Shoreview backer has roots in, and is rooting for, the city

Jacci Krebsbach says she's fueled by coffee.

But a little while into a conversation in Krebsbach's airy sunroom-home office, it's apparent that the gumptious chairwoman of the Slice of Shoreview celebration really is motivated by pride of community rooted in three generations on the same street.

"It's her sense of place," said Lynn Redlinger, producer of "A Tale of 10 Cities," the CTV-Channel 15 north-metro public interest, for which Krebsbach works as an assistant producer and host. "People who grow up in a small town have a real loyalty to that town. I think she sees it as, Shoreview is her small town. Even though it's grown up to be a big suburb, to her it's still her hometown."

Nowadays you can link Krebsbach's many community commitments to a desire to maintain, deepen and add to the connections she's made over nearly 61 years in her hometown. In addition to bringing Shoreview residents together at Slice, for which she receives a stipend, she runs an intermittent handmade gift boutique with local artists, friends of hers, out of the cottage behind her home. Through her work on CTV's "Tale of 10 Cities," and as president of the Shoreview Historical Society, she's working to spread that sense of community and history and rootedness that she feels for her community.

Krebsbach tells of growing up across Rustic Place from her maternal grandparents and moving away with her new husband to White Bear Lake.

The relocation lasted less than a year, until neighbor "Grandpa Nisswandt" put his house, at the end of Krebsbach's parents' street, on the market.

It was supposed to be a temporary move, but Krebsbach and her husband, Mike, realized they loved the location and the proximity to family.

Neighbor and Historical Society secretary Don Follett says Krebsbach's appreciation for generations is apparent in the way she approaches the whole community.

"You can tell how she has been kind of a student of knowing who everybody's parents are, and who everybody's grandparents are," he said. "She doesn't just know those who are living today but seems to know their ancestors, as well. She knows more about family lineage than some of their family members do."

Shoreview developed with strong community pockets, Krebsbach noted, whether neighbors gathered along a lakeshore or a street.

Shoreview Mayor Sandy Martin also grew up in Shoreview.

"She has a remarkable historical perspective and memory, and I think that has led her in lots of different directions," Martin said. "Her efforts have been to preserve that history, but also to re-create that small-town atmosphere. That's why she's been so involved in Slice of Shoreview; it's just a slice of Americana, fireworks, music, parade and all of that just brings back the memories of what it was like when it was a small town and everybody knew everybody and we did have those kinds of celebrations."