Cromwell's Community Club pitches in for all

How do community members with a "can do" attitude organize to make their town a better place? This past Sunday, the Cromwell Area Community Club gathered for its annual dinner and meeting. Of course, being a volunteer organization of high-energy people, we filled our plates with warm, homemade dishes. Lots of sausage, meatballs, beans, pickles, and hotdishes, followed by raisin pudding with caramel sauce and ice cream and more than I can recount!

First, though, we talked through our agenda. Lots to celebrate, and more on the docket. We re-elected our competent and high energy secretary, Cherie Nyberg. We reviewed the accomplishments of this past year. So many highlights! Our Earth Day in the spring, where we clean up our community park, cut brush, and shortly thereafter, put out planters along main street (Hwy 210, alas). In May, an innovation: a successful Father-Daughter ball. In June, we held a steak fry, silent auction of area artists' work, and a variety show with the very young to very old sharing their music, dance, funny stories, and more. Harvest Fest in September; a Hunter's Supper in November; and Christmas with Santa. Our biggest capital expenditure: a new gazebo for our park, erected, stained and roofed by Cromwell area residents. There's even a new little free library by our Cromwell Clinic.

President Deb Switzer laid out a substantive agenda. We hope to build a shelter alongside the Caleb Anderson playground, so we can all picnic shaded from the summer sun. We plan to upgrade our Cromwell pavilion: add lighting that is less harsh; install better drainage for heavy rains, and shades for the west-facing windows. We also hope to buy ergonomic chairs for our City Council members and quieter appliances in the kitchen area. And we have plans to make main street more homey and attractive. As we wrapped up, several responded to the question, "What's something about you that the rest of us would never guess?" The answers provided lots of laughter.

Earlier last week, I sat down with Switzer to learn about the history of the club.

Switzer said the club incorporated in 2014, initially because they wanted to keep the Cromwell Harvest Fest going.

"The group who had been doing all the work was tired," she said, adding that the city was trying to do it on its own, but it was difficult. They decided to create a nonprofit to support the community in different ways.

"We asked the elders in our community at the Villa Vista. Art Jauss asked that we work to beautify Cromwell, so we have been doing so," she said. "Funds that we raise at the Harvest Fest, June Steak Fry and Fall Hunter's Supper support building projects and enhancements at our park and pavilion. We provide activities for the surrounding community and especially youth."

Switzer is an outstanding leader.

"I learned as a high school cheerleader when we needed posters that if I don't do it, it's not going to get done," she said. "Too many people sit back and wait for somebody else to do it."

She also learned how to ask others to pitch in, or else she would have to do it herself.

The club's full name, Cromwell Area Community Club, underscores its commitment to including surrounding communities like Wright and Sawyer. Jennie Hanson, who was born and raised in Cromwell and now lives in Wright, participates because she wants to strengthen the ties between Wright and Cromwell.

"We're one big community," she says. "We need each other."

Our open door includes people from surrounding towns and townships. Sawyer, for instance, is home to Joey Kotiranta, our winning candidate for Cromwell Sings.

We're looking for ways to create more and broader ties among the clans who live in our area. Some of us are multi-generational - four or even five generations. Some are newcomers - lake people, retirees, and young people who want to raise their kids in a smaller community. Some, like myself and our neighbor Derek Nyberg, are returnees after long absences.

Our Silent Auction at the June steak fry offered folks opportunities to mingle and bump elbows with others who were enjoying the art or considering a bid. The Variety Show highlighted the accomplishments - musical, humor, dance, spoken word - of community members.

Cromwell Mayor Sharon Zelazny praises the club's work.

"It's critical to our community," she said. "The hard work of this group is very evident. It shows that its members are committed to our community. They are proud of their accomplishments, and I am too!"

Ann Markusen is an economist and professor emerita at University of Minnesota. She lives in Red Clover Township north of Cromwell with her husband Rod Walli.