The friars would like to wish friend and supporter, Helen White, a Happy 100 years! Helen and her late husband, Bill, sold the land on which the Franciscan Retreat Center in Prior Lake, MN now rests to the friars in the early 1960s. When friar Urban Wagner surveyed the property and asked Bill and Helen how much they wanted for the property, they told him their price and Urban said to himself, “Let’s see, we can afford 30 acres then.” “No father,” they said in unison, “You want 60 acres.” Essentially, they gave the friars the additional 30 acres.

Helen remained an active retreatant until just a few years ago. She once told friar Bob Roddy that the friars from Chaska would sometimes come out on the farm and help Bill bail hay. “If I had a pitcher of Tom Collins’ waiting for them, we never lacked for help,” she grinned.