Tallitha Reese

Community builders use many tools. Creative ideas. Cheery optimism. Contagious enthusiasm. Norb Kelly of Lanesboro, Minnesota, uses tools that are more traditional, though: A saw, a hammer, a screwdriver. 

In 2010, after his 36-year teaching career, Norb and his wife, Nancy, moved to the Lanesboro area. “I grew up in White Bear Lake and taught elementary and junior high in Elk River,” Norb says. “We looked for retirement property up north. Too many mosquitos. We found nice acreage outside of Lanesboro and were soon building our house.”

Norb wasn’t sure what the next years would be like for him, but he knew what he didn’t want. “I wasn’t looking for a normal retirement,” he says. “I like nature but I’m not drawn to canoeing or kayaking. I wasn’t going to be out on a golf course. What I like to do is make stuff. I’ve always loved woodworking and spent many summers remodeling houses. I wanted more time for those kinds of things.”

Norb sought counsel about his plans, including from his parish priest. “I asked him how I might get involved in our local church. When he learned about my woodworking background he mentioned the church needed wooden stands for the liturgical books called missals. I tried that and they came out well. Then he told me they needed a portable altar for an annual retreat of Catholic middle school students at Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center. I wasn’t quite sure where to start, but once finished I was very moved to see it being used in a community like that.”

Using his skills in a church setting was natural for Norb, a lifelong Catholic who had once considered entering the priesthood. Other projects soon presented themselves as well, including building theater sets for both the Commonweal Theatre and the Lanesboro Community Theater (LCT).

“I enjoyed those projects but I had to get used to them,” he admits. “When I build a house I want it to last 100 years. For the theater I build things that are here and gone in less than 100 hours. Brandt Roberts and I created a set for a Commonweal apprentice production that – because of COVID – only had one performance. My friend, Tom Barnes, who directs LCT plays, told me, ‘Don’t worry, Norb, it only has to look good from 30 feet!’ I guess he’s right.”

If you’ve seen a play or musical in Lanesboro in the past five years, you’ve seen Norb’s work. You know it looks good way past 30 feet. Just ask Rita Dalzell, musical director for LCT’s production of ‘The Music Man.’ 

“Over my career I’ve been involved in more than 40 plays and musicals,” Rita says. “Norb’s work is a cut above. He’s meticulous, he goes the extra mile, he’s a carpenter extraordinaire! The quality of our ‘Music Man’ set –that main street, those porches and screen doors – was amazing. No one wanted to tear it down! Norb’s craftsmanship gives the audience a whole new level of joy.”

Norb helps build community in very quiet, low-key ways, fitting a man whose humble spirit isn’t eager for a spotlight on him or his work. You’ll have to hunt a bit to find him mending pews at St. Patrick’s Church, perched high in the church bell tower repairing wooden louvers, or replacing smoke detectors in the home of an elderly friend. “Norb can fix anything,” is a common sentiment around Lanesboro, and he usually can.

Those tasks give him great pleasure. “I tell people, ‘Don’t pay me, just pray for me.’ That’s enough. I read somewhere that life is not about you. Or at least it shouldn’t be. That clicked for me. Life is using the talents God has given us to help others. Pretty simple, really.”

Norb’s handiwork is helping build a new community these days, one stretching far beyond Lanesboro’s town limits. “I’m part of an Instagram group that connects woodcrafters in the United States, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. We share current projects, learn from each other, and enjoy the friendship.”

Ask Norb Kelly if he’s a community builder and he’ll tell you no. He doesn’t want to talk about it, really. He’s too busy just doing it, “making stuff,” one nail, one project, one community at a time.

Westby, Wisconsin is a small town big on Norwegian culture and heritage. Syttende Mai is celebrated every May, the annual Snowflake Ski Jumping Tournament attracts an international pool of competitors, and Nordic names are the hallmark of many local businesses. So it’s no surprise the area is also host to an annual woodcarving event that brings craftsmen and visitors from all over the Midwest to connect, shop, and learn a craft that, for many in the area, is rooted in their Norwegian heritage. 

Karve In started as an effort by founder John Sutton to bring people together. He realized there were multiple woodcarving groups in the area – Coulee Region Wood Carvers Association of La Crosse; Driftless Spoon Carvers of Driftless Folk School in Viroqua; and The Hatlem Carving Group of Viroqua – but they were all very much separate organizations. 

“I realized these groups did not much intermingle nor know what the others were doing,” he said. “So, I thought why not get all three groups together in one location, so they could meet each other, carve, share ideas, tools, patterns and carving styles.”

The Bekkum Memorial Library, where John was a member of the Board of Directors, hosted that first event in 2017. John requested a help committee and quickly found the assistance of Kathy Anderson (then the Library board president) and Kris Strand (then secretary), and both women continue to hold vital roles in making the annual event happen. They work behind-the-scenes on marketing, as well as arranging details and logistics before and during Karve In. A guiding committee meets throughout the year to plan for and keep the event going. The Bekkum Memorial Library as well as the Friends of Bekkum Memorial Library have continued to support this event through the years, as well, along with the City of Westby and the Westby Area School District. 

Since that first year, this event has continued to grow – even, notably, through the COVID pandemic. Though the Carve In was delayed in 2020, when the event was next held, the turnout was even larger. In fact, the event, previously held in the lower level of the Bekkum Memorial Library, has grown so large that this year’s Karve In 7 will take place at the Westby Elementary School.

Another change to this year’s event is the slight spelling adjustment from “Carve” to “Karve,” which is a Norwegian term for boat – just another way to pay homage to the Nordic ancestry and influence in the area that has led many to the craft of wood carving.   

“While wood carving is an important art form in many cultures, our Norwegian heritage in Westby is especially connected to the art,” says Steve Michaels, who is this year’s event chairman as well as the superintendent of the Westby Area School District. “Our Norwegian heritage and connectedness to the art of wood carving is part of the culture in our small city.” 

John notes that the growth of the event just proves the need and interest in the area for wood carving that can be shared with the next generation. 

“It’s great, as we share with our youth, and maybe it doesn’t stick now, but may come back again in the future to them,” says John, whose own first experience with wood carving started at scout camp when he was in fifth grade. “It lingered in the back recesses of the mind until I got involved with Norskedalen and the Nordic carvers there, a book by Rick Butz and some old pocketknives,” explains John. “Today it’s sorta all consuming.” 

The passing of wood carving knowledge from one generation to the next is something that Steve has also witnessed first-hand at last year’s event. 

“As a member of the library board, I signed up to volunteer and brought my son along,” says Steve. “One of the carvers there took my son under her wing. She spent an hour with him, teaching him the proper and safe way to hold and use a knife. They created several ‘10 minute owl’ carvings. After that, he was hooked! These people are very willing to share their knowledge with young and old alike.” 

Adding to the community aspect of the event is what John calls a Carve Around, where a rough start of a figure (at this year’s event it will be a dog) is cut out and any carver who wishes to participate will take a few cuts, signing the sheet of carvers before it passes on to the next carver. The completed carving is then donated to Bekkum Memorial Library. 

In recent years, each year’s event has also included a “Featured Carver” position, which highlights and recognizes the work of one local carver who has mastered carving, may be a professional carver, or is simply an excellent example of a carver. Ken Larson is the featured carver this year for Karve In 7. Interested folks should carve out some time to stop by Westby Elementary School on Saturday, April 22, 2023, to learn more about carving, buy tools or crafts, and embrace the community culture of Westby, Wisconsin. 

Save the Date:

Karve In 7

Saturday April 22, 2023
10am to 4pm

Free Admission 

Award winning wood carvers will show, demonstrate, and sell their art

Westby Elementary School
122 Nelson St
Westby, WI 54667

Decorah’s Jane Kemp smiles easily and often. 

Yet beneath that kind smile and unassuming demeanor lies a fierce advocate for community causes, and a strong will to get good things done. It’s a fact to which numerous boards and nonprofits across Decorah and Winneshiek County can attest.

“This may be a tired phrase, but it really is all about giving back,” says Jane, 78 years young. “I’ve had a wonderful life thus far, and it’s important to me to give back – this is a marvelous community, but it rests on people giving of their time and talents to stay that way.”

An Iowa native, Jane – full name, Henrietta Jane – decided to move to Juneau, Alaska, in 1966 after earning her bachelor’s degree in history and German from the University of Iowa. Though she “only intended to stay for the summer,” fate had other plans.

Not long after her arrival, Jane met her future husband, Don, then a staff member at the Alaska Department of Health and Welfare. In 1969, the couple tied the knot. And while both left the state temporarily to pursue master’s degrees – Jane earned a master of library science degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1971 – it was not until 1977 that they decided to relocate to Des Moines, Iowa, with their young daughter, Anna, in tow.

When Luther College offered Don a position as director of its social work program the very next year, they moved to Decorah and never looked back – by 1981, Jane had been hired by the college as well. Over the next 30 years, Jane carved out a career in Preus Library, serving as circulation librarian, library department head, and supervisor of the Fine Arts Collection – it  grew impressively under her direction – as well as a professor in the college’s PAIDEIA program for first-year students. “We did a lot of reference and circulation work and a lot of bibliographic instruction in the early days,” says Jane, who retired from the library in 2010 as professor emerita of library and information studies. “It was well before Google, so we were charged with teaching students and other library patrons how to use the many reference materials.”

Both in retirement (and well before), she put her exemplary organizational skills and undying passion for good causes to use well beyond the Luther campus. When Winneshiek County Habitat for Humanity (WCHfH) asked her to join its board after the death of her husband, its director, in 2003, Jane accepted immediately. “I served both as a memorial to Don and because I believe deeply in the program,” she says. “Our goal was to have houses in every community in Winneshiek County, not just Decorah, and the scope of the work was just incredible – we did not only new builds but also renovations, including a church.”

Jane stepped off the board years ago, but she and her daughter, Anna, remain among the organization’s biggest advocates. As did Jane, Anna has served as board secretary. And the Kemp family has been a consistent supporter of the Don Kemp Golf Tournament, which raises funds for WCHfH building projects. (Jane is quick to point out that she does not golf in the annual event: “I am the least athletic person,” she says with a laugh.) 

Other Decorah-based groups, both large and small, have also benefited from Jane’s time and talents. She is past president of Friends of the Decorah Public Library, a volunteer group that raises money to support the library and invest in needs not covered by its budget, from technology upgrades to programming. She currently chairs a local travel club that was established more than a century ago, says Jane, “for women who needed, at that time, to get out of the house and really sink their minds into something.” The group meets regularly at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, where Jane is an active member. She has served as church webmaster and has volunteered for the landscape committee and altar guild, among other things. “We have a very small staff so we are very much a congregation of volunteers,” she notes. 

And while Jane claims no Norwegian ancestry, she has always loved history, so currently serving as a trustee of the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum is, as she says, “a natural fit.” 

During her tenure on the board, the museum has developed Heritage Park, dedicated in 2021, and the Vesterheim Commons, due to open later this year. “Vesterheim is such a fabulous asset for Decorah; not only does it preserve the history of Norwegian-Americans who are so prominent in the Upper Midwest, but frankly, it’s also a huge tourist draw.”

When asked, Jane quickly credits her good friends and “mentors,” Georgie Klevar and Joyce Epperly, for the seemingly endless inspiration she spreads around the community. “They set the standard for me for volunteering and giving to nonprofits,” she says. “And they absolutely have inspired me.”

Jane says that while she logs time every day on volunteer work, she also makes time for other activities she enjoys, including reading (of course!), traveling with family and friends, and walking the many trails of Decorah. “This town really does check all the boxes for me,” she concludes. “I love helping this community, and it’s been very fulfilling to do so.”