Small Town Lives
Boyd Huppert of KARE 11 News in Minneapolis has crafted a wonderful series about opportunities and tribulations in rural America. His "Four Corners" project takes us to the Grand Portage Reservation and the towns of Northcote, Luverne and Caledonia in the remotest parts of Minnesota, where people are struggling to create jobs, keep their young people and simply survive. Huppert's stories are full of stunning footage of vast landscapes and great interviews with the people who give these towns their will to endure. Huppert is a master at stitching together telling details and dialogue as he does in this passage:
Pulling in players as far away as North Dakota and Canada, Kittson Central manages to fill a hockey roster — just barely. The night Thief River Falls came to town, Kittson Central was outscored 9 to 1.
"It's where I grew up, I'm a farm kid, I enjoy it out here," says Kittson Central head hockey coach, Scott Younggren, Betty's son. "We're all kind of fighting the same fight; maybe the hard part is sometimes we don't win."
Thank you to the Poynter Institute's Al Tompkins for sharing yet another excellent story tip.