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.
"I just think generations are important," she said, "the memories, and the stories, and I think mixed generations of community is always important."