HEAT AND HUMIDITY gave way to a lovely evening on the prairie. Here, on a grassy space edged by trees, a cornfield, county road and gravel parking lot south of Dundas, folks gathered for “Music on the Prairie.”
And, oh, what an event, the first in a three-part summer concert series hosted, fittingly, by Little Prairie United Methodist Church. As I took in the scene, I thought, life doesn’t get much better than this—great food, music and conversation in the outdoors on a perfect summer evening in southern Minnesota.
Even waiting in line for a fresh local beef patty, a cup of specialty beans (the special ingredient being sauerkraut) and the most delicious homemade chocolate chip cookie sprinkled with sea salt didn’t phase typically-impatient me. Conversation flowed. And the down-home music of the Old Country Boys thrummed a beat across the land as they performed atop a flatbed trailer.
This was an evening meant for pulling out the lawn chairs, for coming here to eat a meal served up by church members, to chat with friends old and new, and to listen to songs like “Ring of Fire,” “King of the Road,” “Sweet Caroline,” “Country Roads” and more. Music that got some in the crowd waving their arms, singing along and others on their feet dancing across the lawn.
The Rev. Penny Bonsell and her husband, Tom Hollenhorst, dressed all in black, briefly took the stage to entertain the crowd as June Carter and Johnny Cash singing “Jackson,” the duo’s 1967 billboard country chart hit. The performance was a hit with the audience as was a song Bonsell sang for her husband in honor of their third wedding anniversary.
Another couple in the crowd was celebrating their 70-something anniversary (I didn’t catch the exact year). They were married at Little Prairie, a picturesque white country church located on a country crossroads corner just to the east of the concert site.
Both anniversaries were recognized with rounds of applause. A band member also led the crowd in welcoming a woman home from a lengthy hospital stay while he videotaped the message for Deb. Such care and compassion builds community, connects us.
All ages came to “Music on the Prairie”—babies in strollers, toddler Afton in her floral skirt and soft pink Princess tee celebrating her first birthday the next day, a four-year-old girl who had just finished preschool, young people, parents and grandparents. All generations.
I watched as a little girl dipped an over-sized wand in a bucket, then drew bubbles across the air. I watched as a dad helped his two-year-old daughter thread beads onto a string, making a bracelet for her mom. I watched as kids climbed ladders inside the Little Prairie Playground, a mini replica of the church.
I listened as a train whistle blew, the train rumbling past on a track through a tree line next to the cornfield next to the lawn where we sat enjoying the music of the Old Country Boys.
I listened to the clang of a church bell inside the playground, the hum of a generator powering the band’s amplifiers and electric guitars.
I hugged my friend Lee whom I haven’t seen in a while. I talked to other friends I haven’t seen in a while. And I made new friends here at Little Prairie where great food, music and conversation connected all of us on a beautiful early June evening in the countryside.
FYI: The next “Music on the Prairie” on Wednesday, July 22, features the Over and Back Band playing funky rock n roll and gypsy bluegrass. The third and final summer concert happens on Wednesday August 19, with The Rockin’ Hep Cats performing roots rock n roll. Attendees can purchase a meal beginning at 5:30 p.m. Music is from 6-8 p.m. The concert is free with donations accepted to support Little Prairie ministries.
© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
On the protest line, twice on June 14 June 16, 2026
Tags: Appleton, commentary, democracy, faith, Faribault, Flag Day, ICE detention center, Interstate 35 protest, June 14, Medford, Minnesota, Minnesota Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman, No Kings Day protest, protest, protest signs
IF NOT FOR THE DATE, June 14, Sunday would have been like most Sundays for me. Off to early church, then bible study and back home for brunch.
But June 14, 2026, was not just another Sunday. This date marked the one-year anniversary of the politically-motivated assassinations of Minnesota Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the shootings of State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.
June 14 also marked Flag Day.
And June 14 marked another No Kings Day event, nationally a concert and locally several protests.
I began my Sunday in church, where the pastor’s sermon focused on love. That seemed a fitting topic given the day. I jotted notes, taking away the key point that true love is “the willingness to do good.” The pastor applied that to both the love between and among people and the love God has for us as sinners unworthy of his love. Of course, the sermon got much more in-depth. I left church and bible study feeling loved and more determined than ever to show love in my actions. And words.
A quick change into jeans, a tee, denim jacket and tennis shoes and hair pulled into a pony tail and baseball cap placed atop my head, I was ready to join the weekly protest along Minnesota State Highway 60 in Faribault. The organizer changed the usual 11 a.m.-noon Saturday protest to Sunday because of the national No Kings Day event.
Randy and I were ready with new signs, mine themed to the national event wording: Rise up. Sing out. I added “Resist.” I’ve been publicly resisting the actions of the current administration for more than a year now. I cannot imagine remaining silent and therefore complicit.
Forty of us stood strong outside the Rice County government services building on Sunday, holding our protest signs, conversing, listening to Vietnam era protest music strummed on a guitar and sung by several protesters. It felt empowering to be there among like-minded individuals, raising our voices, trying to make a difference, creating awareness and, yes, showing love.
Love came in a heartbreaking sign carried by a little girl whose friend was deported to Mexico with her family. “Protect our friends,” her message read. She’d drawn, with the help of her mom, two girls holding hands. One brown, the other white. Two pink hearts filled out the poster.
This is love, when a little girl creates a love-filled message that calls upon adults to “Protect our friends.” Urging us “to do good.”
I carried a similar two-sided sign, NO ICE PRISON IN APPLETON stenciled on one side, RISE UP, SING OUT, RESIST on the other. Plans are underway to open an ICE detention center in an abandoned private prison owned by CoreCivic in Appleton in far western Minnesota. The little girl who carried the sign asking us to “Protect our friends” is likely unaware of this planned prison. She knows only that someone took her friend, whom she misses.
This little girl is among the reasons we protest. We care about our children, about the country they will inherit, about our democracy.
Five hours after the Faribault protest ended, Randy and I stood with 10 others on a bridge over Interstate 35 by Medford, each of us holding a single letter to spell out two messages: NO WAR and NO KINGS. As 25-30 southbound vehicles per minute zoomed by below, we stood strong with our letters plastered against the fence, small American flags in between, large American flag flying in the brisk wind at the beginning of our line. Down the road in Owatonna, a similar group faced northbound traffic on the Bridge Street overpass with the same messages.
It felt good to be here, to make new friends, to commiserate, to uplift, to wave, to show travelers on the interstate below that we love this country enough to protest threats to democracy, injustices, war,…the abundance of words and actions that are anything but loving.
© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling