Thank you to City of Marine on St. Croix (marineonstcroix.org) for the use of Marine Village Hall and its historic mural. Paul Creager. Photos: Chris Emeott
In each Best of St. Croix Valley issue, I have the opportunity to share a piece of my world in my Editor’s Picks. Last year, I took you on a tour of my favorite destinations in Western Wisconsin, the place I call home. This year, I’m exploring a topic that has been on our team’s mind of late: the significance of intergenerational collaboration. Each person in our community—from Gen Alpha to the baby boomers—has a unique story, perspective and background. Through these differences, we strengthen this enduring river valley.
Without further ado, meet a few humans who are spreading light and love in our communities.
Paul Creager
Generation X
Filmmaker, educator and event organizer Paul Creager, 50, has dedicated his life to creating community through storytelling. In 2002, he founded the Square Lake Film & Music Festival (squarelakefestival.com) on his family’s property in May Township; it has since become a cornerstone event in the St. Croix Valley. “I have witnessed the power of bringing people together through events. Especially in this age, when we can be very polarized through our online life; in person, we find overlaps, and we will navigate differences,” Creager says.
With the Square Lake Film & Music Festival on an indefinite hiatus, Creager is pursuing new avenues to build community through film. He’s the co-founder of the Marine Documentary Night series, produced by the Marine Film Society. Last October, Creager and his collaborators experimented with a film showcase on the Stillwater River Boats. The success of that event, along with a Stillwater Area Community Foundation Great Idea Grant, is fueling the inaugural Stillwater Film Festival. “It’s been an idea for years,” Creager says, adding that he hopes this festival can become a tradition that is “nationally recognized and locally loved.”
Amelia Kozlowski
Generation Z
To Amelia Kozlowski, 17, being young is a superpower. “There’s so much passion in being young, about the world around you, because it’s new to us,” Amelia says. The Stillwater Area High School (SAHS) rising senior has pursued her passions for fashion and sustainability into various leadership roles in her community. As a co-leader of Youth United, a youth-directed group with United Way of Washington County-East (UWWCE), Amelia has helped organize events, fundraise and volunteer with area nonprofits. She also serves as a student board member with Sustainable Stillwater MN and as president of the SAHS Sustainable Fashion Club.
Amelia is not just looking ahead—she’s already looking behind her and finding ways to support and encourage the youngest members of the community. Last August, she served as a guide at UWWCE’s You R You Leadership Camp, where she supported incoming middle school students. (Read more in the August/September 2026 issue.) “There’s kind of a fearlessness around youth … that I think is so vital in creating actual change,” Amelia says. “We don’t have the tools, but we have the ambitions. And I think it’s all about teaching younger generations to keep those ambitions and then giving them the tools.”
Ray LeMay
Generation Alpha
Photo: Billie LeMay
Ray LeMay is proving that it’s never too early to pursue your passion. The 11-year-old has built a thriving business around his favorite animal: chickens. At Ray’s Hen House, Ray raises chickens, ducks and quail, and sells eggs from his backyard farm stand.
Last fall, Ray was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and spent two days in the ICU fighting full diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening complication. “Ray is the most resilient child,” says Billie LeMay, Ray’s mother. “He has stayed positive through this whole experience beyond what we ever could have imagined … he’s not sad at all about being diabetic. He just took it on as part of who he is right away.”
The River Falls community responded by raising funds to support Ray’s healing journey and help him adopt a service dog. “I’m just really shocked at how much people have come together,” Billie says. Though Ray took a break from his egg business over the winter, he has big dreams for his backyard flock. “I want to make my own type of chicken that I can breed and sell to people,” Ray says.
Georgia Lickness
Baby Boomer
Photo: Georgia Lickness
Many years ago, Georgia Lickness, 75, was encouraged by a mentor to listen deeply, live generously and ask others a simple question, “How can I help you?” This advice has guided her community work through the decades. A longtime resident of Lake St. Croix Beach, Lickness grew up in foster care in St. Paul, apart from her eight siblings and Anishanaabe culture. Helped by kind mentors in adulthood, she began the slow process of learning “what it was like to be an Indian woman in the community,” Lickness says. She enrolled in White Earth Nation and devoted much of her career to nonprofit work, including a stint on the board of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council. “I’ve been all over the United States representing the Native community,” Lickness says.
In 2012, Lickness joined the Stillwater Area Public Schools’ (SAHS) American Indian Parent Advisory Committee to build cultural programming and a support network for Indigenous students. Her grandson, Theodore “Teddy” Lickness, is now a rising senior and president of the Native American Student Alliance at SAHS.
Lickness finds joy in nature and through sharing food, especially wild rice. She encourages others to listen deeply to people of all backgrounds and experiences. “Find love and peace in one another, and ask how you can help someone,” she says.
Chrystal A. Odin
Millennial
Photos: Michail Moore Photography
To educator, flower farmer and visual artist Chrystal A. Odin, 42, flowers aren’t a luxury. “They’re the feelings of the earth … the expression of emotion,” Odin says. With evidence of Neanderthals being buried with flowers, Odin shares that humans have always had a relationship with flowers. “There isn’t a race, a class, a gender, a religious boundary that people may have against one another that a flower can’t cross for you. They just are universally understood across all cultures and all people as being free from that,” Odin says.
Odin serves as a lead flower farmer, resident and interim adult family home manager at Philadelphia Community Farm (PCF) in Osceola, Wisconsin. PCF is a nonprofit farm and private residential community diverse in ability, age, culture, ethnicity and gender, offering educational immersions, cultural events and farm products. “Homogeny is actually not sustainable, and I know that from farming. If you [grow] any single thing … you’re inviting disease and past pressure,” Odin says, sharing that embracing differences builds resilience.
In 2024, Odin developed a spring floral subscription program at PCF. This August, PCF will also offer an autumn floral subscription, featuring dahlias, gladiolus, heirloom chrysanthemums, sunflowers and more. Learn more at phillyfarm.org.
