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Michele Schroeder to receive Service to Ag Award

Photo courtesy of the New Ulm Farm City Hub Club The newest Service to Agriculture recipient, Michele Schroeder, seated, was joined by previous recipients of the Hub Club award Monday, November 13. Pictured, from left are Denny Schmidt, Kerry Hoffmann, Janine Enter, and Terry Dempsey. Not pictured: Ruth Klossner.

NEW ULM — The New Ulm Farm City Hub Club announceS that Michele Schroeder of rural Courtland is the 2018 recipient of the club’s Service to Agriculture Award. Five past award recipients informed Schroeder of the honor when they walked into her office at Upper Midwest Management Monday, Nov. 13. The Service to Agriculture Award recognizes a person or persons who promote agriculture in the community.

Schroeder will be recognized at the club’s annual banquet and meeting Monday, Jan. 22 at the Courtland Community Center.

From her youth growing up on a McLeod County dairy farm to the present, Schroeder is an ag promoter extraordinaire, the Hub Club notes. She’s involved in ag-related organizations “on both sides of the river” — in both Nicollet and Brown Counties.

Although she claims to have been shy and quiet before she joined 4-H in the fifth grade, that didn’t last long. She was soon an officer in Sibley County’s Weeping Willows 4-H Club and went on to be a State 4-H Ambassador, a McLeod County pork ambassador and dairy princess, and a runner-up to Princess Kay of the Milky Way.

After completing a bachelor’s degree in animal and plant systems, with an emphasis in dairy production, Schroeder went on to work with a number of agricultural organizations — Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation, Christenson Farms, Farmer Publications, KNUJ/SAM, and Minnesota Milk Producers Association. Since 2011, Schroeder has been an ag appraiser with Upper Midwest Management in New Ulm. She and husband Jason also operate a 60-cow, 330-acre dairy farm.

Schroeder is the Hub Club’s busiest bee — ready, willing, and able to tackle pretty much any project, the club said. After a year as club vice president, she became the youngest club president at age 29 — then stayed on an extra year when the club was struggling and officers were hard to come by. She created awareness and revitalized the club by heading strategic planning meetings and encouraging new leaders to step forward, while herself taking on the role of secretary for 2010. Since 2011, she’s been a committee member or chair of the club’s annual Farm Show, she started the very successful every-other-year Family Night on the Dairy Farm and continues to head it, and she chaired the club’s 40th anniversary celebration.

And that’s all while working with a variety of Nicollet County, Brown County, and state organizations. Over the years, she’s been princess coordinator for Nicollet County Dairy Association, board member for New Ulm Chamber of Commerce, president of Brown County Farm Bureau, an assistant for the state Princess Kay program, an adult advisor for the Minnesota Junior Holstein Association, secretary of Immanuel Lutheran School’s PTL and P.R. person for the school’s 150th anniversary, decorating committee member at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, chief planner for a county dairy celebration in Bernadotte, promoted Nicollet County Farm Bureau’s well-attended state buffer law informational meeting with state legislators, and recently became co-key leader of Milford 4-H.

Schroeder moved to New Ulm in 2001 when she was hired as a program director for Minnesota Farm Bureau. While looking for an apartment, she saw the Hub Club’s sign on South Broadway and thought, “I want to join–I like to promote ag.” She learned more about the club at Farmfest and, “joined the Hub Club before I joined a church in town.”

She distinctly remembers being involved in the Hub Club’s Picnic in the Park in the summer of 2002. “Everyone was so nice that I decided to stay in New Ulm, even though I had considered moving elsewhere,” she said. It didn’t hurt that she met Jason a few weeks later, either!. They were married two years later.

Jason and Michele have three children–all well known to Hub Club members as they have accompanied her to activities since they were little tykes. Alex is now eight, Aiden five, and April two-and-a-half.

Of the fact that she’s always on the go, volunteering with various groups, she commented, “Our kids think that that’s just what you do…you just load up the car–or gooseneck trailer–and go somewhere to help!”

She added, “Sometimes you have to juggle things. Jason agreed with me when I said I didn’t want a cabin, a deck, a grill, a camper, or to travel–I want to be able to volunteer. That was our pact. We also have a rule that we can only be on one board at a time.” (For the Hub Club’s sake, it’s a good thing that Schroeder defines “boards” and “committees” differently!)

When asked what drives her to do the things she does, Schroeder responded, “It’s the people, the friendships. I remember, when I was in the eighth grade, a teacher wrote on the board, ‘There are three kinds of people–those who watch things happen, those who wonder what happened, and those who make things happen.'” Fortunately, Schroeder is in the last group.

Schroeder is honored and humbled to be named the 40th recipient of the Hub Club’s award.

“I don’t know what to say. I enjoy the Hub Club. I felt so welcome and I made so many friends. If not for the Hub Club, I probably wouldn’t have stayed in New Ulm.”

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