Wes Dunsmore has probably earned a break. Dunsmore, Eden Prairie’s retiring park operations supervisor, has been working in parks since he was 16, and, following a stint in the Marines, he’s been working in the Eden Prairie parks since 1972. That’s 37 years and eight months on the job in Eden Prairie.

And he’s never taken a sick day.

You do what you’ve always done and “time takes care of itself,” said Dunsmore, 60, who had his last day of work in Eden Prairie Tuesday.

In 1981 Tracy Luke was finishing up her officer training program at Normandale Community College and needed to find an internship. The head of her program recommended Eden Prairie. It turned out to be some life-changing advice.

“They expected a lot more from an officer here, and I wanted that. I wanted to be at some place that had really high expectations of all its workers,” said Luke.

Luke, now Lt. Luke, was hired full-time in Eden Prairie 1985, and hasn’t looked back. She’s retired this month after 25 years of work in Eden Prairie.

Wendi Russo, 2010 Mrs. Minnesota U.S.A. came close, very close to winning the Mrs. U.S.A. title at the national pageant in Las Vegas last Thursday.

Russo is an Eden Prairie resident, and an on-air TV host at Shop NBC, a TV shopping network, broadcast from Eden Prairie. She won the Mrs. Minnesota U.S.A. pageant in May, winning the opportunity to compete in the national pageant.

Russo, 43, was first runner-up in the pageant, one of three national pageants that celebrate family and married women.

Eden Prairie High School class speakers this year include Matt Sweeney, Brendan Gay, Brian Peters and Greg Morgan. Eden Prairie News spoke with the graduating seniors about what it means to be part of the class of 2010.

First impression of Eden Prairie High School freshman year
For Brendan Gay, what first stuck out to him was the diversity of the students at Eden Prairie. There were so many different people that he could meet, he added.

“It was fun and it was a new experience coming from CMS that year with the same kids,” Gay said.

Editor's note: Scroll down for tips, plus allergy trivia

By True Grimes

Although Minnesotans greet warm and sunny weather as if it’s a long, lost friend, the season brings with it a curse. And with this warm up, the curse has been especially cruel.

Going from cold to warm has caught people who have fought seasonal allergies off guard, yet again.

Navy Hospital Corpsmen like Paul Goldstein were taught to stay back until the gunfire stopped. But the reality of combat zone was a whole other matter.

“You don’t think, you just do,” said Goldstein, a Vietnam War veteran and Eden Prairie resident who will be honored during Monday’s Memorial Day Ceremony. “Bullets are flying, grenades are flying but when a man gets hit … you have to take care of him.”
Combat medicine training taught them not to expose themselves to fire, “That sounds good, but these guys are your friends.”

By Kristin Holtz

A Shakopee author is hoping to bridge eastern and western religious philosophies in his first book.

Shambhu Nath wrote “The Second Coming of Da Vinci – Real Lost Symbols of Bible” to promote an exchange of learning between East and West and focus on common principles of all religions.

Making music is a democratic process for the band members of Eden. Though you could label it “indie-rock,” the sound is not something you can just pin down. Eden, made up of EPHS students Sarah Olson, Danny Fromm, Adam Szczepaniak along with Johnny Capello and Chris Clark, probably wouldn’t have it any other way.

Renowned athlete, mountain climber and motivational speaker Erik Weihenmayer to lead Eden Prairie event

By John Molene

For a man who has conquered Everest, the plush corridors of Bearpath should be a relatively easy climb.

For Erik Weihenmayer, however, nothing in life is exactly a cakewalk. Weihenmayer is blind. Yet that has not stopped him from becoming the only blind man in history to reach the summit of the world’s highest peak – Mount Everest – and a host of other accomplishments for the celebrated mountaineer, athlete, author, teacher and motivational speaker.

From refugee camps to graduate school: one man’s story

He came to United States in 1996 expecting a land of prosperity, but instead found reality to be a bit more complicated. Ali Kofiro first saw a homeless person on his second day in the United States, just after arriving in New York City.

He had spent the past few years in refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia having fled his native country of Somalia in 1991. His image of America went little beyond what he knew from cultural figures like Arnold Schwarzenegger (they called him Commando), Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan.