ANOKA, Minn. – (Dec. 21, 2016) – “I didn’t know we had a county historical society.” But as soon as Vickie Wendel discovered the Anoka County Historical Society her personal journey went in a new direction.
“About two and a half to three years of volunteering and one of the people that had been on the staff said they were going to retire…and they asked if I would like to take over her job” said Wendel.
Now 30 years and hundreds of presentations and dozens of exhibits later Vickie is retiring. After all these years she still remembers the precise moment she fell in love with history.
“We went as a sixth grade field trip to go see ‘Gone With the Wind’. So the next thing I kind of went into was historical fiction and then I discovered that the real thing was way better than any historical fiction. And, it has never stopped.”
Vickie’s main area of study is the mid 1800s and especially the Civil War and Minnesota’s and Anoka County’s role in that pivotal time in history. For Vickie history is filled with life lessons and without those dedicated to preserving it and sharing historical stories we would be lost today.
“There are so many lessons we can learn from history. Amazing lessons that you can apply to any aspect of life.”
When Vickie started with the Historical Society she made it a point to start bringing history to people and has developed many outreach programs over the last three decades.
“We started the outreach program with traveling programs. We really very deliberately had an effort to take history to where people are, if we are going to wait for them to come to us we are going to die.”
Vickie’s co-workers have seen her enthusiasm to share the unique facts of Anoka County’s history with many different groups and individuals over the years. They also all have come to count on Vickie for her institutional knowledge.
“She seems to know everything” said Sara Given, volunteer coordinator at the Anoka County Historical Society.
“She is a great researcher and historian” said Vickie’s former boss Todd Mahon. And, the current executive director for the Anoka County Historical Society Rebbeca Ebnet-Mavencamp knows it is not going to be as easy without Vickie around.
“That is what we are going to miss the most, that institutional memory”
Vickie looks back at her career with many fond memories, she has trouble telling you what her favorite story, memory or artifact is, saying it probably changes on a daily basis. But, she can point to the exhibit that made the greatest impact on the community at large.
“We did have one exhibit that won a national award. That was our Vietnam: The Veterans Experience exhibit. We did not expect the healing in the veterans community that come out of that. It still is probably the high point of anything I have done in my career” said Wendel
During the run of the exhibit Vickie had a front row seat to watch several veterans go through a historic healing process.
“The community rallied behind the vets. The vets went ‘wow somebody listened to us’ and that all they really seemed to want. By the time it was over there was this tremendous healing.”
Vickie continues to engage with local Vietnam veterans and several came to her retirement party this week. Her co-workers saw how Vickie poured herself into that exhibit and used history to difference.
“Vickie showed me that you use history to change lives. And she did that. With that exhibit people got help that wouldn’t have gotten the help they needed help before and she used history to do that and that is incredible” said Mahon.
Going forward Vickie plans to volunteer for the Historical Society and promises to answer phone calls and text messages asking obscure questions that only Vickie could have an answer for. She also looks forward to more time with family and doing some traveling.
As she travels she will probably visit a historical society or two but Anoka County will always be home. And, the good work of the Anoka County Historical Society will continue. But, there will never be another Vickie Wendel.
“Her spirit is amazing” said Ebnet-Mavencamp.
“The is not going to be another one like Vickie” concluded Mahon.
