Svendsens from Trail Honored at Banquet on March 25 in Crookston

Steve and Jennie Svendsen from Trail were honored at the 79th Annual Red River Valley Development Association (RRVDA) Honor Banquet at the University of Minnesota Crookston on Saturday, March 25, 2017.  

The RRVDA is funded through an annual allocation from the county boards of commissioners in northwest Minnesota. Jerry Erickson from Fertile represents East Polk County on the RRVDA Board of Directors.

Steve and Jennie Svendsen are the East Polk County honor couple. The Svendsen family includes their four children, David, Jaime, Brian and Bradley and 10 grandchildren.

Brian lives by Oklee as well as David and his five children; Bradley and Natalie and their two children live by East Grand Forks; Jaime and Allen along with their three children live by New Prague.

The Svendsens are members of 1st Baptist Church in Clearbrook.

Jennie is a member of the Trail Community Club, Eden Home Study Group, and the Trail Community Club.  She enjoys quilting, gardening, baking and spending time with their grandchildren.

Steve enjoys deer hunting, walking in the woods, woodcutting, working with model railroads, weeding the garden, working on machinery.

Steve grew up in the Duluth, Two Harbors area of Minnesota.  Jennie was born in Montana and moved to the Bagley area when she was in 7th grade.  Steve and Jennie met in 1974 and have been married for 42 years.  The Svendsens started farming east of Oklee where they had a combination grain and dairy farm for 27 years.   They sold the dairy cows 15 years ago and concentrated on grain farming where they currently raise wheat and soybeans on 1300 acres.  Two of the sons farm an additional 1100 acres.  The family helps each other during the fall harvest while keeping the operations separate.

Congratulations Steve and Jennie.