Author: Joanna Werch Takes

EPLN contributor Joanna Werch Takes snapped these photos during her neighborhood’s Night to Unite on Tuesday. She lives on Grant Drive. More than 150 neighborhoods in Eden Prairie participated. The annual summer event celebrates and strengthens the commitment to a safe community. For more, see our earlier coverage of Night to Unite.

Miss Minnesota 2022 received her crown on June 17 at Grace Church in Eden Prairie. Rachel Evangelisto, formerly Miss Winona, is the first Indigenous woman to receive the state title. She will go on to compete in the Miss America pageant in December. The statewide pageant took place at its Eden Prairie location for the second year; prior to the cancelled 2020 event, the Miss Minnesota pageant was held at Eden Prairie High School for at least 10 years. The 21 contestants in the 2022 event began practices, which included learning choreography for group performances, on the Monday prior to…

Eden Prairie residents Barry and Joni Butzow’s horse Zozos finished 10th in last weekend’s Kentucky Derby – after spending part of the race running in third and fourth place positions. Assigned a post position (placement in the starting gate) of 19 out of the field of 20 three-year-old horses in the week before the race, Zozos’s starting position was just ahead of the eventual winner, Rich Strike. Given a post position of number 20 and entered into the race the day before the Derby as a replacement for scratched horse Ethereal Road, Rich Strike seemed to come out of nowhere…

A horse owned by Eden Prairie residents will be among the field of 20 three-year-olds running in the Kentucky Derby on May 7. Zozos, the colt owned by Barry and Joni Butzow, qualified for the Derby at the March 26 Louisiana Derby, his third race. “We were overwhelmed” when watching that finish from the stands, Barry Butzow said. “He’d only had two races going in, and he was running against a whole bunch of experienced horses.” By placing second in the Louisiana Derby, Zozos accumulated 40 qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby, the minimum needed to be part of the…

The past couple of years have seen a bad news/good news scenario for the blood donation situation at the Eden Prairie location of Memorial Blood Centers. The bad news? “Even before the pandemic, we were experiencing a blood shortage in the country and around the world – the United States has been in a deficit for years – and the pandemic made it much worse,” said Wendy Capetz, director of marketing for Memorial Blood Centers. Traditionally, in 2019 and before, about half of Memorial Blood Centers’ donation collections came from fixed site donor centers, with the other half coming from…

The new play “Eden Prairie, 1971” is having its theatrical world premiere this month at Riverside Theatre in Iowa City, Iowa. Set in an Eden Prairie backyard, the play takes place the night of the 1971 Apollo 15 moon landing, when Vietnam draft dodger Pete, home from Canada, initiates a conversation with high school classmate Rachel. The play grew, in part, from the time playwright Mat Smart spent reading the letters written by veterans of several wars, including Vietnam, at the Minnesota Historical Society while working on a separate project. “I was just really struck with how so many young…

If you’ve seen a Minnesota license plate, you know that the state is known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” Ever wonder just how many of those are in Eden Prairie? The answer, according to the Parks and Recreation page on the City of Eden Prairie website, is 17. Since you’re now wondering what exactly those 17 lakes are, we’ve compiled a handy list, alphabetically. You’re welcome. Anderson LakesBirch Island LakeBryant LakeDuck LakeEden LakeGrass LakeLake IdlewildMcCoy LakeMitchell LakeNeill LakeRed Rock LakeRice LakeRice Marsh LakeLake RileyRound LakeLake SmetanaStaring Lake Just where are these lakes? You can find them on the map…

“Farm-to-table” isn’t just a trend at high-end restaurants: it’s also happening at a childcare center in Eden Prairie. Serving healthy food has always been important to Lisa and Ben Adams, owners of Primrose School of Eden Prairie and Primrose School of Chanhassen. They hire trained chefs to prepare breakfast, lunch, and morning and afternoon snacks at the schools, and a “Primrose Patch” garden at each location is part of the curriculum. Lisa is also the fourth generation with ties to a family farm between Watertown and Montrose, Minn. She had always dreamed of using that connection to grow food on…

Have you checked out the Eden Prairie Puzzle Library? Eden Prairie resident Paul Kautz’s project appears to be the first of its kind. Modeled somewhat on the concept of the Little Free Library boxes that hold books for the taking, the puzzle library is free for community members to use, but it also requires users to register and check out, then return, the multi-piece pastimes. Kautz (pronounced “Cow-tz”) started the puzzle library in 2020, as a way to help people maintain connections during the COVID-19 shutdowns. After hosting a puzzle exchange table in his neighborhood during social isolation, “We had…

These days, you’ll find Sever’s Fall Festival on a 100-acre campus east of Highway 169, south of Shakopee — but it all started in Eden Prairie. Sever Peterson III, a resident of Eden Prairie, and his wife, Sharon, still live on the farm in the Minnesota River valley where both Sever and his father were born. In the mid-1990s, as they faced a struggling economy for their corn and soybean crops, “We were thinking, ‘What else could we do to keep our family involved in agriculture?’” Sever said. The idea for a corn maze arose after the Petersons visited an…