Lutheran Vespers’ Walt Wangerin continues his tour despite injuries

Walt Wangerin looked up from his bed in an Alexandria, Minn., hospital room and said, “This trip is too important for me to stop now.”

So despite injuries that required surgery, the Lutheran Vespers radio show host will make his scheduled appearance Sept. 24 at Dana College in Blair, Neb. The stop is part of Wangerin’s 9-week Lutheran Vespers OutSpoken bike tour across the Upper Midwest, which took a tragic turn Sept. 9, when Wangerin was severly injured when a pannier came lose and lodged in his bicycle’s back tire, throwing him to the ground just outside Alexandria.
A fractured left hip and abrasions made completing the tour on his bike impossible. But Wangerin said he believed the tour’s purpose of thanking his loyal listeners and reaching out to potential new ones was to important to abandon.

This tenacious spirit has been a hallmark of Wangerin’s career. Besides Lutheran Vespers — his half-hour weekly radio program featuring music by renowned artists and a sermon or story by Wangerin (heard Sunday mornings on Dana’s station, KDCV 91.1 FM) — he is the author of more than 20 widely acclaimed spiritual books for children and adults, and a writer-in-residence at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Ind.

Wangerin will be at the President’s Room in E.C. Campus Center on Dana College’s Campus at 11:30 a.m. The event is free and open to all, and Wangerin is expected to entertain and enlighten the audience with one of his signature spiritual stories. Dana College invites everyone to take this opportunity to hear one of the most celebrated Lutheran storytellers of our time.

Dana College is a private, liberal arts institution that currently enrolls approximately 600 students. The campus is located on 150 acres overlooking the Missouri River Valley in Blair, Neb. Dana grants bachelor’s degrees in more than 20 liberal arts, business, education and pre-professional programs. Dana is affiliated with the Nebraska Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and its athletic teams compete in the Great Plains Athletic Conference.

More information on the OutSpoken Tour and Lutheran Vespers can be found on the show’s web site, www.elca.org/lv.

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For more information contact:
Sarah Cavanah
Communications Coordinator
Dana College
(402) 426-7216
scavanah@dana.edu