The 2020 Honorees

Connor Foslid knows what it’s like to go through a tough time. For the past two years, his family has been homeless because they lost their home to foreclosure. So, the family has worked hard to live in a motel paying $800 a week to live someplace safe and warm until they can find their forever home.

Five days a week, Connor helps out at Helping Hands For Our Children in the Chippewa Valley, sweeping, cleaning, emptying garbages, carrying boxes, and playing with babies while their mommas shop! “It’s where kids can get stuff for free and clothes for free,” Connor says, “also toys. I got to help them with shelves they couldn’t reach…

There’s some people who are really poor and can’t afford anything.” It’s an organization that Connor’s mom says helps everyone. Connor is also helpful at home too, always helping his mom and dad clean the house. He surrounds himself with friends at school who have kind hearts, and he wishes others knew how kind he is.

When he’s not helping out and donating his time, Connor loves going fishing — especially if he manages to snag a big catch!

Julie Chojnacki loves to learn, particularly social studies, math, science, and English. But, her favorite subject to learn about is religion because when she grows up, Julie wants to be a nun. “I want to help people out too,” she says. Inspired by her teachers, her great aunt (who is a nun, like Julie wants to be), her parents, and her doctor, Julie gets through tough times by telling herself, “God is with me.

I don’t have to have a tough time.” During pandemic times, she shared her positivity with others by creating about 30 handmade cards for her local nursing home. “I wanted to help nursing homes out because, you know, everybody was at the nursing home and they didn’t have anybody to visit since it was COVID, and I just wanted to make them cards so they can feel better,” she says. “After I was done, we went to the nursing home, and I just gave them all the cards.”

When people are feeling sad, she says, “I come up to them and say, ‘Can we be friends?’ Like, if I’m not their friend. If they’re my friend, I say, ‘Can I hug you?’ but since it’s COVID right now, I give them a little finger hug, and I say, ‘Don’t worry, be happy.’” If she notices her friends are having a tough day, she’ll sometimes make cards for her friends that she gifts them at the end of the day.

When Julie isn’t spreading joy, she enjoys drawing, relaxing in the pool, and working out by doing gymnastics — including handstands, cartwheels, and backbends. She also enjoys gardening and growing vegetables. “We had big watermelons growing in the backyard, and we just ate it.”

If you ask Kinsley Kessler what keeps her busy, her answer is: Everything. While isolating at home due to the pandemic, Kinsley did a science experiment to grow rock candy, made homemade slime, learned about chemical reactions by creating volcanoes, created chalk art, grew flowers, walked her neighbor’s dog, raised monarch butterflies, learned to ride a bike without training wheels, and learned to swim without floaties. But, Kinsley also has a heart for others.

After noticing garbage strewn all over a park by her house, she went to work. “We picked up garbage,” Kinsley says, “picked up garbage from our park.” She also worked with her mom to bake cookies and friendship bread for local nurses working hard during the pandemic. An amateur chef, Kinsley has her own baking set — complete with baking supplies, an apron, and a hat. How do you help other people, according to Kinsley? “Being nice,” she says, “doing nice things.”

At only four years old, Kinsley believes you have to fill other peoples buckets up to share kindness. And it’s something she hopes to continue with her curiosity, joy, and awe.

If you ask Skyler if he’s a good artist, he’ll tell you the biggest joke of all time with his signature, radiant grin: “No, I’m not.” Skyler loves to tell jokes and play games with his family, as well as playing piano (including “Moonlight Sonata” by Beethoven!), writing stories, and doing math.

He’s an advanced student — meaning he takes extra hard classes in school. But, his friends and family know the truth about Skyler: He is an incredible artist. During pandemic times, Skyler spread joy by creating art pieces and selling them to friends and family, raking in extra money that he spent on a new game to play with his family. If you ask Skyler his favorite color, he’ll say, “That’s a tough one. I like rainbow just all together because it is like pride and a lot of stuff … All the colors together are really good.”

A confident, radiant transgender boy, Skyler already can tell you what tough terms like “identity” mean. “It means what someone’s personality is and things that they do,” he says. “That’s a tricky question, mostly just people’s personality and how they feel about themselves.” Being transgender, according to Skyler, means accepting your true self. “It’s more than just saying he/him, or she/her, they/them — whatever — it’s more than that … You’re being who you are,” he says.

“It’s not just about gender.” When Skyler grows up, he hopes to be like his favorite Peanuts character Schroeder and play piano by becoming a piano teacher. And, just maybe, telling a few more of his awesome jokes.

Nobody offers a helping hand quite like Nora Gladitsch, who recently spent time volunteering in Minneapolis to help those who were affected by looting and rioting. She loved organizing diapers, wipes, baby formula, and feminine products at a local church for nearly four hours. “Our goal was to just drop off donations and come back home, and as soon as we got there, she got out of the car and she goes, “Mom, can’t we help for a little while?’” says her mom, Greta Gladitsch. “I thought it would be fun without my sister,” Nora chimed in. “We usually don’t go, just me and Mommy.” Nora loves to be helpful — especially with chores around the house, often helping with the dishwasher, laundry, and cleaning the toilets. During pandemic times, Nora also found joy helping out a local waitress at Hangar 54. Nora asked friends and family for donations and saved money to give to a random lucky local. “If somebody needs help, and nobody has it, I think it’s nice to do what’s right,” Nora says. In addition to spreading joy, Nora also works hard. Now a Daisy Scout, Nora sold 800 boxes of Girl Scout cookies this year. As a prize, she won a trip a summer camp, which was unfortunately canceled due to COVID-19. “Here’s my great idea: If we don’t go to camp any summer, we can just like, clean this bed out, move it,” she says, “and camp in my room!”