involved.

You know, one of the great things here is that we get to speak to kids at all different stages of life.

So we try to make sure there's something for the young ones, something for the elementary kids, something for the older kids.

You know, over a third of our audience is grandparents bringing their grandkids.

This is a multi-generational experience, so we wanna make sure we're hitting on all those points.

So the Children's Theatre Company is located here in Minneapolis, but the work we do is throughout the community.

So we have camps, we have classes, we are always going out into the community.

This summer we have remote camps, not just here in Minneapolis, but in St. Paul as well.

One of the things that I was most excited about moving to the Twin Cities was just the diversity of people that live here.

So we wanna make sure that that diversity is in our programming as well.

This year we're doing the classic children's book "Go, Dog.

Go!"

but we're doing it in both English and Spanish.

"Go, Dog.

Go!"

"Ve, Perro.

Ve!"

It is just an absolute joy to do this early children's book that is about learning words for the very first time, but performing it in both English and Spanish.

We've also bringing in a show from overseas that is featuring a writing team from Senegal.

It is a brand new musical of Roald Dahl's "The Enormous Crocodile," all written by a Senegalese team.

Here, our audience is vocal.

They talk back.

When an actor asks a rhetorical question, they think it's a question for them.

It is one of the most lively experiences.

I wish more adults came to theater for young people because it's exciting, it's wonderful to hear them when they giggle, when they laugh, they openly gasp if something shocks them.

If adult theater was like what happens here at Children's Theatre, I think the theaters would be packed.

I hope it makes them curious.

I hope it inspires them to ask why, how, what if?

Those are the questions that are important as we grow in humanity and build a world together.

We cannot be afraid to ask why.

We can't be afraid to be curious.

And I hope our shows do that.

- And on that note, we can say that's a wrap- - That's right.

- For this week show.

Go out and enjoy your weekend.

I'm Brett Scott.

- And I'm Maarja Hewitt.

Thank you for us.

Goodnight.

(soft music) (bright music)