Their names and stories are thrust before you, then all too often they disappear. Here's a glimpse of what happened to some of the people you met through the Pioneer Press in the past year, and what lies ahead for them.

MARTY JOHNSON

This time next year, Marty Johnson dreams, he'll be celebrating the holidays with his family in Africa.

The Eagan man couldn't make it for Christmas this year but is working to bring his wife and two children in 2006 to Aboh, a small village in Nigeria where he is prince and first in line to become chief.

In the meantime, he and his family are settling down in the wake of a whirlwind year of media attention surrounding Johnson's 2004 trip to meet his birth father, John Ogike, the chief of Aboh.

The magazine GQ chronicled Johnson's trip in its June 2005 edition. In June, ABC's "Good Morning America" flew the mortgage banker and his family to New York City for an interview.

"It seemed like a little more than 15 minutes of fame, but being in the spotlight really hasn't changed anything at all for us," he said.

Finding his birth parents did, however. The man who at age 4 was adopted in Nebraska now has three families stretched across the globe. His sibling count has jumped from one to nine, with two new sisters on his birth mother's side and six siblings on his father's.

"We send out lots of e-mails and try to call as many people as possible to let them know we are thinking of them," Johnson said. "It's hard to get a good line to Nigeria, though."

Johnson's birth mother, Kathleen O'Connor Wang of Long Beach, Calif., contacted him through Catholic Charities in 2001.

Minbin.com, Minnesota's premier online community has hidden five computer mice in "strategic, public locations around the Twin Cities Metro area", each of which is worth $1,000.

Two of them have been turned in, three of them still remain. They're posting clues every morning at 9AM through Halloween.

Friday night we need to be at the Hastings Armory at 7:00 P.M. (unless things change) if you wish to see them get bused in from Wisconsin. Don't know if they will end up at a bar to celebrate afterwords or if they just want to get home or what. Would be nice if they see a lot of people waiting for their return to MN though.

Sunday at 3 P.M. at the Hastings high school is an awards ceremony and official welcome home. Food will be served afterwords.

As for how to get there and how long it will take, see these links: Hastings Armory, and Hastings high school At the top of the map click on "to here" and you can put in where you are coming from to get directions and length of time to get there.

If all goes as planned) there will be an award ceremony on Sunday, Sept. 18th at 3 p.m. at the Hastings, MN high school. It is off of Hwy 55 behind the new Wal-Mart in Hastings. Here is a link to a map Hastings High School Click on the "to here" link on top of the map and enter your address for directions on how to get there.

Aug 31, 2005

At last report from Mrs. Zephy, he's scheduled to be home around the 16th of September. Stay tuned for more details!

The Cooler Crew Forum at AbleMinds it is. Kitch allowed his WowBB site to expire, and I've disabled the phpbb site I had here, although the database and all its contents still exist. Who knows if and when it might be necessary again.

Update: 13 June 2005

A forum has been established at PeoplesForum's hosting provider, AbleMinds. This will likely end up being the permanent discussion home of the Cooler Crew

Updated 7 June 2005

According to the notice at http://pf.ableminds.com/, pf is likely going to be down all day. Check out one of the sites linked to below for alternatives.

3 June 2005

Given that peoplesforum.com is on its last legs (for those that don't know, the hosting provider of the site is planning on shutting it down come the end of June), updates will be placed here throughout the month as to where the discussion board will be moved to, and what software will be used for the site. If anyone has any suggestions for discussion board software or hosting sites, by all means, let me know, especially if the discussion board does end up here. Personally, I'm partial to the phpbb software. Kitch has suggested the WowBB software.

Rest assured that I've gone about archiving everything that we had at peoplesforum, and am planning on dumping it all into a database for future reference. (quite possibly, the old archives will be split up on a post by post basis and dumped into this same database). Until that time, THX has gathered everything from shoot the breeze and the medallion hunt threads in their HTML glory that can be used for archival purposes.

One hundred folks, give or take a few, gathered at Crosby Lake Park for the eighth annual Rehash Bash to put another Winter Carnival Medallion Hunt to rest. There were the familiar faces and some new to the Cooler Crew as well.

This year’s finders were kind enough to show people where the prized medallion was found. Seems everyone was within feet of it at one time or another during the hunt. Does this mean the Crew is getting closer? Maybe next year, the Cooler Crew will prevail.

Food for this year’s Bash included sloppy Joe medallions, meatballs, goulash, dips, chips, almond bark, cakes, cookies, salads, desserts and hors d’ouerves of all kinds. No one should have left hungry. The Crew does know how to throw a party!

KT saw to it that there were clever, clue-related door prizes again this year. Thanks to Mikey who donated the digging tool, OTS & Pay me for donating the GI Zephy, and KT’s hubby for making the "golden pick". Others brought wood for the fire so we could stay warm. Thanks for making these gatherings so successful. Your contributions are treasured and made this event memorable.

This year’s hunt was marked by the Crew with a special tribute to Zephy who is currently serving in Iraq. During the past two weeks, he joined the Crew at the Pre-Dig Gig, his likeness has been on WCCO news, on the front page of the Pioneer Press paper, out hunting, being knighted, in a parade and even had February 5, 2005 proclaimed his special day in the City of St. Paul by Mayor Randy Kelly. Zephy celebrated with us again at the Rehash Bash. Pictures of these two weeks can be found within the pages of this website. Be sure to check them out. Special thanks go to Zephy’s family for allowing us to share this special time with them. Jason and Sue Michaelson (Ares and Treasure Chest) arranged for many of the events and took care of Zephy in their home. Thanks for being top-notch hosts and chauffeurs! You did the Cooler Crew proud!