Backpack blessing held at Oklee’s North Park last Wednesday

On Wednesday, September 2nd, Oklee Lutheran Parish held a campfire service at the Oklee North Park with the purpose of Blessing the children’s backpacks before school started. Dawn (Hegge) Hanson, lay minister from the Gully Parish, performed the service and Oklee Parish supplied the wood and smores for the campfire and treats after the service. There were about six families that attended that evening with children and a few older members of the Parish. It was a nice service, fun children’s songs to sing-a-long with and it ended with a sweet s’more over the campfire.
One child was very concerned that his backpack was going to get wet, but after it was explained that the backpack were going to be blessed not baptized, he was happy.
Elmer Hanson was one of the members of the Oklee Parish who attended and was telling us all about how the park came into being. Below is his story, written by him on how the park came into being.
Last Wednesday evening, Blessings of the Backpacks was held in the Oklee Park. Comments were made how nice a place it was. But no one seemed to know much about the park except me, Elmer Hanson.
Years ago, it was a very low spot and when we had heavy rains and the river flooded, it would fill with water and stay there. Brush, cattails and whatnot grew there, and a lot of trash was thrown there. Lost river wasn’t dredged until 1963. Anyhow, in 1953, Oklee had a major project going on. All the streets were dug up, new storm sewers were installed, streets were refilled with sand and gravel. Problem where should all the old dirt go! Omar Sundrud, publisher and owner of the Oklee Herald was Mayor. Councilmen could have been Orlo Melby, Bill Seeger, Bert Riel, Frank Cyr and others. Anyhow, Mayor Sundrud said let’s see if we can buy or annex the low land north of the Lost River and east of the highway from the Stromme family. Which they succeed in doing. All the dirt taken out of the streets in Oklee filled in the low spots and made the Oklee Park. Also there was more dirt than was needed, so they covered the old city dump SE of the city and made a nice hill for children to climb and sled down. This all came about from an idea from Mayor Sundrud. I believe the Oklee Park should be named in his honor and called “Omar Sundrud Park!” (Editors note: These facts may not be 100% right, Elmer says. I think that is a great idea to give the park a name other than the commonly referred name of Oklee’s North Park to honor someone that served the community if many different ways, as reporter, businessman, and serving on the council.