Do I have any regrets from my time as a Maplewood student? As a matter of fact, there is one! It was a regret that I was reminded of recently while attending a Maplewood Academy Building Committee meeting. Our committee meets periodically to discuss progress and planning for the prospective New Cafeteria (and Future Music Building) project(s) on the campus of Maplewood Academy. To date the cafeteria project has received over 1.1 million dollars in donations. When the amount received reaches 2 million, our committee plans to bid the project and generate a construction schedule. This is something we would like to see happen in the next few months in order to schedule a ground-breaking in 2022!
During the recent 2021 Alumni Weekend, both a physical model and a virtual 3D model of the building were presented to the alumni so that they could view the design that our committee has been working on with the help of Olsen and Hobbie Architects. (If you would like to see photos and videos of what was shared with alumni, they can be viewed through the Maplewood Academy website, link below). The New Cafeteria Building is designed to serve not only current Maplewood students, but also large events that will host the broader Minnesota and Alumni communities on campus. In addition, as the building is designed to face Highway 7 (a local North-South thoroughfare), we believe that the building will also serve as a beacon of Maplewood’s presence to residents and visitors of the Hutchinson, MN community.
At this point perhaps you’re still wondering (or perhaps you’ve already forgotten!) about my original question…Regrets? Well, as I shared,…there was one. A regret that can be summed up in two-simple words: salad bar… More specifically, overlooking (and therefore underutilizing) Mrs. J’s plenteous salad bar during my time as a Maplewood student. Peggy Johnson (affectionately known to us back then as “Mrs. J”) was the cafeteria director during my particular era (‘98-’01), and she was faithful about providing a fully loaded salad bar alongside nearly every meal. Based on my response, you can tell that I didn’t take advantage of this opportunity as often as my mother would have liked, which raises the question: “If you provide a healthy option, will students eat it!? Well, truth be told, if there were tater tots that evening, my plate likely had no room. However, with such a consistent salad option available, my mom would be glad to know that occasionally my meal wasn’t monochrome. I can also assure you that at least some of the students would pile their salad high on a regular basis! Steve Huset, for example, made a salad every day (if a mound so covered with eggs, sunflower seeds, Baco Bits, and ranch so you can scarcely spot anything green still constitutes a salad?). Each day Steve would eat his “salad” while a group of us would gather around to hear him tell “the joke of the day.” It’s a fond memory that I still cherish. As I began ruminating on the topic, many other fond cafeteria memories sprang to mind: a pudding fight with Barb Panata (Anderson), singing “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” with Christopher Morrison, Christmas banquets, nervous dates–it was the best of times…
How did all of this come to mind, you ask? Recently Jeremy Everhart, Maplewood’s current principal, treated our Building Committee to a meal from the cafeteria prior to our meeting. Jody Bertness (Skelley) the current cafeteria director, with some assistance from Vicky Fogg (Weber), had similar healthy options available, including a sandwich bar full of veggies and even a “vegan quesadilla.” When I asked my server, Samantha Pegueros-Arais (sophomore), “What’s in a vegan quesadilla?” she looked at Jeremy with a playfully accusatory tone, then back at me, and blurted out (as if she was admitting to something shameful), “It’s a tortilla and hummus!” Then, snagging the attention of everyone in a 10-foot radius, Samantha announced, tongue-in-cheek, “If a quesadilla doesn’t have cheese, you can’t call it a quesa-dilla!” The humor wasn’t lost on Jeremy, who laughed and quipped back. As I observed Jeremy continue the playful banter with Samantha and the rest of the students in the serving line, it was plain to see 1) that the students enjoy and appreciate Jeremy as their principal, and 2) that fond relational memories are still being made today.
Thinking back, I know that many generations have enjoyed sweet memories in the cafeteria during their time at Maplewood. Little did we know about the costs and effort that were going into sustaining the building’s maintenance and energy needs. Fast forward. To consider a remodel today would likely trigger mandated compliance with modern accessibility, energy, and sprinkler codes. This would be a substantial and expensive undertaking, but in the end the undertaking would still leave Maplewood the owner of an old, tired building. In recent years, an engineer was hired to provide a professional assessment of what a modernization-remodel would involve. His final advice? “You would just be better off to build a new building.” It was not long after this prognosis that Maplewood began fundraising for a new cafeteria building, and so we actually want to take a moment to sincerely thank everyone who has contributed to passing the 1-million-dollar line! Thinking back, we can appreciate how the existing building has served the Maplewood family faithfully for many decades but looking forward we see that a new building is best suited to serve the generations to come–and now is the appropriate time.
As I considered all of this, I noted that a cafeteria is not merely a building, but it is a place where people come together to share a meal. It is a social place. A place where memories are made, and relationships are grown. That’s why, when we get to heaven, the first thing our Heavenly Father plans to do is serve us a meal–together!
“The servants who are ready and waiting for his return will be rewarded. I tell you the truth, he himself will seat them, put on an apron, and serve them as they sit and eat!” – Luke 12:37 (NLT)
What a picture! The God of all creation serving His children a meal! What a special time that will be! To invest in a project like this is not merely to invest in a place to eat; rather, it is an investment in relationships, an investment in memories yet to be made, and, ultimately, an investment in those who will be sitting around that heavenly table someday.
If you would like to contribute to this exciting project, you can do so with ease through the Maplewood Academy website: www.maplewoodacademy.org. Or, if you prefer to speak to someone in person, please contact Paeter Weikum at 320-587-2830.
*Committee members include:
● Jeremy Everhart – Principal, Maplewood Academy
● Gaylen Bowers – Vice President for Finance, Minnesota Conference of SDA
● Paeter Weikum – Vice Principal for Finance, Maplewood Academy
● Mike Sims – Gift Planning and Trust Services, Property Manager, Minnesota Conference of SDA
● Jody Skelley Bertness – Food Service Director, Maplewood Academy
● Merlyn Gottfried – Maintenance Director, Maplewood Academy
● Lois Bowers – Former Food Service Director, Maplewood Academy
● Ryan Heinbough – Community member, former Construction Manager
● Jonny Vliet ’01 – Community member, Architect
Jonny Vliet is a ’01 MWA alumni.
