The Faces of the Press & Dakotan – Cassie Brockmoller vBy Tera Schmidt Cassie & Skyler Cassie & McKenzie Cassie & Tia Accounting Clerk Cassie Brockmoller has enjoyed being a part of the Press & Dakotan team for the past 13 years. “My favorite thing is the people I work with, even though we don’t always get along we’re like a family and we’re always there for each other at work and in our personal lives,” she said. “Over the years, I’ve enjoyed learning all the parts and pieces that go into making the paper and have realized how much it really is a team effort.” Cassie said she also enjoys getting to know some of the regular customers. “It’s enjoyable to see them when they come in and see how they’re doing,” she said. “I’ve always liked customer service and have worked in customer service jobs my whole life.” Cassie started as a part-time receptionist in June 2005. About a year later, she moved to a fulltime position in the Business Office and has since taken on more and more responsibilities in the department. “I didn’t really have any accounting experience when I started,” she said. “I liked math in high school, it was my favorite subject, but everything I know about accounting I’ve learned as I’ve done it.” She said there definitely is nothing boring about working at the Press & Dakotan. “You never know what each day will bring when you walk in the door,” Cassie said. Outside of the office Cassie claims she leads a boring life, but she is more creative than she gives herself credit. “I just made my first queen-size full quilt,” she said. “It took just over a year doing a block a month.” Finishing a quilt is a feat in and of itself but what’s even more impressive is this is one of the rare projects, Cassie has made for herself. “This one is for me,” she said. “I do enjoy making things for everybody else more than I like making them for myself.” Cassie has crocheted more than 200 projects in the last few years and most of them were gifts for other people. “I started seriously a couple years ago, I’ve done probably 50 blankets alone,” she said. “My favorite are baby blankets because they are soft and small and easy to make. The weirdest was a beer can crochet hat that was a request from a friend for a Christmas gift.” When she’s not working or working on a project, Cassie is probably hanging out with her family including her parents, Kevin and Nancy; her brother and sister-in-law, Clint and Heather; and her nephew and nieces, Skyler (16), Tia (13) and McKenzie (9). “I like to spend time spoiling my nieces and nephew,” she said. “When they were younger I used to take them individually for a weekend and we’d go out to eat and then watch movies and eat popcorn or play board games.” Cassie also enjoys time with her parents, eating supper with them a couple times a week and watching some of their favorite TV shows. “Dad and I like to watch ‘Deadliest Catch,’ and Mom and I like to watch ‘The Great British Baking Show’,” she said. “My whole family also gets together for game nights every once in a while.” For Cassie quality time is what really matters in life, even if that time is spent doing a grueling, monotonous task that is now fully automated. “My favorite memory of work is hand stuffing inserts into the paper for Black Friday,” she said. “I miss doing that because everyone in the office got together to do it and we all got to talk and laugh while we worked and got to see people from different parts of the building you usually don’t get to interact with that much. We would all come together as a team and take care of what needed to be done. It was hard work and everyone was sore and tired but it was a lot of fun.” n HERVOICEvMAY/JUNE 2018v23