These Minnesota love stories began at the State Fair
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MPR News spoke with four couples whose stories started among cheese curds, midway rides and all-you-can-drink milk.
Niela Lachica and Kyle Swanson
Niela Lachica was 16 years old when she got a job as a concert usher with a local security company.
Her first gig: Twelve nights of grandstand shows at the Minnesota State Fair.
It was the summer of 2015, and she had moved to the U.S. from the Philippines just two years earlier. Lachica was shy — sometimes too shy to bring down the hammer when concertgoers got unruly.
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“I ended up asking Kyle to kind of help me out for pretty much most of the time,” she remembers.
Kyle Swanson had also just gotten hired for the summer. He was 17.
The night they really connected was a particularly calm show. There wasn’t too much ushering to do.
“It was Garrison Keillor. All the audience pretty much does nothing,” Swanson said.
The two sat in the back and talked. They went to different schools and had different cultural backgrounds and interests. But that didn’t matter.
“It was easy to talk to her,” Swanson said.
Nine years later, lots of things have changed. Lachica is training to be a school psychologist. Swanson owns a plant nursery. But those first impressions stuck around.
“I liked how he was so kind,” Lachica said. “He just had a big heart. He did not blink an eye in helping me.”
Swanson said Lachica was equally caring from the start.
“I had parents that were divorced,” he said. “And so one of the things I love about her is that she shows me how a family should be.”
Jennifer Welinski and Joel Welinski
The grandstand played a key part in Jennifer and Joel Welinski’s love story.
In the summer of 2011, the couple met as camp counselors in northern Minnesota and became fast friends.
They messaged each other on Facebook once camp was over, a bundle of nerves just spotting each other online.
“And even had an instance where we were both online, going to type and saw the little dots that pop up,” Joel Welinski said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, holy cow.’”
The State Fair seemed like the perfect opportunity to meet up again on a double date.
The two walked around all day, hitting Jennifer Welinski’s favorite traditions: Cheese on a stick, the giant slide, the barns, Sweet Martha’s cookies, all-you-can-drink milk and rides at the midway.
At the end of the night, they laid down in the grass, listening to Weezer play a grandstand show.
The fireworks started. They had their first kiss. Jennifer Welinski and Joel Welinski dated long-distance for years, driving between their colleges in Duluth and Iowa.
They got married in 2022 and now live in Golden Valley.
Joel Welinski said the fair is “a good catalyst to find out if somebody’s a good match for you or not.”
“There’s a lot of people. It’s really warm. Sometimes you stand around waiting in lines for a bit longer than you’d like to,” he said.
Jennifer Welinski agreed.
“There’s just always something going on. It made for really easy conversation. And I think we just had chemistry right off the bat too, so that also works,” she laughs.
Maria Brekke and Nick Penning
Work brought Maria Brekke and Nick Penning together.
Penning grew up on a farm in Iowa. Brekke spent her entire childhood showing pigs at the state fair with 4-H.
They crossed paths briefly in college, both students at the University of Minnesota. But summer jobs at the 4-H building put them closer in orbit.
Penning was interested right away.
“Maria was in charge of fashion review. And so that means she got to put on her very flattering khaki shorts and 4-H polo,” Penning said.
Brekke laughed at the memory of her 4-H uniform.
“And I was like, if he likes me now he’ll like me always,” she said.
The conversation came easy. They both considered themselves nerds.
“We would be talking about Jurassic Park and Lord of the Rings and things like that,” Brekke said.
As the fair was winding down, Penning asked Brekke out for ice cream.
“And I didn’t know it at the time. But Maria’s favorite food group was ice cream,” Penning said.
They got married in 2017, and for years, lived just blocks from the fair.
“We’ve really grown together. We kind of were still kids when we met,” Brekke said.
These days, they live in Shakopee and have two daughters. They’re hoping their girls might continue the 4-H tradition someday.
Henry Kaldahl and Carole Venticinque
In 1998, Henry Kaldahl had just retired from a long career as a postal truck driver. He was looking for a new way to spend his time, and the fair seemed like a natural fit.
“I grew up within six blocks of the fairgrounds,” said Kaldahl, now 90. “I was over there every day, and I never got over my love of the fair.”
He got a job working in an information booth. That’s where he met Carole Venticinque.
“That was back in the days when you had to know where stuff was. You didn’t have a computer screen in front of you,” he said. “So we got together, and we were a pretty good team, and we just enjoyed being together.”
Kaldahl was 65, and Venticinque was 54. She had been previously married and had three kids. He had been a bachelor most of his life. Eventually, he asked her on a date.
“I invited her over for supper one night. I think I cooked fried rice, and that was kind of a hit,” he said.
They got married the next year and spent 20 years together. Venticinque died in 2018. He still brings Venticinque’s children to the fair every year.
“I chipped in and bought a bench with a message and a picture of Carole, and that’s one of the first things that the kids look for when we go to the fair,” he said. “Kind of brings back some good memories, good thoughts.”