Our History

S.E. Mn. Celiac Support Group History

(NOTE: This history of the group was written circa 2005. Some of businesses referenced have since changed status - e.g. Silly Yak, Bread Baker, etc.)

The S.E. MN. Celiac Support Group was founded June 20th 1998. That first informal gathering was held in the Good Food Co-op which had just moved into their new location on 6th street N.W. in Rochester. Barb donated treats from the store. Most of the thirteen celiacs who attended came after having seen the announcement posted on the Co-op's doors. Dr. Murray had just moved his family to Rochester. He saw the announcement in the Post Bulletin and came to lend his support along with dietitian, Jackie See. Dr. Murray gave an impromptu talk on how to set up the group and get organized. Both Dr. Murray and Jackie See offered to be our medical advisors as well as Dr. Margaret Gill who was unable to attend due to being on call. The following people were present that day and their dedication and hard work immediately began to make a difference to Celiacs living in the area and those coming to the Mayo Clinic.

• Dr. Joseph Murray, Gastroenterologist
• Jackie See, Dietitian
• Barb Herald, Good Food Store Manager
• Evelyn Brownlow, Publicity
• Ethel Field, Social Chair and Telephone Committee
• Lillian Hansen, Historian
• Randy Heineke came with his wife, Lisa Bates –Telephone Committee
• Faye Jones, leader of the Owattonna Support group, gave much inspiration and direction
• Jane Mueller, helped wherever needed
• Mary Mullen, Telephone
• LaVonne Childs-Overby, Hospitality Chairwoman
• Margaret Peterson, a real driving force, Treasurer, Editor of the newsletter and Co-Leader with Coyla
• Coyla Shepard, Founder and Co-Leader
• DeAnn Zickmund

Mary Lou Balts, founder and director of the LaCrosse Area Celiac Support Group, along with her friend, Donna Furr, lent their support, presenting at some of our meetings and sharing ideas and guest speakers. Soon we were joined by Warren and Laurel who headed up the phoning committee for our rapidly growing group.

In 2003 Trudy Schommer and Dan Helder were co-leaders, Sharon McCarty the treasurer and Gail Thurnau the newsletter editor. Five newsletters are put out each year as well as recipe booklets from the group's events.

Our group has grown quickly, largely due to Dr. Murray’s efforts to increase the awareness and diagnosis of C.D. at Mayo. His research also included a family study that identified many of our family members as celiacs. By Jan.16, 1999 we had 43 members. As we grew the Good Food Store reorganized, providing a separate section for gluten free items and bulk foods like our flours and pastas. They were great supporters, bringing into the store all the products we desired.

Coyla’s passion was to get places where we could dine. This was especially important since Mayo was now seeing a large increase in Celiac patients coming here from out of town. There is power in numbers and as we grew, so did the number of restaurants who were willing to work with us on a gluten-free menu. Jackie See did the very first menu evaluation at Michael’s and hosted a lovely luncheon meeting there. In April of 2002, Helen Delp published our first G.F. restaurant guide. We think we were the first group in the nation to have a local guide and in it were 19 restaurants.

Our next big hurdle was to get a G.F. bakery. Holly Beach of the Bread Baker Co. was willing when she found out that G.F. bread only needed to rise once. That allowed her to bake it in the afternoon of her least busy day (Tues.) after her regular baking was done. To begin, members of our group baked some of our favorite recipes for Holly to try out. Helen Delp’s health bread was an all time favorite and is still included among their top sellers. Holly, Coyla, and Helen made a trip to Minneapolis to take a G.F. bread baking course. Following that, Helen helped Holly set up her baking along lines that excluded the possibility of cross contamination. In June of 2002, Holly hosted our meeting at the Bread Baker Co.- complete with samples of her G.F. breads and muffins. The Post Bulletin was on hand to photograph and record this event. Holly threw her creative genius totally into her G.F. baking and soon came up with dozens of breads, muffins, cookies, and cakes. She became a good friend to our celiac group. We were sad to say goodbye in Jan. of 2005 when she left to start the Silly Yak Bread Barn in Madison, Wi. (closed on March 31st, 2018). She now does mail orders. G.F. bread continues to be made on Tues. after 4:00p.m. at the Bread Baker Co. in Rochester thanks to the efforts of Gretchen Marshall. Another milestone was the opening of the Gluten Free Cupboard (now since closed) in 2004 by members Jane and Mike Mueller. Their store features only gluten-free items.

While we were exploring the restaurant menus, we were also looking for ways to educate our local population about Celiac Disease. We are grateful to Bette Hagman, the fabulous author of the Gluten-free Gourmet cookbooks, who was responsible for getting a large article in the Post Bulletin when she came to do a presentation to our group, hosted at the newly opened Barnes and Noble. Peggy Wagener of “Living Without Magazine” (www.LivingWithout.com) also lent her support by coming to do a dynamite presentation, which resulted in another great press release. Bob of “Bob and Ruth’s G.F. Dining & Travel Club” (www.bobandruths.com) inspired us with his presentation of helpful travel and dining out tips which landed a front page article in the weekend travel section. Cooperation with other celiac support groups has served us well as these speakers were shared with both the Northland and LaCrosse groups. We owe much of our success to the long list of speakers who followed including our own much loved Dr. Murray, Dr. Gill, and Jackie See, dietitian. Jackie is a great resource, giving presentations, submitting articles to our newsletter, and running off handouts of new material for our meetings as well as other helpful things.

In May of 2002 we took part in the very first walk for Celiac Disease research. We have continued this tradition each year, meeting at Grace Lutheran Church, 800 Silver Lake Dr. We combine fellowship, and sampling new food products along with our walk around Silver Lake. We also get good media coverage. In the past we have had people diagnosed with C.D. as a direct result of information generated by the walk , who then have asked their physician to test them for it. A Celiac Kids Group has been formed for the children and is led by Liz Traff, Peggy Witt and Ivy Pillars.

Thanks to the work of web designer, James Carlson, we went on line in March of 2005.