Small towns are a thing of wonder. They can be inspirational and wonderful, and they can also be terrible and shameful. With certainty I can say that, in my life, small towns are more the former than the latter.
I have a middle-aged friend whose father was once a school principal "back in the day" in a small, rural Minnesota school. This principal went to great lengths to keep school matters at school and keep them from interfering with his personal or family life. When asked about a school issue "off grounds" or "off the clock" this man took great care to be professional about how he spoke of school issues and especially about school staff. That's not always easy to do in a small town.
The same can be said about leaders of small town business leaders/owners. You go to great lengths to keep work at work and not let it interfere with your family life. I believe it's important that we allow people to conduct their business and their family life in a way that the two don't completely run over the other. You have to allow people to live - and, of course, hope that everyone is playing nicely and doing the right thing.
If you've known me for any amount of time, I hope that you can attest to the fact that I am very passionate about small towns in many ways. I'm very passionate about the ability and freedom to choose to guide my family to living in a small town. I have much pride in the fact that in a small town, you have many other families "carrying the load" of raising your children. We work hard at working together to raise our kids in a unique, collective manner.
To be sure, this can happen in any sized town or type of setting. You can band together with friends and neighbors with the daily and weekly work of raising children if you live in Roseville or Edina or Starbuck or Elbow Lake.
Earlier this week, I went into our family's main bank with one of our kids who made what I'd call a nice-sized cash deposit to her savings account. (Full disclosure: we conduct banking business in multiple, local banks) While raising the risk of showing bias or playing favorites, I have to say, the staff at Bonanza Valley State Bank are flat out amazing. They're just really amazing people. They have "been in the trenches" with me as I've tried to manage and operate and keep my newspaper business afloat over the last (almost) five years.
I know our other small town banks/credit unions have really amazing people too. I know some of them very personally as well. I don't want to type this and hurt feelings. That's not my intention.
On Monday at Bonanza Valley State Bank, they were just so extremely kind and sincere with my daughter during this small, quaint banking transaction. I was so proud of that moment, I almost started crying right in the middle of the bank lobby. She worked very diligently selling lemonade and most recently garden tomatoes to build up her little nest egg that's being kept safe at Bonanza Valley State Bank.
I am so proud of our community's Bonanza Valley State Bank. They have been there for me, and they will continue to be there for me. Thank you in so many ways. We will carry on through all that we're going through. We are strong, and we will persevere.