Rural Life Celebration

Mark and Annette Riestenberg will receive the Catholic Century Farm Award Aug. 16 — the ‘cherry on top’ of their farming career.

Kenny and Abbey Moenkedick said that their “yes” to hosting the Rural Life Celebration is an opportunity to recognize farmers and honor the rural way of life.

This summer’s annual diocesan Rural Life Celebration will be held at St. Nicholas Parish in Belle River — not a farm.

“The work of these and other family farmers to put food on our tables is more than a job, it’s a vocation.”

The Stumpfs and their family, who will be wearing coordinating blue shirts at the event, have planned a variety of activities. The day begins with Mass at 11 a.m. with Bishop Donald Kettler, followed by a speaker, Michelle Litke, who is a teacher at Holy Trinity School in Pierz and a cancer survivor.

Bishop Donald Kettler presided at Mass during this year’s Catholic Charities Rural Life Celebration at the Joe and Toni Borgerding farm near Belgrade Aug. 13.

The theme for this year’s Rural Life Celebration is “Caring for God’s Creation: Sharing in the Stewardship of God’s Country,” something the Joe and Toni Borgerding family have been working on for over 40 years.

Sauk Centre family, performing at the Rural Life Celebration Aug. 13, aim to keep their music positive, inspiring and clean with hopes to bring a little bit of that prairie feel woven through the stories of Laura Ingalls Wilder.