--Minnesota’s Department of Education released the test results from this past year MCA-2 standardized tests. Sleepy Eye students scored 62 percent on the math portion and 61 percent on the reading.
--Sleep Eye public and Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s high schools crowned their homecoming royalty this past September. For Sleepy Eye public Jordan Rathman was crowned Queen and the King was Jon Montemayor. St. Mary’s Homecoming Queen was Cristiana Schewe and the King was Peter Schwartz.
--Sleep Eye resident Charlotte McMullen was crowned the Homecoming Queen at Southwest State University in Marshall, MN this past fall.
--Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s senior Crissi Schewe was named the 2008 volleyball player of the year at the 44th annual KNUJ player of the year banquet this past fall.
--Sleep Eye native Lance Renberg was recently selected to be a part of the Hans Joohs (YOHS) cultural exchange program. He will be traveling to Germany where he hopes to work as an English tutor or teacher.
--Sleepy Eye’s FFA placed in the top five of the poultry category at this years State FFA convention that was held in St. Paul.
--Rebecca Sellner and Melissa Lax both of Sleepy Eye were named as two of the 2008 Brown County Dairy Princesses.
--This past February the Sleepy Eye Medical center named their employee of the year; the award went to Pattie Pelzel, she is a registered nurse and also the Education Coordinator.
--Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s senior Katie Sellner was nominated last year to participate in the national Principal’s Leadership Award Scholarship program. Sellner is the President of student council and also a member of the National Honor Society.
--This past June 75-year old Lawrence Sellner received his High School diploma from Sleep Eye Public High School. Sellner had to leave school after his eighth grade year to go work on the family farm. When Sellner later joined the Army he received his G-E-D, he received his High School diploma 51 years after achieving his G-E-D.
--This past May the W-W Smith Inn of Sleepy Eye was featured on the television show “If Walls Could Talk”, the show is the HGTV channel. The building was built in 1901 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
--Two Sleepy Eye 8th graders, Anna Ibberson and Carissa Hillmer took part in the State History Day Competition this past April. Their exhibit was on the “Willmar 8”, a group of women bank tellers that helped lead the women’s equal pay movement in Minnesota. The competition was held at the U of Minnesota Twin Cities campus.
--Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s crowned their 2008 Spring Fling Royalty, the Queen was Rebecca Sellner and the King was Chad Mathiowetz.
--Sleepy Eye native Stacy Braun released her first C-D this past February. Braun used to perform with the Johnny Holm Band, now she has her own band called Stacy K. Her new C-D is called “Little Glass Houses”.
--Sleepy Eye teacher Beverly Petersen received KEYC-TV’s “Golden Apple” award. Petersen teaches the second grade at Sleepy Eye Public elementary and has been teaching for 35 years. The award is given out weekly and recognizes teaching excellence.
--Sleepy Eye based Christensen Family Farms made a substantial donation this past year to a new teaching website that serves as a tool for agriculture teachers in Minnesota. The website, MyCAERT is designed for research and training in Agriculture and other Environmental fields.
--This past February the Sleepy Eye Medical Center hired a new administrator, Kevin Sellheim. He was previously the chief financial officer at the Medical Center.
Prior to moving to Sleepy Eye Sellheim spent 20 years in health care finance in Fargo.
--This past February Sleepy Eye resident David Carr won $7,777 playing a Minnesota Lottery scratch off game. He purchased the scratch off at the Freedom Valu Center in Sleepy Eye.
--This past year at Sleepy Eye’s Buttered Corn Days corn eating contest the defending champions Chuck Spaeth Ford defeated the KNUJ team. The team of Chuck Speath and Mike Carr has won the title five years in a row.
The Chuck Spaeth Team defeated KNUJ 18-9.
--Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s High School had four students advance on to the regional science fair competition this year. The students included Katie Steffl, Peter Goblirsch, Katie Piehl, and Kim Braulick.
--Sleepy Eye native Brady Siedl received the City of St. Paul Chief’s Award for Valor this past year. He received this award for saving a woman when she fell into the Mississippi River near the 35W bridge; he jumped into the river from his boat and pulled the women to safety.
--The 61st annual Miss Sleepy Eye was crowned this past April; the Queen was Amanda Schmitz, the first attendant was Heather Schumacher and the second attendant was Elizabeth Havemeier.
--The Sleepy Eye Area Chamber of Commerce held it’s annual banquet and awards ceremony this past February. The recipient of the Extraordinary Volunteer of the Year award was Jerry Weiss and the Shinning Star Community Service Award went to KNUJ’s own Jon Jahnke.
Many other business owners and local businesses were honored through out the night.
--The new Sleepy Eye Aquatic Center just wrapped up it’s inaugural season. A total of 28,690 people used the brand new facility. The Aquatic Center took in roughly $130,000 in income in their first year.
--The long time Sleepy Eye post master Mark Tauer retired this past year, Mark has been the post master in Sleepy Eye for 26 years and has been working for the U.S. Postal Services for 33 years. Darrick Miest who is currently the postmaster of Morgan will be the temporarily take over for Tauer.
--This past November the Sleepy Eye Area Chamber of Commerce crowned the new Little Miss and Mister Holiday. Madison Heiderschiedt was named Little Miss Holiday and Carter Brinkman was named Little Mister Holiday.
--This years Kids Against Hunger fundraiser put together enough food to feed over 379,000 people. The meals will be going to Haiti and Honduras to help the people that were impacted by this year’s hurricanes and floods.
--The Sleepy Eye Let’s Go Fishing chapter celebrated their 4th successful year this past summer. The chapter took around 685 individuals fishing on 78 different trips through out the summer.
--Rural Sleepy Eye resident, Sylvan Schumacher was named the Township Leader of the Year by the Minnesota Association of Townships. Schumacher has been the Leavenworth Township Supervisor for the past 27 years.
--Sleepy Eye native Starla Pioske was named the Sibley East School District teacher of the year. Pioske has been teaching for 32 years, she teaches 5th grade at the Sibley East elementary school.
--The City of Sleepy Eye opened two new public amenities this past year. They opened a 3-and-a-half mile recreational trail that wines around Sleepy Eye Lake. They also open a New Aquatic center. Sleepy Eye Chamber of Commerce Director Julie Schmitt says the community has been eagerly anticipating the new Aquatic center. The Aquatic center features two-29ft water slides, diving boards, a wading pool, and more.
--Sleepy Eye residents Pat and Jacque Krzmarick were named the 2008 Brown County Soil and Water Conservation District Outstanding Conservation Cooperators of the year.