“I don’t like being the center of attention,” Karyn said as she stood in the Wildcat Den after school on September 23rd. “I’m speechless,” she said at her retirement party that came largely as a surprise 3 days before she finished her 31-year career as Goodhue School’s main custodian.
The office paged Karyn for clean-up duty in the Wildcat Den where she was instead met by a crowd of current and former school employees wearing purple. Notice went out earlier to teachers and the rest of the school staff letting them know about the party, and that they and the students should “Dress like Karyn,” whose favorite attire promotes the Minnesota Vikings. As she looked around and pieced things together, she said, “Thanks for all the Viking’s wear—the school never looked so good”.
Looking from the crowd to the display set up in her honor, she studied the elementary students’ signatures on one poster and another with a list of ideas on how to spend her upcoming free time. A quilt made by fellow school employee, Riley Krusmark hung as a backdrop to other gifts. The quilt was made from Goodhue Wildcat T-shirts that Karyn had donated back to the school. Riley gathered the shirts and gave them new life in the quilt that unsuspecting Karyn was happy take back home.
Guests marveled at a beautiful treat tower of macaroons created by Kris Luhman, laughed at a golden plunger and a golden mop bucket full of cards from the kids, and wondered at a jar of already-been-chewed gum. “She’s scraped so much gum off stuff in 31 years, we thought we’d send some home with her,” Sheila Stehr explained.
Other school employees praised Karyn’s passion for groundskeeping, her school spirit when decorating the lounge, and the reliable way she showed up at 5:30 every morning. For many years Karyn also operated the flower shop downtown, working at the school from 6 AM-noon, then working at the shop into the evening and often on the weekends.
Aaron Fredrickson has been hired to fill Karyn’s position and has spent time learning the duties through job shadowing but everyone agrees that it will be different without Karyn working at the school. Her last day was Friday, September 25th after which she hosted another retirement party at the Bellechester Tavern. Among the food and memorabilia was a poster of potential retirement jobs that included: professional dog sled racer, Vikings’ cheerleader, and Jamaican tour guide. In reality, Karyn will be vacationing in Jamaica in January and going on a “cousins’ cruise” in February. She also plans to make quilts and spend more time with her 3 children, 7 grandchildren and 2 greatgrandchildren.
Karyn describes her time at the school as having “a lot of laughter and a lot of tears,” adding that she loves the kids and has so many happy memories. “I never dreamt I’d spend my whole life here.” Having grown up and lived in Kellogg before moving to Goodhue, she found the same small-town atmosphere and fell in love with this community right away. She likes to visit her hometown but says Goodhue really feels like home. “I even bought a cemetery plot – I’m here to stay!”
