Anna Peterson is empowered by community and resilience

For Anna Peterson, community is everything. 

She’s the proud wife of a farmer and a member of the northwest Minnesota farming community. Peterson’s husband, Mark, raises wheat and soybeans on 500 acres of family land in Crookston.

Beyond her local roots, Peterson has cultivated considerable connections within the University of Minnesota as an alumni and an Extension staff member. For more than a decade, she served as support staff for the Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (RSDP). More recently she took on the role of Northwest Minnesota Regional Coordinator for the Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs.) 

As a mother of four, an active volunteer in her church, and a member of numerous other groups, Peterson can’t help but be proud of her rich, wide-reaching community. Yet, it was in the aftermath of a traumatic accident when Peterson says she truly understood the depths of that community.

A lost moment

When reflecting on that January evening in 2019, Peterson says her memory is spotty.

“I just remember being face down in the snow,” she explains. “Someone was talking to me and telling me that they had called an ambulance.”

Only a few hours earlier, Peterson and her husband had made plans to join their local snowmobiling club for an evening on the trails.

“The kids went to grandma՚s and we told them we՚d be back in a couple of hours,” she recalls. “Then we got out onto a main highway. It was a groomed trail. One that we had ridden literally hundreds of times.”

What started as an ordinary ride took a turn for the worse when Peterson encountered an unexpected change in the familiar route.

“It was a straight-away so I had been going fast. And I just didn՚t see it. It caught us all off guard.”

Peterson hit a drainage ditch at high speed. It was a spot in the trail that was usually filled with snow. This time, it wasn’t. The exact details of the incident are unclear, but it’s believed that the impact launched Peterson into the air, and upon landing, she was partially crushed. Later her sled would be found about 120 yards away from the crash site.

“The next thing I knew I was on the ground. I had one arm pinned underneath me, and the other arm was straight up beside me. Someone was talking to me and telling me that I was going to be okay.”

Peterson soon found out that she was not okay. After being airlifted to a Fargo hospital, doctors determined she had broken a few ribs, a wrist, and an arm. Most devastatingly, she sustained five broken vertebrae, one of which had shattered into her spinal cord.

Peterson says her memories from that night consist of excruciating pain. It was her 42nd birthday.

Healing in community

Five years later, Peterson’s eyes still well up when she recalls her snowmobile accident. But she insists it’s gratitude that fills her heart and spills out.

Following the crash, Peterson spent two months in the hospital. With her husband holding down the home front in Crookston, she focused on recovery and intensive physical therapy. As she fought to find her way forward, her community stood beside her.

“I literally had to learn how to walk again,” she shares. “It was truly awful. But we weren’t alone. The community just came out in droves! We were overwhelmed by the support.”

The Peterson’s farming community in northwest Minnesota heard about Anna’s accident and rallied to help. Friends and strangers alike donated money toward her recovery and gas cards to help Mark with the expense of driving back and forth from Fargo.

Meanwhile at work, Peterson’s U of M Extension family also came to her aid. Countless staff members from across the state donated hundreds of vacation hours to support her recovery time.

“As a busy mom, I didn’t have a lot of time off saved up. But I had enough hours donated that when I finally returned to work that spring, I was able to work part-time for over a year.”

In addition to a statewide support network cheering her on, Peterson says it was an Extension colleague and close friend who made it possible for her to keep going.

“My husband was trying to farm, we had a crop to get in the field. My mom had been living with us for a time but she eventually had to move home,” she recalls. “So Mark would get me to work in the mornings, then my friend Megan Hruby in SNAP-Ed Health, would bring me home in the afternoon. She would help me into bed and get me all tucked in. Then I՚d be good until Mark got home. That’s a best friend.”

Today Anna still deals with complications from the accident. She’s permanently lost most feeling in her lower extremities and often uses mobility aids. Yet, she remains determined to move forward. She is energized by pride in her community, her personal faith, and her faith in herself.

“It’s been a long road. I’ve learned to live a very different life than a ‘normal’ life. But overcoming these obstacles has made me a more resilient person.”

Labor of love

In 2023, after a decade in her old role, Peterson joined CERTs. In her new position as Northwest CERT Regional Coordinator, she leads their work to help connect the region with clean energy opportunities. This means attending local events, coordinating with local energy utilities, working with local businesses, and spreading clean energy information in her community, sometimes even in her own home.

“It’s been exciting to teach Mark about the possibilities on the farm! We’ve been talking about geothermal, solar, and the rebates that might be available to him,” she says. “He even helps me think about how I can get in front of other local farmers!”

More broadly, Peterson is spearheading CERTs work in a new initiative called Empower Crookston. The up-and-coming program’s mission is to improve the quality of life for people in Crookston by tapping into state and federal funds.

The multi-organization effort focuses on tactics like improving existing resident’s homes through energy efficiency projects, revitalizing the historic downtown district, and supporting the local economy. Notably, the program was recently selected to participate in the University of Minnesota’s Empowering Small Minnesota Communities program.

As a founding member of Empower Crookston, Peterson has focused her summer on running CERTs Business Blitzes. She reached out to local businesses to talk about their energy concerns, discuss how clean energy could serve them, plus provide information on how to apply for grants to bring the vision to life.

“I have had a warm reception from people eager to learn more on how they can improve their energy efficiency and even add solar,” says Peterson. “It’s exciting because I know it's something that a lot of people up here don’t know about. I want to help people get to whatever level of clean energy they need in their lives.”

Peterson says all of these efforts add up to one thing — a chance to serve the community that has given her so much.

“Since the accident, my outlook has completely changed. You learn very fast what’s important to you. That’s why my work with CERTs and Empower Crookston is so exciting. It’s my opportunity to give back,” she says. ”I love this community. You just can’t replace it.”