Saint Peter High School’s long-term partnership with Habitat for Humanity South Central Minnesota was highlighted during that organization’s Hard Hat Breakfast reception on Thursday morning at Country Inn & Suites in Mankato. The breakfast event is a way for Habitat for Humanity to highlight the meaningful and necessary work they do throughout the year, as well as give the organization an opportunity to thank all of their sponsors, staff, and volunteers.
SPHS’s building trades program and Habitat for Humanity have teamed up to build 31 houses in this community over the past three-plus decades. All three SPHS building trades instructors who have been a part of that partnership (Tom Applen, Warren Peterson, and Scott Robinson) were on hand at the breakfast, along with SPHS Principal Annette Engeldinger and Saint Peter School Board member Drew Dixon. Former SPHS FACs teacher Marcia Applen was also in attendance as it was two students from her CIA class more than three decades ago who came up with the idea from which this relationship evolved.
(PICTURED ABOVE) SPHS was well represented during the Habitat for Humanity of South Central Minnesota’s Hard Hat Breakfast recognition on Thursday. Shown here are front row (l to r) retired SPHS FACS teacher Marcia Applen, Zyriah Kopischke, Terri Walton, Habitat for Humanity South Central MN Executive Director Sondra Herman; back row, Drew Dixon (Saint Peter School board member), retired SPHS building trades teachers Warren Peterson and Tom Applen, SPHS Principal Annette Engeldinger, and current SPHS building trades teacher Scott Robinson.
Engeldinger and Robinson provided a look back at the more than three-decade-old relationship between our school and Habitat for Humanity with a public presentation. Robinson also shared a slide show and video clips highlighting the work his students have done the past few years on the Habitat homes.
St. Peter resident Terri Walton and her daughter Zyriah Kopischke, who moved into the most-recently completed Habitat for Humanity home in St. Peter in late 2024, were part of a Q&A session with Habitat for Humanity staff at the end of the event. Zyriah is a senior at SPHS and was a member of the building trades class her junior year that worked on her family’s new four-bedroom home in the Traverse Green subdivision.
To learn more about Habitat for Humanity of South Central Minnesota please visit https://habitatscmn.org/.
Holly Schoettler, Habitat for Humanity of South Central Minnesota’s homeowner and community services manager, interviewed SPHS senior Zyriah Kopischke and her mother, Terri Walton, about their experience of moving into their new home in December 2024. 
SPHS Principal Annette Engeldinger spoke to the Hard Hat Breakfast crowd about the school’s long-term partnership with Habitat for Humanity.