A group of neighbors is working to ensure the victims of the state’s school and church shooting aren’t forgotten. Then, a death at a daycare prompts a state investigation. And, why drivers need to be extra cautious this time of year.
—–Executive Producer: Victor Palomino Producer: Lydia MoranAnchor: Grace Jacobson Reader scripting: Victor Palomino Fact checking: Joel Glaser, Victor Palomino Editorial support: Emily Krumberger Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood
Transcript
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HOST: You're listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a daily newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota.
ANCHOR: A group of neighbors is working to ensure the victims of the state's school and church shooting aren't forgotten. Then, a death at a daycare prompts a state investigation. And, why drivers need to be extra cautious this time of year.
I'm Gracie J.
The State of Minnesota has suspended the license of Rocking Horse Ranch Childcare in Savage, southwest of Minneapolis, after two infants suffered medical emergencies, including one fatality. The Department of Children, Youth, and Families called the situation an "imminent risk of harm" and ordered the daycare to shut down immediately. Savage police and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are investigating. And the Hennepin County Medical Examiner is conducting an autopsy to determine the cause of the child's death.
Next, after the recent mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, a group of volunteers started tying ribbons onto trees around the school. Lydia Moran tells us how the project is spreading beyond grief.
Sarah Henning: I'm trying to get it so that when they're driving on 35W they can see some of the blue and green.
Lydia Moran: On Wednesday, August 27, a shooter opened fire during Annunciation Catholic School's first mass of the school year. Two children were killed and 21 others were injured. In the following days, bows in Annunciation school colors popped up around the surrounding neighborhoods. People directly affected by the shooting requested bows on their blocks.
Sarah Henning: How do we kind of keep showing these neighbors that the love and support is still here?
Lydia Moran: Sarah Henning is picking out a knot in a bright green strip of plastic tablecloth. After freeing it, she joins the green strip with a blue one and loops them around a fence, tying a neat bow. Cars on the Minneapolis freeway below honk occasionally. She makes her way along the bridge, taking down bows that have gotten lackluster, and retying them. The bows continue at 54th Street, tied to trees and light poles all the way to Anunciation Catholic School.
Sarah Henning: And there was a group of us who were all individually making ribbons and tying ribbons on trees to show our neighbors that we loved and supported them, and then giving them to other neighbors so they could do the same. So literally, eight people were all doing the same thing, and then we all just came together.
Lydia Moran: On the Friday after the shooting, the group put out a call for volunteers to help cut and distribute ribbons. More than 200 people came since then. They estimate that they have distributed 30,000 ribbons throughout Minnesota and even in other states. The effort is called Bows of Love.
Sarah Henning: We also have people saying, “What do ribbons even do?” Which I get, right? Like, if tying a ribbon on a pole would reverse the impact of what happened, the city would be blanketed. Because that's, I think, how Minnesotans are.
Lydia Moran: Sarah lives a couple miles from Annunciation.
Sarah Henning: But what it does do is it gives people something to do with their grief and their worry and their anxiety, and it gives them a simple way to show their neighbors we are bigger than this terrible thing that happened and we are still here.
Vanessa Wood: I think one thing that we've talked about a lot is that people are more likely to be in community, build community and have a discussion with one another, when they're shoulder to shoulder and working with their hands.
Lydia Moran: Vanessa Wood volunteers with Bows of Love. They are figuring out how to collect and recycle the bows before winter. The women hope that whatever the bows become, it will show Annunciation families that the support for them has not faded.
Sarah Henning: Knowing the impact of that immediate trauma, how can we act as quickly as possible to overwhelm that that trauma with love?
Lydia Moran: In 2023, Sarah was part of the community that went through the Covenant School shooting in Nashville.
Sarah Henning: So that people understand their space for both to exist right away.
Lydia Moran: For more on Bows of Love, visit bowsoflove.com or find them on Instagram @bowsoflove.mn. The Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota has a centralized fund that supports annunciation families. Visit CCF.MN.org to learn more. For North Star Stories, I'm Lydia Moran.
ANCHOR: You are listening to North Star Stories.
It's harvest season, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation, MnDOT, is urging drivers to stay alert for large farm equipment on rural roads. MnDOT says drivers should slow down, use headlights, and wait for safe passing zones. Farmers are reminded to use flashing lights and slow-moving vehicle emblems to stay visible. Officials stress that patience and caution can help everyone share the road safely this fall.
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HOST: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at ampers dot org.