Interview and Profile by Caitlin Zawodny Food shapes a community. It nourishes, it builds connections, and it can bridge generations. Through her “My Favorite Recipes” column in the Storm Lake Times Pilot—over the last thirty-two years—Mary Cullen has showcased how food can unite a community as diverse as Storm Lake. Her recipes are often attached […]
Candy Clough’s Memorable Homecoming
Profile Text: Piper Nicely Interview: Joey Belmonte and Andrew Offenburger For many, a parade is a way to bring a community together. Gathering to celebrate, to cheer, and to showcase the highlights of a town can do much to create a feeling of togetherness across generations. For Candy Clough this is especially true. In 2018, […]
Lori Porsch on the Shift from Equality to Equity
Profile Text: Rachel Rinehart Audio Profile: Max Olsan Lori Porsch arrived as a newlywed in Storm Lake in 1981, a turning point for her and for the town, when Iowa Beef Processors (IBP) took over the Hygrade plant. In her time in Storm Lake, then, Porsch has witnessed first-hand the town’s transformation, and throughout her […]
Everybody Knows Gracie Vrieze
Profile Text: Madeline Phaby Gracie Vrieze, an interpreter for the Storm Lake Police Department, knows just about everyone in town. But she’s known some longer than others: she estimates she witnessed the births of about 40% of the city’s current population during her time volunteering as an interpreter in the Buena Vista Regional Medical Center’s […]
Stephen Chambang Offers Refuge Through East African Community Development
Profile Text: Paidamwoyo Hakutangwi Most Americans can’t relate to a story like Stephen Chambang’s, but many Storm Lakers can. When he was a teenager, in 1983, his home country, Sudan, split between the North and South in a brutal civil war. This pushed his family to flee the only home he had known in South […]
Tom Fitzpatrick’s Road to the Car Business
Profile Text: Laurel Myers Audio Profile: Joshua Tigges Tom Fitzpatrick is a businessman at heart. A lifelong resident of Storm Lake, he has become a fixture of the community through his various business ventures over the years, most notably his fifty-year-long commitment to working at—and later owning and operating—the local General Motors dealership in town. […]
Sara Huddleston’s Iowa, from “Horse and Buggy” to Local Politics
Profile Text: Olivia LeRoux Sara Huddleston first traveled to the United States as a tourist in 1988 expecting gun slingers, cowboys, and horse and buggy teams to surround her when she stepped off her flight. She was fully prepared for a total John Wayne experience. Her expectations quickly changed when her hosts picked her up […]
Teaching (and Waddling) with Jan McKenna
Profile Text: Charlotte Moore Edited by: Sam Purkiss There she stood, decked out in a black and white tuxedo, pretending to be a penguin. Jan McKenna waddled before a class full of young kids, hoping the ruse would somehow help her students learn the day’s lesson. “Everybody learns differently,” she said, laughing at the memory. […]
Slamming Spanglish with Matthew Marroquín
Profile Text: Hunter Kolbus Editor: Sam Purkiss Audio: Joceline Medina One of the first things Matthew Marroquín and his family knew about Storm Lake was the local Burger King. Not exactly fine local cuisine, but it would do. His family had come to town in 2000 because of the job opportunities available at IBP for […]
The Converging Past and Unknown Futures of Diana Pastrana and Heidi Coronel
Profile Text: Michel Reising Audio Profile: Autumn McClain Photos: Autumn McClain The prospect of a better life–“the pursuit of happiness”–is what has drawn immigrants to the United States from its founding, and is what brought the Coronel and Pastrana families to settle in Storm Lake, Iowa. Both Heidi Coronel’s and Diana Pastrana’s parents were born […]