About Me

I’m Nick Petersen, Westonka Class of 2010 from Mound, Minnesota. Grew up shy—only two yearbook mentions—but the schools there taught me civics, history, and that one voice can matter. Now I’m sharing this once-in-a-lifetime story because Westonka deserves the credit.

This is the classic Mound-Westonka White Hawks logo I grew up with during my time in the district (circa 1997–2010).

All rights and trademark ownership belong solely to Westonka Public Schools. I’m using this image here purely for personal nostalgia and to show the branding from my school days—no claim of ownership or affiliation.

Unlisted YouTube excerpt from my public comment at the Westonka Public Schools Board Meeting on January 5, 2026. Full video:

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All rights belong to the district.

I uploaded this short clip myself—so it’s easier for people to see—no promotion or ask.

Grateful to Westonka, and the Class of 2010.

How a Small Town on Lake Minnetonka Shaped My Life—and Why I Brought My Story Home

“Every story has a beginning. Mine began in Mound, Minnesota.”

Before Washington. Before the White House. Before the letters. Before people around the world ever heard my story.

I was simply a quiet kid growing up in Mound, Minnesota, along the western shores of Lake Minnetonka.

The older I get, the more I understand how much this place shaped me. Mound isn't a huge city, and that's part of what makes it special. Generations of families have shared the same schools, businesses, lake views, traditions and memories. Long before my story began, people here were already creating stories that traveled far beyond Minnesota.

In 1946, Mound Metalcraft began inside an old school building. What started as a small metalworking company soon turned toward making toys—and eventually produced a name recognized around the world:

Tonka.

Millions of children grew up pushing Tonka trucks across floors and sandboxes, many never knowing those toys trace their roots to this little community on Lake Minnetonka.

I've always thought there was something fitting about that.

Mound has never needed to be the biggest place to leave a big footprint.

Sometimes a community builds things that travel around the world.

Sometimes it builds people who do.

Growing Up Westonka

My story unfolded through Westonka Public Schools—from Shirley Hills Primary School, to Grandview Middle School, to Mound Westonka High School, where I graduated with the Class of 2010.

Westonka's history stretches back more than a century. Buildings have changed, generations have come and gone, and programs have grown, but something important has remained:

Community.

Schools don't simply teach subjects. They help shape people.

Teachers challenge you before you understand why it matters. Music teaches discipline. Activities teach commitment. Friends teach loyalty. Mistakes teach humility. A close-knit community teaches you that how you treat people matters.

I didn't fully appreciate those lessons while I was walking those hallways.

I do now.

And if you had known me then, I probably wasn't the student you would have expected to someday have a story worth telling.

I wasn't the class president or star athlete. I wasn't the loudest person in the room.

I was the quiet trumpet player.

Twenty years ago, sitting in band class at Grandview Middle School, there was a girl sitting beside me. Every day I wanted to introduce myself. Every day I talked myself out of it.

Fear convinced me silence was safer.

Years later, I understood the lesson:

Rejection heals. Regret lingers.

If I could walk back into that band room today, I wouldn't tell my younger self about Washington, the White House, or where life would eventually take him.

I'd tell him something much simpler:

Go say hello.

Because courage usually doesn't arrive in one enormous moment. It's built one conversation, one decision and one opportunity at a time.

The Community That Raised Me

Westonka wasn't the only place in Mound that helped shape me.

One of my first jobs was stocking shelves at Jubilee Foods on Commerce Boulevard. It was another kind of classroom: show up, work hard, be dependable, treat people with respect and take pride in doing ordinary work well.

At the time, I thought I was stocking grocery shelves.

Looking back, I was building character.

The school hallways, the band room, the grocery store, the familiar streets and the water of Lake Minnetonka all became pieces of a foundation I carried with me.

And this little community has watched people take remarkably different paths.

Kevin Sorbo grew up in Mound before becoming known around the world through television and film. Shane Wiskus, a Mound Westonka graduate, went on to represent the United States in the Olympic Games.

Their journeys are their own.

Mine became something entirely different.

That's one of the lessons I appreciate most about growing up here: there is no single definition of a meaningful life.

You don't have to follow somebody else's path.

You have to discover your own.

Leaving Home—and Bringing the Story Back

My path eventually carried me across America and around the world. I stood in places I'd once seen only in photographs, met people whose paths never should have crossed mine, and learned that some of life's most meaningful experiences are the ones we never could have planned.

Eventually, that journey took me to Washington, D.C.

I wasn't chasing recognition or trying to create a legacy. I simply followed my heart.

What happened afterward became one of the most unexpected chapters of my life, and that journey is documented throughout this website.

But this page isn't really about where the story went.

It's about where it started.

When that journey took an extraordinary turn, there was one place I wanted to bring it:

Home.

I met privately with Westonka Superintendent Kevin Borg because I wanted the school district that helped raise me to hear the story directly from me.

There was something deeply full-circle about that meeting. When I walked the halls of Grandview Middle School, Mr. Borg was the principal. By the time I graduated from Mound Westonka High School in 2010, he was superintendent.

Years later, after a journey neither of us could have predicted, I found myself sitting across from the same educator whose career had overlapped so much of my childhood.

I wasn't there because I believed Westonka owed me recognition.

Quite the opposite.

I came to say thank you.

Thank you to the teachers. Thank you to the schools. Thank you to the people who gave a quiet kid opportunities long before he understood what he might someday do with them.

And thank you to the hometown that gave me somewhere to come back to.

No matter how far my story travels, part of it will always belong here.

Preserving Our History

The older I get, the more I understand that none of our stories exists alone.

For many years, the Westonka Historical Society preserved the history of Mound and the surrounding communities. In 2023, it joined with other historical organizations around the lake to form the Lake Minnetonka Historical Society, bringing those local collections together while continuing to preserve the individual histories of the communities surrounding Lake Minnetonka.

That connection remains right here in Mound through the Westonka Museum.

For anyone who discovers my story and wants to learn more about the community that shaped it:

My story is only one chapter.

Generations were building this community long before I arrived, and generations will continue adding chapters long after I'm gone.

That's local history: ordinary people becoming part of the story of a place.

To the Students Walking These Halls Today

If you're a Westonka student reading this, I hope you'll remember one thing:

Don't let fear make your decisions for you.

Say hello. Raise your hand. Join the band. Try out for the team. Audition for the play. Apply for the opportunity. Take the trip. Ask the question. Speak from your heart.

You have no idea where your life may lead.

The quiet kid may someday find his voice. The student who doubts herself may someday discover what she's capable of. The ordinary day you're living right now may become a memory you carry forever.

Your story doesn't need to look like mine.

In fact, I hope it doesn't.

Create your own.

Remembering the Class of 2010

As my own story continues, I never want telling it to mean forgetting classmates whose journeys ended far too soon.

Toby Lee • Brent Swanson • Mackenzie Anderson • Miles Wilson • Ethan Samuelson • Brandon Host • Connor Bishop

We grew up in the same community. We shared classrooms and hallways, football games and concerts, teachers and milestones.

Even as the quiet kid, I remember them.

Their lives are part of the story of the Mound Westonka Class of 2010, too.

They were classmates. They were neighbors. They were members of our community.

They will not be forgotten.

Forever Rooted in Mound

Life can take us thousands of miles from where we started.

But roots have a remarkable way of staying with us.

Mine lead back to Mound, Minnesota.

To Lake Minnetonka and Westonka Public Schools.

To Shirley Hills.

To a trumpet in a middle school band room.

To Mound Westonka High School.

To Jubilee Foods.

To teachers whose lessons made more sense years later than they did when I first heard them.

And to a community that was shaping my story long before I realized I had one worth telling.

If this page introduces someone somewhere in the world to Mound for the first time, I hope they see more than a dot on a map.

I hope they see a small community with generations of history behind it—a place connected to Tonka toys, hometown businesses, teachers, families, athletes, artists, musicians, workers and dreamers who carried pieces of this place with them wherever life took them.

And if one Westonka student someday reads these words and decides to believe in themselves a little more, take one chance they otherwise wouldn't have taken, speak when fear tells them to stay quiet, or simply walk across a room and say hello—

then bringing my story home was worth it.

Rooted in Mound. Proudly Westonka. Forever grateful.