Tallitha Reese

They may be nature’s finest creation. Conspicuous, abundant, profoundly productive, leaves make life possible. A few cells thick, the typical leaf houses complex biological machinery laminated between its exterior surfaces. That machinery enables plants to convert sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into sugar and oxygen via a biochemical miracle known as photosynthesis. Remarkable yes, but for all their green glory, the magic of leaves extends well beyond their biological tenure. 

Dwindling daylight and cooling temperatures signal impending seasonal change. Trees batten down their physiological hatches by terminating photosynthesis and translocating sugars out of leaves and into their trunks for winter storage. Senescence, the process of deterioration, results in the riot of fall colors – red, orange, gold, and tan – that make leaf peepers giddy.

Autumn winds send senescing leaves landward. As they accumulate on lawns and gardens, leaf blowers and yard vacuums roar. Banished to mulch piles or curbside removal, corralled leaves are denied their ecological purpose. Long after the cessation of photosynthesis, long after they parachute to earth, long after they brown and desiccate, leaves continue to sustain life. 

Think of it this way. A forest without a layer of leaves covering the ground – leaf litter – is incomplete. Also known as duff, the veneer of decomposing leaves is fundamental to soil health. It is the primary means by which nutrients are delivered to soil, and by extension, to plants. 

The organic detritus resulting from slow leaf decomposition attracts a host of tiny detritivores – nematode worms, earthworms, millipedes, and sow bugs are but a few – that serve as food for centipedes, spiders, and beetles that in turn become dinner for a host of species that dine on leaf dwellers including garter snakes, toads, and birds. It’s all possible because of leaves.

Many species, particularly insects, rely on fallen leaves to provide concealment from predators and insulation against winter’s frigid bite. Numerous butterflies and moths, including the regal Luna moth, ride out cold weather snuggled in cocoons and chrysalises that mimic leaves. The caterpillars of fritillaries, burnt orange butterflies that rocket over meadows and slalom forest edges, find winter refuge in leaf litter. Likewise, woolly bear caterpillars, sporting their iconic red and black cardigans, are often seen crossing roads during autumn as they search for the perfect leaf laden lair in which to hole up. For brightly banded bumblebees hibernating just below the soil surface, a toasty leaf blanket can tip survival odds in their favor. Layers of leaves, it turns out, are essential for a healthy environment.

This fall, as you prepare for winter’s inevitabilities, adopt a softer approach to leaf management. Lawns can still be raked, but where those leaves end up matters. A layer of leaves in the garden will provide needed homes for your six-legged neighbors, help retain soil moisture and insulate plants against Arctic blasts. A mulch pile in an unused portion of your yard can serve as important habitat. And let your two-legged neighbors know you’ve turned a new leaf so they can consider doing likewise. The more we mimic nature, the more we benefit the planet we call home. It all begins by leaving the leaves.

Stop to chat for even a moment with Liang Chee Wee – Northeast Iowa Community College immediate past president – and you’re sure to walk away with a smile. He’s passionate and compassionate, realistic and idealistic. And he’s inarguably, unwaveringly (and, yes, refreshingly) optimistic. 

“Look around, and I promise, you will see something good,” he says. “When I look around, I see challenges and I see pain, but far more often, I see good – I see people helping people in need.”

That unflappable optimism has carried him far in life, both literally and figuratively. 

Born in Singapore to a mother who could neither read nor write and a father who did not complete high school, Wee was taught the importance of a good education at a very early age. “My parents were not highly educated, but they greatly respected education,” he says. “And because of that, they made sure that both me and my younger brother received good educations.” 

So intent were they that their sons pursue higher education that when Wee wrapped up two-and-a-half years in the Singapore military – he enlisted right after his high school graduation – his mom had just one pressing question of her firstborn son: “Where are you going to college?”

“She made it very clear with that question that going to college was my only option,” he recalls with a grin almost 40 years later. “She didn’t ask, ‘Are you going to college?’” And so, in July 1983, a one-way ticket in hand, Wee boarded a flight to the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he would spend the next decade. “It was difficult for my parents to send me away, but they knew it was for the best,” he says. “They didn’t know for sure how it was going to work out, but they did it anyway.”

And it worked out just fine. Wee settled in quickly to his new home and devoted himself to his studies, earning a bachelor’s degree in management information systems and master’s and doctoral degrees in business administration. He also helped teach a very large introductory computer class in a very large lecture hall, an experience that would shape the trajectory of his life. 

“Even though we were in a big space, the professor I taught with created an intimate setting, and even though I didn’t know it at that time, he was showing me what it really meant to be a teacher because he instructed with passion and compassion,” Wee recalls. “He understood teaching is about much more than relaying the course content; it’s about whether you really care about the students sitting in your classroom.”

Wee took that life lesson with him in 1992 when he packed his station wagon with the few possessions he had acquired in Tucson and headed east to Decorah, Iowa, to fill a temporary faculty opening at Luther College. (His friends Mari Heltne and Conrad Røyksund, both Luther faculty members, were taking a sabbatical in Norway and encouraged him to apply.) That “temporary” position turned into 15 years serving the college as a member of the faculty (in economics and business) and administration (as associate dean and registrar).

It was at Luther, he says, that he was given opportunities that helped him prepare for service as an administrator at NICC. And it was at Luther that he discovered what “answering a call” actually meant. “I was planning my life all along and doing, I thought, just fine,” he recalls. “But I discovered what I needed to do was give up control because the more I controlled, the more I wasn’t listening to what life wanted to do with me.”

So when friends suggested in 2007 that he look at an opening as NICC’s Calmar campus provost, Wee listened. And when four years later, the NICC board asked him to serve a three-month term as interim president for the entire NICC network (the Calmar and Peosta campuses as well as service centers over a 5,000-square-mile area), he listened once again. “I could have said no, and that would have been the end of it,” he observes. “But this was an opportunity to serve, so I said yes.” In 2011, Wee was officially named NICC president following a nationwide search.

In the years since, he has worked tirelessly with NICC faculty and staff to improve lives, drive business success, and enhance the vitality of Northeast Iowa. What does he view as the greatest accomplishment of his tenure? “We have enhanced support for the communities we serve,” Wee says without hesitation. “And in order to do that, we have had to meet our communities where they are  – every one of the 24 school districts we serve is different, and every business we serve is different.”

It has been a joy and an honor, he says, to serve the community: “We get a chance to improve lives through education and training, and when lives are improved, families are lifted. I believe every student has a story and every student has a journey. Our job is to help them navigate their journeys.”

On the eve of Wee’s retirement this past July, Ashley Hinson, U.S. Representative, lauded his 12 years of service to NICC on the House floor in Washington, D.C. “Under Dr. Wee’s leadership, NICC became a space for addressing challenges in the community, and his passion for inclusivity ensured everyone who stepped foot on the NICC campus – students, educators, employees, and members of the community – all felt at home,” she said. “He always has a smile and a kind word of encouragement for everyone that he meets.”

No doubt Wee will bring that same encouraging tenor to meetings of the Luther Board of Regents, to which he was appointed in June. He says he will use the regular board meetings to listen, to learn, and to hopefully strengthen the connection between NICC and Luther, schools that are just 12 miles apart. 

What else does he have planned in retirement? 

Stay tuned. 

“As of today, I don’t know, but someday, it will reveal itself and then that will be the start of another exciting journey,” he says. “I believe that life is not done with me quite yet.”

Nancy Sojka loves to go fast. Those who’ve seen her zip by on Decorah’s Trout Run Trail in her red, white, and blue bicycling jersey can attest to this fact.

“I love flying down a hill. I love that feeling of flying,” she explains with a laugh. “So I’m willing to climb hills in order to do the downhill. I’ll do the work. But I love the payoff at the end.” 

This philosophy of working hard for that payoff reaches into all aspects of Nancy’s life. 

Like many great origin stories, the Northeast Iowa Quilters Guild (NEIQG) began with two people meeting in a small-town bar and drinking…coffee. 

Nancy and NEIQG co-founder Anna Houdek were introduced at a Spillville city council event – their husbands were both on the council at the time – and they formed an immediate connection. 

“We went to some dinner for city council members and just struck it. You know, I mean, we were just instantly friends” Nancy recalls. “Anna had the habit of going to the local bar for coffee every morning at nine o’clock. She invited me to come and Charlie [Nancy’s eldest son] was a baby. So I took Charlie and we went to coffee at the bar every morning.” 

One morning, Anna mentioned that she had inherited an antique quilt top that belonged to her aunt – a lovely, embroidered white background top from around 1940. She asked Nancy to help her quilt it – for quilting novices out there, that means finishing it off by adding the backing and additional layers to the quilt top, then hand-quilting all layers together to make the final quilt.

“My grandma had just given me quilt frames,” Nancy says. “So we took this beautiful antique, and we put polyester batting behind it and started quilting. And I mean, we were okay quilters, but it was pretty audacious to take the antique piece and make it into a quilt so that she could put it on her bed!”

They shifted their morning coffee routine from the bar to Anna’s house, and quilted over the next several weeks. As the quilt came together, piece by piece, so too did the plans for the Northeast Iowa Quilters Guild.

One day while they were quilting, Anna mentioned she’d been hearing of other women who had started quilting. She told Nancy about her grandma’s weekly quilting bee, a group that would sometimes work on their own projects, and other times quilt for others, charging .50 cents a spool of thread and giving whatever money they had earned to the church or others in need. Anna then suggested she and Nancy make it official and start a guild.

“I said, ‘Well, yeah, that’d be kind of fun, I guess. You know, I’ve never been a part of a quilt guild,’” Nancy remembers saying. “And I thought about my grandma’s quilting bee and I said, ‘I don’t want to do this once a week, though.’”

Just like flying downhill on a bike, the idea for the quilters’ guild grew fast. Nancy and Anna agreed to meet just once a month to brainstorm possibilities of what the guild could do, like sharing their works-in-progress and having guest speakers. Then, they decided to get the word out.

“So we put an ad in the Decorah paper and the Calmar paper and 35 women showed up!” Nancy exclaims with an air of wonder. 

Since that first meeting in 1982, the NEIQG has grown to more than 100 members that meet regularly at the Luana Savings Bank. In addition to showing their work and featuring guest speakers, the Guild travels together to quilt shows in other states and hosts their own quilt show in Decorah. 

“The very first year we decided that we were going to do a biennial quilt show. We decided that we would have it at the school gym in Spillville. And so we just put out something saying ‘if you have quilts, please bring them [and] send us a description so that we can make a book,’” Nancy explains with a smirk.

“So 300 quilts came. And then when people brought their quilts in, you know, they’d have this big stack of quilts. And it’s like ‘you know, when I was getting these quilts out, I realized that I had these other two that my grandma gave me, and can I leave them too?’ and we ended up with 420 quilts! We didn’t even have enough places to hang them!” Nancy remembers fondly, shaking her head in amazement. “It was just so well received, that we were kind of blown away. It really was way more successful than we expected it would be.”

The overwhelming response to the guild’s first quilt show helped to bind the Guild members, who came from many different communities, together. Since then, the Guild has been very active – growing its membership, traveling to the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show together each year, and continuing to host their own biennial quilt show. The pandemic altered the regular schedule, but they’re back to hosting that show this fall (see sidebar for details), and bringing people together who might not otherwise connect.

 “The Guild offers education in basic or new or more advanced techniques to quilters from multiple communities in Northeast Iowa,” Nancy explains. “Many of the people in the Guild work mostly alone in their homes or studios. The Guild gives them the chance to share ideas and inspiration.” 

And, according to Nancy, there is usually a healthy mix of friendship, good food, and good drinks along the way.

Razzle Dazzle Quilt Show

The “Razzle Dazzle” 40th Anniversary Quilt Show, sponsored by Decorah’s Red Roxy Quilt Company, provides an excellent opportunity for the Guild members to share the results of their work, skills and creativity with the broader Northeast Iowa community. 
The “Razzle Dazzle” will take place in the new community building at the Winneshiek County Fairgrounds in Decorah, and will run Saturday, October 15 from 10 am to 5 pm, and Sunday, October 16, from 10 am to 4 pm. The show will feature over 300 quilts and quilted items on display. There will also be a quilt raffle, canister raffle, the Quilt of Valor presentation, vendors, bed turning, lunch, a book and magazine sale, and demonstrations. For more information about the NEIQG, or to become a member, visit www.neiqg.com.