The Washington Monument majestically soars in the background as Bob and Genny Schmit of Hutchinson pose for the camera during a visit to Washington, D.C. It was taken Sept. 8, 2001, just three days before the deadliest terrorist attacks on the country in U.S. history.
When Bob and Genny Schmit of Hutchinson packed up their new van in early September 2001, they had no idea they were about to drive into history.
A vacation to celebrate Bob's retirement from 3M was taking the couple to Washington, D.C., and on to Virginia for stops to visit with family and friends.
After spending Sept. 6 at Gettysburg National Military Park, they headed to Chevy Chase, Maryland, where they checked into Embassy Suites. It was about 7 miles from the nation's capitol, or 14 minutes by car if you drive nonstop. Rather than face the hassles of commuting and parking, they took the Washington Metro, a subway line, to and from Washington each day.
They started their Washington, D.C., adventure with a Gray Line sightseeing tour.
"It gave us an overview of Washington, D.C.," Bob said.
"We were typical tourists in Washington," Genny added.
On Sept. 8, they took in the sites of the Iwo Jima Memorial, FDR Memorial, Jefferson Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was Sept. 9 when they visited the Smithsonian's National Zoo. On Sept. 10, they headed to the National Air and Space Museum. It was a site Bob was looking forward to visiting. He had been a pilot in the Navy and wanted to see if the plane he flew was on display. It wasn't. It had been scrapped.
LIVING HISTORY
On Tuesday, Sept. 11, the Schmits had a couple of choices of places to visit: the White House or the Pentagon. They opted for the White House.
"We were standing in line at the White House," Bob recalled. "We were outside and there were about 150 people in line. We were about a fourth of the way from the end of the line."
"I had to go to the bathroom, so I walked toward the front of the line where I overheard two guys talking loudly about the second plane hitting the second tower," Genny said.
With the news of a second plane crashing into the south tower of the World Trade Center, she forgot all about going to the ladies room and returned to her husband.
"We were standing in line when we heard a boom," Genny said.
It was the sound of American Airlines Flight 77 crashing into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. Terrorists killed 125 military and civilian workers on the ground, in addition to 59 passengers on the plane.
"The Park Service and Secret Service told us to run," Bob said. "They were excited and told us to stay away from federal buildings."
The couple headed to the Washington Mall because it was out in the open.
"We were sitting on a bench," Bob said, "when a guy went by on a bicycle and said, 'I wouldn't sit here' as he pointed to the Washington Monument. 'You better move.' We started walking. There was no transportation. All the taxis were confiscated by diplomats."
Aerial view of the Pentagon Building in Washington, D.C., showing emergency crews responding to the destruction caused during the 9/11 terrorist attacks when a high-jacked commercial jetliner crashed into the southwest corner of the building.
As they walked, Bob and Genny met up with a woman who was having heart issues. They agreed to walk with her to her apartment in exchange for directions to Chevy Chase.
"The streets were full," Genny said. "Everyone was walking. We were fearful. What do you do?"
"We felt like rats fleeing a sinking ship," Bob said. "Nothing like this had ever happened in our country before."
Looking back, they estimated walking about 10 miles and not in a straight line.
"When we got back to the hotel, we didn't know what to do. Do we leave? Where do we go?" They asked.
Bob and Genny reached out family and friends for advice. It was decided to leave the hotel and head to Virginia.
When they approached the clerk on duty to checkout, he told them to "Just go."
"There was nobody on the interstate," Genny said.
"We had reservations for (Colonial) Williamsburg in Virginia and canceled them," Bob said.
They headed for Richmond to visit Mike and Lori Krenik. She is the daughter of Ralph and Geri Johnson of Hutchinson.
"They didn't make it down to Richmond — about 90 miles — until the following day," Lori recalled. "What I remember is just their story of being in line at the White House and being evacuated without any knowledge of why. We just all sat and talked in total disbelief, reliving every moment at how surreal it was for them to be so close to the Pentagon where such tragedy had occurred."
Lori thought the best way to describe Bob and Genny's demeanor was "grateful yet very shook up."
Mike agreed with his wife's assessment.
"If I had to put their feelings at that time into a few words: a real sense of shock, and a very real sense of thankfulness that it wasn't them," he said.
Mike remembered a conversation they had about how lucky they were.
"I think they knew how close they were to being a headline in our nation's history," he said.
The news in the following days after Sept. 11 didn't get better.
"They're very faithful, and I know just thanked God they were OK," Lori said, "but so very sad for everyone who didn't survive."
For Lori, Sept. 11, 2001, was a harrowing day with much confusion. She remembers heading to work, then the Pentagon was hit and being told to go back home as rumors were flying that the Richmond Federal Reserve Building was also a target. She recalled wanting to get everyone under one roof and then just being glued to the unbelievable news and images coming out of Washington, D.C., a city her family knew well.
"We had planned a trip to New York City for Thanksgiving and ended up going, to find the city still in shock," she said. "The World Trade Center was still smoldering, miles and miles of photos of missing people — just surreal."
From there, Bob and Genny went on to visit Bob's sister.
"It was pretty emotional," he said. "Without a car, we wouldn't have gotten out."
HOME SWEET HOME
Word of their experiences preceded Bob and Genny's return to Hutchinson. The couple recalled Buzz Nelson of Form-A-Feed in Stewart, who drove up to their place in his Cadillac and said, "I'm glad to see you're alive."
It was the same at Mass. People reached out and hugged them.
Looking back on the experience, the couple agreed: "You don't have time to be afraid."
The Reiner family of rural Hutchinson is the University of Minnesota Farm Family of the Year from McLeod County. Pictured are, from left, Tyler, Kelli, Mitchell, Kaitlyn and Steve Reiner.
The Steve and Kelli Reiner family of rural Hutchinson has seen a lot of growth in the past few decades. And the 2020 University of Minnesota Farm Family of the Year from McLeod County isn't content with just the one operation.
"Even my dad wouldn't recognize some of it," Steve said. "It's changed a lot in the past 15-20 years."
FAMILY HISTORY
It all started with Steve's grandparents — Ed from the Hutchinson-Stewart area and Melina from Winsted — who were married in the 1920s. After marriage they relocated to Kimball where they farmed near the ski hill there until the mid 1940s. They then moved, along with Steve's father (Willard) and uncle (Allan), and bought a farm across the road from where the Reiner family now farms south of Hutchinson. Allan lives on the original land purchase.
"The farm I am on came up for sale shortly after that," Steve said. "And they bought that."
When Willard and Allan started farming, they worked separately but still stuck together, sharing machinery between the two operations.
Originally, the family had 160 acres south of Hutchinson, but the expansion added on another 160 acres. It remained that way until the late 1970s when the family bought another 80 acres. It stayed that way until Steve graduated from Hutchinson High School in the late 1980s and started renting land.
"I was able to purchase a neighboring farm in 1988," Steve said. "That was kind of the beginning."
His father (Willard) had a small dairy farm.
"I was more the land farmer. I wasn't into dairy," Steve said. "We just continued that route until 1994 and he sold the cattle."
The family wasn't alone in the change. Many dairy operations in the state sold around that time.
"There was so much dairy in McLeod County. Every farm had dairy," Steve said. "Not many now."
Steve and Kelli married in 1995. Kelli wasn't a farmer, but she knew the world.
"Her dad hauled milk. He was a milk hauled for 30 plus years," Steve said. "She understood the long hours."
Willard died in the fall of 2005, and that's when Steve and Kelli took on his 200 acres.
"I was farming quite a bit on the land myself," Steve said. "And at that point I was larger than him on acreage."
He'd also started a second business: Reiner Enterprises, a trucking and municipal snow plowing business.
"What kid doesn't like trucks?" Steve said. "That was something I kind of enjoyed. It evolved into a small business."
The first storm he plowed in Hutchinson was the 1991 Halloween blizzard.
"We've plowed snow in town ever since," he said. "Though we've kind of changed directions now and do more township roads."
Kelli, who handles bookkeeping for all of the family enterprises, also started another business: Hutchinson Countryside Retreat. Converted homes on the farm land offer scrap booking and quilting retreats for groups of visitors.
Steve and Kelli have kept busy outside of business as well. Steve has been a Hassan Valley Township supervisor since 2005 and has served on the McLeod County Corn and Soybean Growers board for nine years. He also served on the Ditch Committee. Kelli is active in 4-H and served as a club leader for five years. The family is part of Vineyard United Methodist Church and serves on committees for the congregation.
FAMILY ON THE FARM
Steve, who grew up on the farm, always knew that was the life for him.
"There was never really a doubt," he said.
Even before graduation from Hutchinson High School, he rented a piece of land.
"My dad guided me but let me make my own mistakes," Steve said.
He also raised a few pigs, having started for a 4-H project.
All three of Steve and Kelli's kids — Kaitlyn, Mitchell and Tyler — have run the grain cart and all three have shoveled corn.
Kaitlyn is a nursing student at North Dakota State University. Mitchell recently graduated from South Dakota State University with a degree in agricultural sciences and is taking a more active role on the farm as Allan has started retirement. Tyler just began his junior year in high school.
More spaces have been opened up in Hutchinson Public Schools to use as additional lunch rooms to help with social distancing, especially while in hybrid learning.
Daron VanderHeiden
Hutchinson Public Schools expect to remain in hybrid learning for another week, despite a rise in McLeod County COVID-19 case numbers.
“There are no guarantees,” said Superintendent Daron VanderHeiden, repeating a phrase that has become familiar to school administrators as they work to meet state standards regarding COVID-19. “Our first priority is to keep staff and students safe, and the second is to keep kids in school.”
One of the primary tools the state of Minnesota has developed to guide schools on what learning model to use each each week is two-week old data reflecting the number of new COVID-19 cases in the school’s county per 10,000 residents over the prior two week period. Depending on the number of cases in that time period, schools may be recommended to have complete in-person learning; hybrid learning, a combination of in-person learning and digital learning; or to have all students learn online from home.
Data released by the Minnesota Department of Health on Sept. 3 shows 36.57 new cases per 10,000 residents in McLeod County from Aug. 9 to Aug. 22. According to the state model, counties with a range of 30-59 cases per 10,000 residents are usually advised to have elementary schools use hybrid learning while middle and high schools change to complete distance learning. However, the state cleared Hutchinson Public Schools to remain in hybrid learning for now.
VanderHeiden said the state anticipated the current number in McLeod County last week.
“We believe this week’s number was the peak, and now we are on the right side of this thing,” he said. “We also know real-time data is showing a sharp decline in cases per day.”
He said data from 791 tests conducted in Glencoe Aug. 20 are reflected in the Aug. 9-22 number.
Other factors were also accounted for by the MDH, such as the location of COVID-19 outbreaks and the school’s ability to maintain social distancing among students.
Following state data, Hutchinson Public Schools started the school year Aug. 31 with a hybrid learning model, which means half the student body is attending school in person, while the other half learns from home via digital tools such as a live feed of their classrooms. The student groups swap positions each day.
With half the student body in school buildings, administrators have found they are able to maintain social distancing with students 6 feet apart in classrooms and in the hallways. Adding more lunch periods and more lunch rooms has made social distancing possible as students eat as well.
