Wrensall High School Senior Class Helps Classmate’s Family

WRENSHALL, MINN. –It’s an annual event for the senior class at Wrenshall High School.
The class takes a trip together after raising funds since they were freshmen.

But this year, that trip won’t be taking place.
Instead, the senior class decided to donate the money to the family of a classmate who was involved in a serious car crash.

Wrenshall is a small town, the population is just 399. The high school’s senior class is also small, with just 18 students this year. However, for over a month, one class member has been missing, she’s been hospitalized following a car crash.

Her name is Janae Sjodin and she’s played a big role in the senior class.

Just ask Senior Class Advisor, Delaney Knudson. “Janae is one of our seniors of the class of 2023 at Wrenshall School. She is a student-athlete, our homecoming queen. She was our valedictorian. She’s a very important part of our school”

We gathered a few students in the school’s common room to talk about Janae. Also in the common area banners are hung offering encouragement for Janae her younger sister Jaela, who was also injured in the crash.

Katie Line, Janae’s best friend since fourth grade, says the sister pair is remarkable. “They always bring some sort of light. Everybody knows the girls. These girls walk around and they hold their heads high. They’re always, always happy, always bring some joy, always reaching out for others. They’re amazing, they really are. “The seniors have felt the emptiness of Janae not being in school.

When they started thinking of the class trip it became apparent that Janae would be missed there as well.

” Our class trip would never be the same if Janae couldn’t go, said Line.  “So it’s four years’ worth of fundraising. It means nothing, it means nothing without her going with us. ”

The entire class came together and decided as a whole, to donate the entire $7,000 they’d raised for the annual senior trip to the Sjodin family.
That decision has had a positive impact on the members of the senior class according to classmate Wesley Ward.
” Seeing all of us come together is really great and we are all willing and have willing hearts to give, too, like, without being asked, binging everyone come together and saying well, we need to give our money to this cause, it’s really cool to see us grow that way.”

So, for this year’s Wrenshall senior class, their memories won’t be about traveling someplace fun.
Instead, this year’s seniors will remember the warm feeling they had when it was decided to forego the trip and do something nice for one of their own classmates.