 Lakeland PBS is celebrating the 20 year anniversary of Lakeland news on July 13, 1998, Lakeland News made its debut, filling a local TV news void for much of north central Minnesota. Lakeland News at 10. Good evening everyone and welcome to the debut edition of Lakeland News at 10. A lot has happened in 20 years and a lot has changed in 20 years, but one thing has remained the same. Lakeland PBS is proud to present Lakeland News at 10. We're here for you with local news from Bemidji, Brainerd and all of the lakes country. Lakeland News. It remains the only locally produced newscast serving a vast portion of north central Minnesota. From floods in Roseau. It took only hours for disaster to strike this small town. To tornadoes in Wadena. This video really doesn't do any justice to the amount of destruction this city has seen. We've celebrated legendary careers. We detailed changes in our communities. We brought you breaking news. Work is expected to continue throughout the night here at the scene of the tragedy. And we remembered those taken from us too soon. We brought you a local weather report. Light snow, otherwise partly to most of the cloudy and as I mentioned earlier, mild temperatures appear to be on tap. And local TV sports coverage schools in this part of the state had never experienced before. The holiday season is all about giving for some, but for others like the Bemidji girls hockey team, it's about being downright stingy. During their current eight game win streak, the girls have allowed a measly six goals with three of them coming in the last seven games. As the years passed, you've seen many young television journalists get their start with Lakeland News. All around me, there's nothing but rubble and debris and buildings are just leveled. The BSU football team was looking to add for their future. Though his vote here may have surprised some people. Senator Corring says he's still pro-life, still a Republican, and to his constituents, the man who sits here, it's just the same old Paul. And a few of us who decided to make this home. So many stories and so many memories. We thank all of you who have made Lakeland News possible with your support. And we will be celebrating this 20-year anniversary of Lakeland News for the rest of this year. Tomorrow, there will be a celebration right here at our office in Bemidji from four until seven p.m. We're invited to stop out and say hi and even watch our 6 p.m. news update live from the studio. There will also be refreshments and treats provided as well. Now another way we are celebrating our 20-year anniversary, something we're calling 20 for 20. Every Wednesday night beginning tomorrow, we're going to highlight one story from each year since we started the news in 1998. We'll show a portion of the story on our news every Wednesday and then we'll post the entire story on our website the next day on Thursday. You might imagine there are many stories to pick from and these won't necessarily be the biggest stories of the year, although they may be in some cases. Instead, they'll be stories we found memorable and wanted to remember during our anniversary celebration. Tomorrow we begin our 20 for 20 celebration with a look back at a story from our very first year of Lakeland News in 1998. We promised you one more item regarding our 20th anniversary tonight here for Lakeland News. Check this out. This is the original photo of our news team in 1998. Stacy and I, and that's our original sports director, Reed Farron. And here's a recent photo of our news team, Stacy and I again, and our current sports director, AJ Feldman. Two out of three of us have been here 20 years. They got us thinking, what was AJ Feldman doing back in 1998? Why wasn't he a part of that original photo as our sports anchor? Well, because he was two at the time. Here he is in 1998. Steve, his mom, probably more familiar with his building blocks and legos rather than sports teams at that point. That's the big wheel right there. Would have been an interesting concept to have him in at two. We may have aged just a little bit in those 20 years. He's aged a lot. Just a little bit. There's no question. The nice blonde hair there. Exactly. Big, loose, loose guy back in the day, as you can see from the cake. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.