Isanti County's new teachers feted at luncheon

A number of new teachers from around Isanti County were welcomed to the community at a new teacher luncheon held at First Baptist Church in Cambridge on Friday, Aug. 23.

The event, which was hosted by the Rotary Club of Cambridge and Isanti as well as the North 65 Chamber of Commerce, featured the introduction of new teachers from the area’s schools: Anoka-Ramsey Community College, Art and Science Academy, St. Scholastica Academy, Cambridge Christian School, Rum River Special Education Cooperative, and the Braham and Cambridge-Isanti public schools.

The event included a lunch catered by LeFebvre Catering, a gift pack for each new teacher — and an apple, the gift students famously offer to teachers as a way of thanking the teachers for their work.

After the teachers were introduced, the 2024 Vocational Service Award was presented to Monte Dybvig, the owner of Doctor Monte’s Auto in Cambridge.

After a video where other local businesses talked about Dybvig’s contributions to the community, Dybvig spoke about what the area means to him and his family.

“Cambridge is my home, and Carol and I came to that realization a few years ago,” Monte said. “We said, ‘We used to live there,’ but our kids grew up here, and this has become our home base.”

Much of the conversation focused on his involvement in the Customer Appreciation Event, a downtown event held in Cambridge in mid-September. But Dybvig noted that he enjoyed being involved in numerous things around the city and the county.

“There have been a lot of things I have been involved in, and once I get involved, I sometimes get a little too involved — and the time gets away from me,” he admitted to laughter from the audience.

“But the Customer Appreciation Event has been an amazing event — and it started with the principal of giving back. Teaching people to give back as part of the event was one of the hardest things to get through; everybody wanted to get their name out, to get something.

“I would tell them, ‘It’s not about that.’ The roots of this events were about giving back, about saying, ‘Thank you.’ Once people did that, it started catching on and percolating.”

Dybvig felt the event has helped shape the positive culture around this area.

“To have 5,000 to 7,000 people experience giving back — and having fun doing that — I think has had an amazing impact,” he said. “I know of people who plan when they are going to fly back and come to town just to be part of this amazing event, to experience saying thank you.

“I feel the businesses that have caught on to that have reaped the rewards, if not financially, at least learning how to say, ‘Thank you.’”

Dybvig noted that the teachers in attendance will have the opportunity to pass along those character traits to their students.

“You have an influence on the children you come in contact with, those you teach,” he said. “One principle we use at Dr. Monte’s is trying to educate when we service a car. We want people to understand what is going on with their car without us using all the slang and terms from the back shop.

“We want to explain it so that people can understand why we are fixing their car, and why it needs to be fixed in a certain way.”