Tim Stoneking isn’t a musician by choice. It was his

birthright.The 19-year-old was

born into a musically gifted family, and when his small finger first pressed the ivory key of a piano, it began a career he hopes lasts a lifetime.

Stoneking, of Albert Lea, followed the typical path of a young musician. He began playing piano as a 7-year-old, taught by his grandma, and joined choir in elementary and band in middle school. As a teenager, Stoneking first picked up a guitar, and during his sopho-more year at Albert Lea High School strummed and sang in front of a live audience for the first time at Tigers Roar, the school’s talent show.

Now an adult, Stonek-ing is part of two bands and is writing and recording music on his own and posting tracks to YouTube and Facebook.

Stoneking is now a veteran on the stage, but while he loves performing he doesn’t love the fanfare, so he plans on making music his profession by making others famous.

“Being famous would be cool, but not really,” Stoneking said, on second thought. “I want to per-form and enjoy it rather than it be my job. I want to be the guy behind the scenes for the big names.”

Stoneking graduated from ALHS in 2011 and is working at Herberger’s, with plans to enroll at Riv-erland Community College for fall semester. After he earns an associate’s degree, Stoneking plans on attending the McNally Smith School of Music in St. Paul to study to be-come a music producer.

“I’d like to spend the rest of my life recording and producing,” he said. “It has become a hobby of mine, and I’d love to peruse it further.”

In the meantime, Stoneking is making music in Albert Lea.

In addition to guitar and piano, Stoneking plays the bass guitar, ukulele, mandolin and sings. He started the band Riptide during his junior year of high school with classmates but is working on a side project called Panic Switch. As a member of these bands, Stoneking has performed at the Big Island Bar-B-Q, Eagle’s Cancer Tele-

thon and a local battle of the bands outside of Bergdale’s Harley David-son, to name a few.

Riptide won the battle of the bands and was re-warded a recording ses-sion with Merle Krause, owner of Marshall Street Music, which they plan to take advantage of in the coming months.

Stoneking said both bands began by playing covers but have since be-gun making original music.

“I love getting to more or less take what you like from other songs and make them your own — to morph it into your own style,” said Stonek-ing. “It’s all the same four chords over again brought into new light.”

Stoneking said he pre-fers writing instrumen-tals to lyrics, but when he does have to words to a song he collaborates with his bandmates. He’s written one song as a solo artist and recorded it, along with other covers, on his Macbook.

“I like to change some of the covers up a little bit and make them my own,” Stoneking said.

Stoneking said he didn’t have a choice to get involved in music at a young age. His mom, Julie, was a piano teacher and his dad, Steve, sang at church. His two older brothers, Andrew and Matt, and twin sister, Emily, were also musi-cally gifted. Andrew sang in Nordic Choir at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and now is a high school choir director in Sioux City, Iowa. Matt is in-volved in the Albert Lea’s Community Theater and Emily plays the tenor sax in Luther’s band.

Stoneking said he’s always loved singing and played around with musi-cal instruments when-ever he had the chance.

“In high school, it was the only thing I really ex-celled at,” he said. “When I got home it was a way to blow off steam.”

Stoneking, who’s favorite instrument in the guitar, said while he’s been involved in music his entire life, he became even more passionate about it once he joined a band and started creating his own.

“My sophomore year really got me over the hump,” he said. “It brought me into the real-ization that I can actually do this.”

— Andrew Dyrdal

COMMUNITY LIFESunday, february 26, 2012

Tim Stoneking plays his Hofner acoustic guitar in his home in Albert Lea. — Andrew Dyrdal

Tim Stoneking plays on his family’s Kurzweil digital piano in his living room. Stoneking was taught how to play piano by his gradma at 7 years old.

Born into music

Page 2 • Albert Lea Tribune • Sunday, February 26, 2012 PROGRESS 2012

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An Albert Lea High School grad-uate’s professional basketball career took an unexpected turn when in November he left his

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Ben Woodside, 26, a 2004 graduate of ALHS, then found a job in Tbilisi, Georiga, where he currently plays for the country’s Army base team.

Woodside said he and his wife, A.J., 23, had to make a decision that was best for them. After consulting with Wood-side’s agent, the couple landed in

What’s newwith Ben?

Ben Woodside brings the ball up the floor at Gravelines Sportica in Graveline, France. Woodside was an all-star for DCM Grav-elines in the 2009 season.

PROGRESS 2012 Sunday, February 26, 2012 • Albert Lea Tribune • Page 3

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Georgia, a country that borders Turkey and Armenia to the south, the Black Sea to the west, Azerbaijan to the east and Russia to the north.

“We had a couple different options leav-ing Slovenia,” Woodside said. “My agent had a couple different options, and we were actually about Turkey when at the last minute this whole Georgia thing came up with a great investment opportunity attached to it.”

Woodside, who gradu-ated from North Dakota State University in 2009 as the program’s all-time leading scorer, began his professional career with BCM Gravelines, a French Pro A team in northern France. Wood-side played in France from 2009-10 where he was named a French League All-Star, before

signing a one-year con-tract with the Slovenian club.

He has also played on the NBA summer league teams of the Minne-sota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors.

Woodside said while he and his wife enjoy Tbilisi, where they likely will spend a single season, it has taken some getting

used to. The couple was assigned a chauffeur, and, unlike many places in the United States, smoking is very popular and legal indoors, includ-ing the arena Woodside plays in.

“Before one of our big games we were all getting ready to come out of the locker room and our assistant coach was blowing a cigarette into our faces as we were running onto the floor,” he said. “That was a big reality check for me. Everyone smokes there. Guys in the locker room are having a smoke after the game. When you’re trying to get clean in the shower, they’re sitting there smoking in it.”

Woodside also said the Georgians often stare at him and his wife when they’re out in public.

“I don’t think it’s to be intimidating or rude,” he said. “They’re more curi-ous than anything.”

Woodside said his team, Irmia, is very professional and put him and his wife in a nice apartment.

“All of my teammates are great,” he said. “There are a couple of Americans who are helpful and playing here for the same investment purpose.”

The former Tigers star also said the fans are passionate and fill up an arena that holds 13,000 while standing the entire game. The only downside is the arena also fills up with a haze of smoke.

Woodside said after this season he will try to play in one of the top two leagues in Europe, in either Spain or Italy.

— Andrew Dyrdal

Ben Woodside greets fans in France in 2009.

Ben Woodside played for the Bison at North Dakota State University.

Page 4 • Albert Lea Tribune • Sunday, February 26, 2012 PROGRESS 2012

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PROGRESS 2012 Sunday, February 26, 2012 • Albert Lea Tribune • Page 5

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Big Thank You

Marlene Klukow, a member of the Shades of Jade Garden Club, stands in the garden at her home. Klukow has an array of daisies, day lilies, roses, hydrangea and other assortments in her garden.

Bob and Sharon Johnson stand next to their garden. These members of the Shades of Jade Garden Club prefer to let their garden grow through its natural course.

Ann Goodmanson, president of the Shades of Jade Garden Club, stands in her personal garden full of roses, hydrangea, day lilies, cone flowers and other types of flowers. She appears below, too.

— Photos taken last summer for Progress by Garrett Wampler

Page 6 • Albert Lea Tribune • Sunday, February 26, 2012 PROGRESS 2012

“Always providing quality serviceto the construction industry”

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SuccessThey are the keys to Meet the success coaches at

Albert Lea High School. There are two: Virginia Herrera and Susan Frazier.

Their goal is to work with any and all students to remove the barriers that can keep students from gradu-ating — bullying, frustration with a subject, a new language, not fitting in, bad hair day, you name it.

Each school in the Albert Lea School District has one success coach, except the high school, which has two. Stu-dents learn about Herrera and Frazier through referrals from staff members and from word of mouth among the students.

Frazier said some students just need a grown-up to talk to, one who isn’t an authority figure but can offer social advice and build their confidence.

“They sometimes just need a positive

adult in the building,” she said.For instance, for someone struggling

to fit in, Frazier will guide them to get involved in an activity, such as a sport or a club, where they can get to know a new set of students.

Frazier said she and Herrera deal with a lot of parents don’t speak English, who struggle with reporting systems for things such as absenteeism. It creates a situation where the chil-dren can get away with things because the parents rely only on children for information. A success coach can bridge the gap.

Herrera knows Spanish better than Frazier, who is working to learn.

Herrera said parents can stop by to explain situations but if going to a home is needed to speak directly to parents, then so be it.

“We make a point to let them know we are available for home visits,” Her-rera said.

She said being a success coach is a

fun job. They get to see students who struggled at the start of the year prog-ress and succeed by the end.

Sometimes, the joy of the job is just helping a kid get through a tough day.

“It’s nice that they feel comfortable, that they can come here and feel safe,” Herrera said.

The success coaches don’t go by cour-tesy titles like teachers and principals. Students call them by their first names.

Freshman Aruna Evenson likes the spend time with the success coaches. Their office is in the school library. She said she struggles with math and likes how friendly the coaches are.

“They are just always caring,” she said.

The care motivates her to do the work and turn in the assignments.

Teachers and parents say the pro-gram is successful. Parents will ap-proach them and say something like: “Oh, my son is doing better now.”

— Tim Engstrom

Albert Lea adopted its integration plan from Austin

It’s time for a Mad Minute-style math exercise in Kaia Kossman’s second-

grade class.Maria Miguel Felipe

looks a bit nervous before the exercise as the class raises their arms, ready for the minute-long math quiz to begin.

The objective is to com-plete as many addition and subtraction problems within the time limit.

When the exercise starts, Felipe is ready. She has some help from

Chrissy DeLuna, Neveln Elementary School suc-cess coach.

DeLuna is one of 10 success coaches in Austin who help students of col-or integrate and succeed in school. The “success coach” program is funded through state integration revenue, which many legislators say needs changing. As legislators debate tweaking or pos-sibly restructuring the integration revenue pro-gram, area educators are concentrating on making

the most out of integra-tion dollars.

“Success coaches have certainly been able to support a lot of par-ents,” said Judy Knudt-son, Albert Lea Area Schools’ integration plan coordinator.

Albert Lea adopted the Success Coach program in 2009 after hearing about the work Austin’s success coaches did.

The program is one of the largest positive educational stories out of Austin in recent years,

Virginia Herrera and Susan Frazier are the success coaches at Albert Lea High School. — Tim Engstrom

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PROGRESS 2012 Sunday, February 26, 2012 • Albert Lea Tribune • Page 7

Plumbing Heating

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You’ve probably enjoyed York engineering for years without even knowing it. We have, after all, designed and implemented heating and cooling systems in some of the world’s most famous structures, including the U.s. Capitol building, India’s taj Mahl, the sydney opera House, the entire U.s. navy nuclear submarine fleet, and even venues such as your local mall and corner bank. We’re constantly leading the industry in our design and our technology. and our commitment has earned our products the Good Housekeeping seal of approval. You can depend on York!We would like our next job to be your house!

DAYBREAKERS We welcome you to learn more about our club by attending one

of our weekly meetings

Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world, one child and one community

at a time. Working together, members achieve what one person cannot

accomplish alone. And along the way, club members share fun and laughter.

FRIDAYS, 7AM-8AMAlbert Lea American Legion

pReSIDent - phIL hInteRMeISteRpReSIDent-eLect - bob KInDLeR

IMMeDIAte pASt pReSIDent - LoIS AheRntReASuReR - oRLo WILLMeRt

SecRetARY - jennIFeR LevISen

Clover Leaf LionsMeets First & Third

Tuesdays at Big Island Bar & Grill, Americas

Best Value Inn

Projects: Flight Breakfast at Airport Radio Days at KATE Radio Fair Ring Toss World Service Days Road Clean-upALL LIONS MEMBERS WELCOMEIf you would like to become a member

call Tom at 373-1696

39 YEARS SERVING THE COMMUNITY

Noon Kiwanis (Founded 1922)

Meetings every Monday at American Legion

www.albertleakiwanis.org

Activities• Pastor’s Day • Highway Cleanup

• Scholarships for students in ALHS & Riverland • Christmas Shopping for children & families

• High School Key Club • Junior High Builders Club • Frank Hall Park Playground • New Basketball Courts

• Bringing Up Grades ProgramThese projects are supported through

various fundraising efforts

President - Angie EggumPresident Elect - Rhonda AllisonVice President - Tim Engstrom

Immediate Past President - Paul TroeCo-Secretaries - Larry Forster & Iris Tarvestad

Treasurer - Judy Verdoorn

LOCALSERVICE CLUBS

ranking high among dis-trict initiatives.

Success coaches help students new to the district succeed, whether that’s assisting a bilingual Hispanic or Sudanese student with classes, translating for parents who don’t speak English, or bringing new students and students from other countries up to speed on their lessons.

“The success coaches are viewed as very wel-coming by all the groups that we’ve talked to in our community,” said Kristi Beckman, Austin’s integration coordinator. “That would be one of the biggest things that we’ve done.”

In addition, Austin uses integration funding for speakers like Naomi Tutu and Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Allen Page, as well as community films, field trips, and aca-demic opportunities like bringing Austin and Al-bert Lea High School stu-dents to Minnesota State Universeity, Mankato, for a Latino career day in

engineering programs. In addition, both districts fund after school op-portunities which allows more students to come together for opportuni-ties. The goal is to give students opportunities to learn from and with each other, as well as to bring students of all walks of life together.

That’s part of the reason why Albert Lea and Austin partner with Southland and Hay-field and as part of the Southeastern Minnesota Integration Collabora-tive. The collaborative shares resources between districts and offers part-nership opportunities like foreign language pen pals and lesson sharing. Several districts, such as Albert Lea, are voluntary partners with Austin, which was tasked by the Minnesota Department of Education in 2006 to put together an integra-tion plan in response to the district’s increasing population of students of color.

“All of the initiatives,

the partnerships have been a wonderful oppor-tunity, as we’ve learned a lot from what Austin has been doing,” Knudtson said. “It’s a good opportu-nity for all of our students and their parents when we can work together with other districts.”

Yet those partnerships will be put to the test this legislative session. Republican lawmakers tried to redefine integra-tion funding last year during the 2011 shut-down battles so integra-tion money could be spread around the state more evenly. Twin Cities school districts, which have a larger popula-tion of students of color, receive the majority of integration funding at the moment and lawmakers say the funding program isn’t doing enough to help decrease the increasing achievement gap between white and nonwhite students.

“The important thing is we spend the dollars on things that work,” said Rep. Pat Garofalo,

R-Farmington and chair-man of the Education Finance Committee. Garofalo and other leg-islators heard from state Department of Educa-tion officials as part of the Integration Revenue Replacement Task Force on Feb. 15 for its propos-al on how the integration revenue program should be changed.

Task force members have looked at ways to improve student achieve-ment and forced bus-ing, according to Garo-falo. While Garofalo said Greater Minnesota could have increased funding under the new program, educators won’t hold their breath until Legisla-tors decide what to do with the current program.

“We just don’t know what they’re going to do,” Beckman said about col-laborative initiatives. “In the spirit with that, we’re going to stick with the initiatives going on right now. We’ll keep those initiatives going until we find out what’s next.”

— Trey Mewes

Austin Success Coach Chrissy DeLuna helps Neveln Elementary School second-grader Maria Miguel Fe-lipe on a math exercise earlier this year. The Success Coach program is considered an educational success in Austin and Albert Lea, but the state integration revenue used to fund the program could be in jeopardy this legislative session. — Trey Mewes

Population projectionsCounty 2010* 2015 2020 2025 2030 2035Dodge 20,087 23,470 25,110 26,510 27,740 28,800Faribault 14,553 15,180 15,190 15,180 15,050 14,960Freeborn 31,255 31,970 32,050 32,110 32,020 31,940Mower 39,163 39,760 40,330 40,790 40,990 41,210Steele 36,576 40,810 42,900 44,630 46,030 47,200Waseca 19,136 20,070 20,400 20,690 20,760 20,850

— Minnesota State Demographic Center, figures released in 2007* From the U.S. 2010 census

What’s the future hold?

Projections for race• The percent of Minnesota’s population

that is nonwhite or Latino is projected to grow from 14 percent in 2005 to 25 per-cent in 2035.

• The numbers of Latino, black and Asian Minnesotans are projected to more than double over the next 30 years.

• The white population is projected to grow slowly and will decline in some parts of the state.

• All regions of the state will become more racially and ethnically diverse than they are now.

— Minnesota State Demographic Center, issued June 2009

Projections for education• Minnesota K-12 school enrollment,

including both public and nonpublic, is projected to rise about 7 percent between 2008-2009 and 2018-2019.

• K-6 enrollment is projected to increase each year, with a total gain of 11 to 12 per-cent over 10 years.

• Enrollment in grades 7 to 12 is pro-jected to fall until 2012-2013, and then rise slightly.

• Two alternative projections give similar results for total and public enrollments.

— Minnesota State Demographic Center, issued June 2009

Page 8 • Albert Lea Tribune • Sunday, February 26, 2012 PROGRESS 2012

STR

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PROGRESS 2012 Sunday, February 26, 2012 • Albert Lea Tribune • Page 9

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(507) 373-4324800-634-3444Welcome to the end of the day.SM

Locally owned • Marsha Rafdal, General Manager

Your home away from home!After a long day in meetings

or on the road, a room at AmericInn is a welcome haven.

• Beautiful indoor heated pool/spa/ rec room

• Free hot American Perk Breakfast (malted waffles and biscuits & gravy)

• Flat screen TVs with cable and movie channels

• SoundGuard™ masonry block construction

• Microwaves & mini-refrigerators

• 100% smoke-free property

• Luxurious triple sheet bedding

• Free local phone calls• Fireplace & whirlpool

suites available• Business center• Children under 17

stay free with adult• Meeting/party room

adjoining pool area

Page 10 • Albert Lea Tribune • Sunday, February 26, 2012 PROGRESS 2012

www.rwpbuildingmaterials.com• Quality Materials• Design & Drafting• Estimates• Stunning Home Design Gallery

507•256•7580413 W. Main StGeneva, MN

Builder of fine custom homes507•256•4390

General Contractor #BC375826

www.rwpdesignbuild.com

TEAM

OGETHER

VERYONE

CHIEVING

ORE

we build Select Foods.

puts forth their best foot.

goals and striving for better.

money goes back to our community.

Thank you all TEAM MEMbErs for your support and dedication! Because of you, wE hAvE rEAchEd $105,000 in United Way donations and have the privilege of being chosen as the Chamber of Commerce LArgE businEss of ThE YEAr.