News for 11/18/2020

**LAST MINUTE ADDITION**

The annual Thanksgiving Dinner at the Fred Marran Post 166 (Kensington American Legion) has been cancelled this year. Hope everyone stays safe ad healthy!

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas! It was another work day for members of the Kensington Commercial/Community Club last Sunday, November 15. In a joint project with the City of Kensington, they worked on putting new lights on the wreaths that go up on all of Main Street as well as Highway 36. They also put up the lights in the Mini Park area, located between the American Legion and Kensington Community Store. They hope to continue to add to the decorations each year and your sponsorship helps them to do this and many other projects. All who contribute are greatly appreciated. November 29, 2020 is the night you don't want to miss! The Club will be lighting up downtown Kensington with all the new Christmas lights!

**Instructions: Please be parked on Main Street in the one block between the city office corner and the bank corner on either side no later than 5:30pm. The lights will be turned on promptly at 5:30 with a Live Nativity Parade to follow. Next, will be the free drive-thru dinner! You can pick up your dinner in the alleyway on the east side of the Kensington Community Store driving north. Kids- be watching for Santa!! It's that time of year again!! Start getting those Christmas lights and decorations put up outside while you can! The Kensington Commercial/Community Club will have a contest again this year. The top three win prizes: 1st place $100, 2nd place $75, and 3rd place $50; to be used at local merchants. If you live outside of the city limits, call the Insurance Smart office to get on the list to be judged: Darin McDowell or Melissa Westbrook at 476-3298. Judging will take place December 20 from 5-7pm. Veterans Day Parade and Raffle Winners Prizes were awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in 4 categories. Organization: 1st-TR Steering Committee, 2nd- Kensington Commercial/Community Club, 3rd- Smith Center Lions Club; School: 1st- Senior Class, 2nd- Junior Class, 3rd- TRHS Band; Business: 1st- Don Wiens Harvesting, 2nd- Kensington Locker, 3rd- Farmers National Bank; Miscellaneous: 1st- Stephanie Arment, 2nd- Gary Arment, 3rd- Darold & Joyce Grauerholz family. Raffle prizes awarded: $75 Locker to Connie Synoground; $50 KCS to Harvey Krien; $25 Legion meal to Ron Rahjes; Quilt & pillow to Angel Rice; Planter to Ken Ellenberger; Snowman & Candle to Melinda Mazzarella; Golden Boy to Melissa Johnson; Browning Buckmark to Ashley Jones; Browning BPS 12 ga to Michelle Malmbug; Ruger to Mark Hummer; Solid Wood & Metal Flag to Justin Lamb; Locker Gift Certificate to Anne Abbott, Rusty Tractor Gift Certificate to Kelly Day. Apologies for any names misspelled. A Successful Lions Pancake Feed Covid and safety precautions didn’t hinder the Kensington Lions Club’s efforts to hold their annual pancake feed. The club took the lead from the Community Store’s drive-through meal held a month ago. Patrons were simply asked to drive through the alley behind the legion and honk if no one was out there to take their order. Once the number of meals requested was known, the club members went into action, placing pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs, syrup, and silverware in a “to go” box. Pancake makers kept the griddles going to make sure each meal was fresh and hot! Many donations were collected and delivery went smoothly. Meals were picked up from as early as 6am until around 1pm. The Lions Club members want to thank everyone who supported their efforts Sunday because this feed is the club’s main fundraiser! Your donations will allow the club to continue to serve you in the future!!

Adam Synoground delivers meals to Anne Abbott.

Max Kuhlmann helped make pancakes.

An assembly line helped make packaging means simple. Pictured: Greg Billings, Beccy Isom, Bob Bearley, and Gary Hainke. KAYS Help Deliver Meals Along with Kensington’s annual Veterans Day celebration, people look forward to the barbecue feed that follows. However, not everyone can make it out to enjoy the day and pick up a meal so the Lions Club and TR KAYS work together to bring those people meals to their homes! The Lions Club compiles a list of names to get meals, and KAY members help deliver! Twenty-one households were the recipients of these meals. Each household received sandwiches, beans, and buns, which were pre-packaged for safe home delivery!

Joan Nech, Robin Billings, Samara Bapat, Kylie Reimer, Kamryn Rietzke, Kristal Rice, Sydni Rust, Saige Kirchhoff, Alexis Holling, Maycee Westbrook, Owen Hrabe, Gigi Hoersdig, and Edgar Galicia.

Lions Club member Mr. Don Wiens dishes up beans while KAY members helped bag food for delivery.

KAYS Gigi Hoersdig and Samara Bapat along with Lion Joan Nech helped deliver food to shut-ins. Thunder Ridge Important Dates NOVEMBER Thur. 19- MS BB @ Rock Hills (Mankato) has been cancelled Mon. 23- MS BB vs Logan 4:00pm (Agra) A teams only (subject to change) Tue. 24- Pre-K Thanksgiving Feast @ MS 10:45am; Dismiss @ 12:15 for Thanksgiving Break Wed. 25-Fri. 27- No School – Thanksgiving Break DECEMBER Thurs. 3- HS BB Pictures at 3:15pm; MS BB @ St. John’s-Tipton (Beloit) 4:00pm/ lv @ 1:50 Fri. 4- HS BB vs Chase Mon. 7- 2:30pm Dismissal– Teacher In Service; No MS Practice; K-3 & 9-12 Christmas Program in Kensington 7:00pm *Because of a change in the Early Season Basketball Tournament, we have two additional home games for TRHS on December 8 and December 11. These are scheduled to be Varsity only (both Girls & Boys) starting at 6:00pm. Weekly Inspirations Give yourself permission to walk away from anything that gives you bad vibes. - Unknown Make a decision that you are going to enjoy every day in your life. - Unknown I give myself a good cry if I need it, but then I concentrate on all good things still in my life. - Mitch Albom No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn't trying. - Tony Robbins Send Me Your News! Contact Erica at ebarnes8185@gmail.com or 785-476-8185 with your news items. To see the full, in color version, visit www.kensingtonks.net. Here is the speech given by Ret. Lt. Col. Mike Isom

Good Morning. It is good to be here to help the community of Kensington celebrate their 101st Veterans Day. As you can well imagine, it takes many individuals to make this day happen. Many have been helping for decades. As you enjoy the festivities today, take the opportunity to thank some of those individuals who make this day possible. But most importantly, we need to thank and honor those veterans in the past and those currently serving to protect our way of life. Please join me to recognize their service. Thank you.

The theme of this year’s Veteran’s Day is ”Remember the Past to Protect the Future” It has been said that if you don’t learn from the past, you are to bound to repeat your mistakes.

The reason for this celebration is the ending of the Great War of 1914-1918. On the 11th hour, of the 11th day of the 11th month, the guns fell silent. The war to end all wars was over. The Great War cost over 8.5 million military lives and 13 million civilians. The deadliest war up to that time was over.

What did the world learn from all this carnage? Five nations suffered revolutions, empires were broken up, new nations were created, and all the warring nations were nearly bankrupted and emotionally exhausted from the carnage. The warring nations had lost virtually a generation of young men who had died in the trenches and on the seas. The one thing they did learn was that another war like this had to be prevented. Thus, they embraced Woodrow Wilson’s League of Nations which would prevent a war like this from occurring again. Unfortunately, a group of isolationist Senators denied US entry into the League of Nations dooming the effectiveness of the League.

Another mistake the Allies made was instead of working to rebuild a democratic Germany, they exacted crippling reparations and severely limited its military. Make the Hun pay and prevent him from creating another war machine.

After the war, Germany suffered an enormous inflation that in essence ruined its economy. In all the chaos in the aftermath of the war, coupled with the humility of being blamed for starting the war, the German people were searching for a savior to restore Germany as a leading force on the European continent. By the early 1930’s, they found one in an obscure corporal of the German army, Adolph Hitler.

Also rising in the chaos of the postwar was the bombastic Fascist leader of Italy, Benito Mussolini who promised the Italian people that he would bring back the greatness of the Roman Empire by bringing the Mediterranean Sea back under the control of Italy.

On the other side of the world, Japan wanted to make the Far East a Japanese Sphere of interest. In other words, make Asia For Asians. Their militarist leader was Hideki Tojo.

Thus, the stage was set for the next great war. And to complicate the matter, the world was in the depths of the Great Depression. The nations of Europe and the US were dealing with massive unemployment and failing economies; they were too busy trying to solve their own internal problems. As a result, as each of the militaristic nations started to make their aggressive moves, little was done to stop them which only emboldened them to further aggression. Eventually, Germany, Italy and Japan formed the Axis Powers with the vision of world domination.

The Second World War began on September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland and Great Britain and France finally decided to stand up to Hitler. The US was drawn into the war on “December 7, 1941, a date that will live in infamy” as FDR succinctly put it. With the US entry into the war, the architect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Isoroku Yamamoto, lamented that the attack had “awaken a sleeping giant.”

True to his prophetic statement, the war did awaken a sleeping giant that created the greatest military force in world history. The men and women of the Greatest Generation defeated the Axis powers not only on the battle front, but also on the home front.

It is interesting to note that before the war, Americans were split on whether to engage in foreign affairs or not. We had our problems here at home and could ill afford to engage in world affairs. There were even some Americans who embraced communism, while others leaned towards fascism. Many Americans joined the American Bund Party that recognized Hitler as their leader, displayed the swastika flag and held large public rallies. Needless to say, Americans were not ready for war.

But with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Americans casted all doubts aside and united to defeat the Axis threat. Americans endured numerous hardships and made many sacrifices so that their citizen soldiers could win in such places as Guadalcanal, North Africa, Midway, the North Atlantic, Anzio, Normandy, Iwo Jima, the Battle of the Bulge and Okinawa.

With the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Second World War ended with the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. The tremendous task of making the world safe for democracy was complete.

The cost of WW I in lives lost, 22 million, pales to the cost of WW II. Total WW II deaths are estimated at 73 million, over 3 times higher than WW I. The failure to stand up to the aggression of the Axis powers cost the more peaceful nations much in lives lost and nations ravaged by the destructiveness of war.

However, unlike after WW I, the US refused to go back to its isolationist policies, but instead, engaged in world affairs and became the leader of the free world. The US led the effort to create the United Nations with the purpose to maintain world peace.

During the postwar era in order to combat the spread of communism, the US initiated the Marshall Plan to rebuild western Europe, conducted the Berlin Airlift and along with the UN, fought communist aggression in the Korean War and later the Vietnam War. We helped form NATO to provide an alliance to prevent the USSR from gaining a foothold in war torn Europe. Later, President Kennedy stared the Russians down during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Being ever vigilant and standing up to the aggressive moves of the communist nations, led to the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the USSR and the fall of Berlin Wall. We had learned our lesson of not engaging in world affairs and standing up to aggression. It came at a terrible cost.

Since the 1990’s, the US has stood up to terrorism by fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With the attack on 911 we are ever watchful of those nations that mean us harm. Russia, China, North Korea and Iran are those nations that we have to contain. We have to also be ever vigilant of those radical movement such as ISIS, the Taliban and certain radical domestic groups who , like the American Bund Party, look to overturn our democracy and establish an authoritarian regime. Again, as we honor our veterans today, we must continue to be mindful of past events to ensure that we don’t jeopardize our future. It is inherent that we “Remember the Past to Protect the Future”. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts with you.