The annual Sacred Heart Fall Festival returns this year for a weekend of food, fun and prizes. Come for all of your favorite activities—bingo, raffles and drawings, the Second Hand Store, children’s games, and much more. The Festival will take place on Saturday, September 9 from 5:30 to 11:00 p.m. and Sunday, September 10 from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
   This year The Johnny Owen Swing Band makes an appearance on Saturday night, so bring your dancing shoes! We will also have a new food booth this year with food from the Philippines.
   There will also be a Classic Car Exhibition this y ear on Saturday evening.  The Best of Show prize is a free stay at The Hotel Saint Paul, and the first 20 cars get a $5 food coupon.
   Sacred Heart Church is located at Sixth and Arcade Streets. Come, bring the whole family and join in the fun—we’ll be looking for you!
   Editor’s Note:
   Sacred Heart Church recently experienced a theft during which all of the donations received thus far for prizes for the Fall Festival were stolen. Items taken include toys, games, health and beauty products, household items, sports and recreation equipment, radios, and much more.  Sacred Heart is asking that anyone willing to help out with extra donations at this time please bring them to the Sacred Heart parish office at 840 East Sixth Street. Your generosity  is greatly appreciated.

New Name for health care facility
by Caroline Snyder
 
The facility formerly known as the Dayton’s Bluff Community Care Center is now the Good Shepard Care Center and is under the administration of the Benedictine Health System, Duluth, and Health East.  The Center hosted an open house on July 10, 2000, during which a “name inauguration” ceremony occurred and Good Shepard Care Center was officially blessed  by Bishop Frederick Campbell.
   The administrator is Tom Thompson, who was born and raised in West St. Paul.  Tom served in the military in Vietnam as a medic in 1970 and 1971, and, after graduating from Inver Hills Community College, he received his administrative license in 1976.   Tom was administrator at Galtier Nursing Home in the Midway area of Saint Paul for five years.  While there, he instituted a new program for the care of the Southeast Asian population.
   Good Shepard Care Center is dedicated to serving all people and is open to people of all faiths. There are departments for many special needs. People of all ages who are in transitional care from hospital to home may receive care there during the recuperative process.
   Volunteers of all ages and faiths are also welcome.  Tom Thompson believes there should be a special award of recognition and honor that he could give to each volunteer, for he values their services immensely.  
   The mission of Good Shepard is to “embrace and apply to lives the Benedictine core values of Hospitality, Stewardship, Justice and Respect.  In doing this we create a healing environment that enhances the dignity of every individual and promotes the quality of each life by meeting the spiritual, physical, mental and psychosocial needs.”
   Congratulations to Tom and all of his staff  for their dedication to this mission and for helping to meet the health care needs of the Dayton’s Bluff area.
 
Letters to the Editor 

Dear Editor:
 
I'm writing to ask your readers to join me in voting for Senator Randy Kelly on September 12 in the DFL Primary. As a 21 year resident of Dayton's Bluff and director of the Portage for Youth, a small non-profit agency that serves at-risk teenage girls on the Eastside, I know Randy to be a caring man, and one who makes things happen.  He has come to our assistance on several occasions.  Most recently, he co-hosted a community fundraiser for the historic Mounds Theater that we at the Portage are transforming into an Eastside performing arts center. In preparation for this event, he arrived on "moving day,", rolled up his sleeves and helped us clear away 30 years of dirt. He also took the time to stop by for both National Night Out and Summer Fest. 
The simple fact is that Randy not only represents our best interests at the Capitol, he's quick to lend a hand right here in the neighborhoods.  Please, vote for Randy Kelly on September 12th.
 
Sincerely, 

Raeann Ruth
Portage for Youth
965 Fremont
St. Paul, MN 55106
772-8674

Friends of Swede Hollow meeting 
 
   The next Friends of Swede Hollow (FOSH) meeting will be held on Thursday, September 21, 2000 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Yarusso Brother’s, 637 Payne Avenue (at the tables outside of the restaurant).  Anyone interested in or concerned about the Swede Hollow area is welcome to join us.
   Monthly topics include: Hamm Mansion Wildflower Garden, Swede Hollow Planting Plan, other Swede Hollow activities, Lower Phalen Creek Watershed Project and Hamm Brewery Neighborhood Initiative.    For more information call Karin at 776-0550.
 
The Portage for Youth
by Raeann Ruth, Executive Director

The Portage for Youth is in its sixth year of successfully offering services for disadvantage young women.  Portage programs feature the music mentorship program, the photo mentorship program, creative writing, summer camp, nutrition, money management, literacy women's studies, dance, karate, camping and Art in the Alley.  These programs build self-esteem, teach new skills, provide outlets for creative expression, promote cooperation within new or diverse cultures and offer alternatives to criminal activity, drug use, truancy and teen pregnancy.
   The Song Writing Mentorship Program resulted in the formation of a five- voice Hmong singing group called “Jagged Innocence." Their first song, "Faith in Someday" has become a voice of their generation and was written and recorded by these remarkable young women.  These young women, some of  whom struggle in overcrowded houses, cultural segregation, violence, gangs and apathy,
are singing about their hope that someday they will change the world and that, with faith and a belief in themselves, they can make a difference.  "Faith in Someday" has been pressed to CD and is available through the Portage.
   The Portage invited women from all over the country to be a part of a 150-voice back-up chorus on the recording of their new song, "Voices in the Wind," a plea to stop the violence and a message of hope that working together, we can change the world.  A compact disk of the recording session will be available sometime in September.
   So far, we have received 4 registration forms from readers of the Dayton’s Bluff District Forum.  We are doing a FALL ROUND UP, so if the Portage is of interest to you and your daughter, give us a call at (651) 772-8674 and we will send you a registration form .  You can also visit our website at www.theportage.org for additional information on times and programs being offered.
 

Memorial
To Allen “Pete” Aydt, our advertising representative at the Dayton’s Bluff District Forum, born May 2, 1951, died suddenly on August 9, 2000.  The staff of the Dayton’s Bluff District Forum wishes to extend deepest condolences to your family and close friends.  You will be missed by everyone who knew you. May you rest in peace.

St. John’s Catholic Church has new pastor
by Greg Cosimini
 
   After 55 years, the Reverend Thomas Pingatore has returned to St. John’s Catholic Church as its new pastor.  He was ordained as a priest on October 7, 1944 and his first assignment in 1945 was at St. John’s, as assistant to the pastor, Father Doyle.
   Father Doyle was reassigned shortly after Father Pingatore’s arrival. The new pastor, Father Edward Decourcy, brought with him his own people and Father Pingatore spent the next several years gaining experience at parishes in Olivia, Wilmar and here in St. Paul.
   In 1947, Father Pioletti at Holy Redeemer, an Italian parish, was in need of an assistant.  Since Father Pingatore is Italian and able to speak the language, he got the assignment.  Part of his job was to take care of St. Ambrose, a mission parish on Payne Avenue.  A mission parish was one that had a church but no permanent priest.
   St. Ambrose was upgraded to a parish in 1954 and on January 7 Father Pingatore became its first, and as it turned out, its only pastor.  Catering to a growing and mainly Italian congregation, a new and bigger church was built on Burr Street in 1957.  Father Pignatore remained its pastor until the Archdiocese closed it in 1998.  That was when his journey back to St. John’s really began.
   Father Pingatore became Pastor Emeritus of the new St. Ambrose that was being built in Woodbury.  However, many of his former parishioners opted to join St. John’s in Dayton’s Bluff.  He asked Pastor Joseph Fink if he could say Mass at St. John’s from time to time to make them feel more at home.  Father Fink agreed and Father Pingatore became the celebrant at the 4:15 p.m. Mass on the first Saturday of each month.
   After Father Fink was reassigned to St. Mary’s in Shakopee this past June, Father Pingatore began helping out more often. The search for a new pastor went slowly due to a lack of available and experienced priests.  Father Pingatore came up with a solution to the problem by volunteering to become the new pastor.  The Archdiocese agreed and on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption, he became only the ninth pastor at St. John’s since it was established in 1886.
   When asked how long he will stay at St. John’s, the spry 80-year old priest says with a twinkle in his eye that due to Archdiocesan rules, priests nowadays can only stay at a parish for twelve years.  So come 2012, Father Pingatore will be out looking for another parish.  But until that time, he is very welcome at St. John’s.

Metro State partners with Wells Fargo 
  
    Metropolitan State University and Wells Fargo Institutional Trust Services have formed a unique public/private partnership to create the Wells Fargo/Metropolitan State University education and training center.  Within the university’s College of Management, Metro State offers Wells Fargo Institutional Trust Services employees specialized training and education.
    The specialized instruction and coursework developed at the center will provide the employees with opportunities for both current job-related training and future career enhancement, along with the chance to earn college credit.
    “The financial industry is enjoying continued expansion, and Twin Cities-based businesses in particular are faced with an increasingly competitive hiring environment—particularly in the specialized areas of employee benefits plans, and trust and securities services.  It is a challenge to find job candidates that pre-possess all of the necessary industry knowledge and skills for our business.  Therefore, we must seek individuals who have demonstrated a willingness and commitment to learn and build on some other related experience.  It is in everyone’s best interest to provide employees with the tools they need to succeed, said John Reynolds, senior vice president, Wells Fargo Institutional Trust Services.”
    Wells Fargo Institutional Trust Services chose Metropolitan State University to design and to instruct the employee curriculum due to its reputation, experience and expertise in adult education.
    “Metro State is the best in the Twin cities in terms of training and education of the adult learner.  Over ninety percent of our university’s students are working adults,” said Robert Kramarczuk, associate dean and graduate program director of Metro State’s College of Management.  “We understand the needs of the adult learner and demands of family and work.”
    This past spring and early summer, Metro State offered the first courses under this partnership—Securities Processing, Trust Basics, and Money and Banking.  Using written evaluations and focus groups, the courses were assessed as being extremely successful, according to Kramarczuk.  By the end of the year, Metro State expects to have the center’s distance learning program in place with will enable Wells Fargo Institutional Trust Services staff in Chicago, Iowa and the west coast to take advantage of these training and education opportunities.
    Wells Fargo, the seventh largest banking company in the United States, holds more than $425 billion of client assets in custody and is among the nation’s largest and most respected providers of institutional trust and investment services.  Its Institutional Trust Division serves more than 8,000 retirement plan sponsors and 750,000 plan participants in 49 states.
    Metropolitan state University, one of seven Minnesota state universities, serves approximately 7,500 students in the Twin cities metropolitan area.  It offers quality programs leading to baccalaureate and graduate degrees.