Twin Cities Walk for Water will hold its 10th annual event Sept. 20 at Upper Landing Park in St. Paul, rallying community members to raise awareness and funds for clean water around the world.

Water Mission, the Christian nonprofit organization behind the event, builds sustainable safe water and sanitation solutions for people in developing countries and disaster areas. Since 2001, the organization has served more than 8 million people across 60 countries, according to Water Mission. Approximately 2.2 billion people are impacted by the worldwide water crisis, according to global health data. Many rely on contaminated sources and face barriers to maintaining sustainable water systems due to limited infrastructure and technical support.

Participants in the Twin Cities Walk for Water will trek 1.5 miles with an empty bucket, fill it with untreated water from the Mississippi River and then carry it back, completing a three-mile walk to represent the daily journey millions make to collect unsafe water, according to organizers.

“It’s relatively a small thing to do but has such a huge impact in bringing clean water to people. So we ask everyone to do their small part to really help in this bigger cause,” said Aubrey Mozer, community relations manager for GF Building Flow Solutions, which partners with Water Mission to supply water system components through its Uponor subsidiary.

Mozer said the walk helps raise awareness while allowing GF to contribute directly to Water Mission’s efforts to bring clean water to communities in need.

“Water is a resource that connects us all globally, and we want to make sure here in the ‘Land of 10,000 Lakes’ that we are being some of the best water stewards that we have and not taking that for granted,” Mozer said.

Mozer encourages people to join with teams or family members and engage in friendly competition to support efforts to address the global water crisis. This year’s event aims to raise $200,000 to fund Water Mission’s clean water projects in Kenya.

Presenting sponsors for the event include GF, PaceLabs and the Vanderboom family.

Mozer said those unable to attend in person can participate virtually by walking in their own neighborhoods and donating online.

Twin Cities Walk for Water

When: 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 20. Kickoff begins at 9 a.m. and check-in begins at 8 a.m.

Where: Upper Landing Park, 226 Spring St., St. Paul

Info/registration: Walkers are encouraged to preregister at walkforwater.rallybound.org.

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Today is Saturday, Sept. 6, the 249th day of 2025. There are 116 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 6, 1901, President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded by anarchist Leon Czolgosz (CHAWL’-gawsh) at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. (McKinley died eight days later and was succeeded by his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt.)

Also on this date:

In 1949, Howard Unruh, a resident of Camden, New Jersey, shot and killed 13 of his neighbors. (Unruh, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was incarcerated for 60 years until his death in 2009.)

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In 1972, the Summer Olympics resumed in Munich, West Germany, a day after the deadly hostage crisis that left eleven Israelis, five Arab abductors and a West German police officer dead.

In 1975, 18-year-old tennis star Martina Navratilova of Czechoslovakia, in New York for the U.S. Open, requested political asylum in the United States.

In 1995, Baltimore Oriole Cal Ripken Jr. played in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking Lou Gehrig’s 56 year-old MLB record; Ripken’s streak would ultimately reach a still-record 2,632 games.

In 1997, a public funeral was held for Princess Diana at Westminster Abbey in London, six days after her death in a car crash in Paris.

In 2006, President George W. Bush acknowledged for the first time that the CIA was running secret prisons overseas and said “tough” interrogation techniques had forced terrorist leaders to reveal plots to attack the United States and its allies.

In 2018, the Supreme Court of India decriminalized consensual sex between adults, legalizing homosexuality in the country.

In 2022, Liz Truss began her tenure as U.K. prime minister; she would resign just 49 days later.

Today’s Birthdays:

Comedian JoAnne Worley is 88.
Cartoonist Sergio Aragonés is 88.
Country singer-songwriter David Allan Coe is 86.
Rock singer-musician Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) is 82.
Comedian-actor Jane Curtin is 78.
Actor-comedian Jeff Foxworthy is 67.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is 63.
Television journalist Elizabeth Vargas is 63.
Country singer-songwriter Mark Chesnutt is 62.
Actor Rosie Perez is 61.
R&B singer Macy Gray is 58.
Actor Idris Elba is 53.
Actor Justina Machado is 53.
Actor Anika Noni Rose is 53.
Actor Naomie Harris is 49.
Rapper Foxy Brown is 47.
Actor/singer Deborah Joy Winans is 42.
Actor-comedian Lauren Lapkus is 40.
Actor Asher Angel is 23.

Authorities say a man was fatally stabbed Thursday night when he tried to rescue his girlfriend’s mother, who police believe was being held captive by her estranged husband in a Maplewood apartment. The man allegedly had strangled his wife, repeatedly punched her in the head and forced her to walk around naked.

The woman’s husband, Lloyd Matthew McKenzie, 52, has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree assault, according to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.

The Friday criminal complaint gave the following details:

On Thursday night, a woman went to check on her mother after not hearing from her for a few days. Shortly before 6 p.m., she arrived at her mother’s apartment in the 1900 block of East County Road D in Maplewood with her 33-year-old boyfriend and a cousin.

Her father answered the door. When he did, her mother said, “Thank you, God.”

The father tried to close the door but the cousin had jammed a foot in the doorway to prevent the door from closing. Then the father allegedly stabbed his daughter’s boyfriend with a serrated steak knife and allegedly tried to stab the cousin.

The complaint said the mother yelled for help and asked the three to not let her husband lock her in the apartment again. However, he was still able to close the door.

Police arrived and kicked in the door, arresting McKenzie when he came out of a bedroom. The mother thanked officers and ran from the apartment, distraught and inconsolable.

Officers found the daughter’s boyfriend in the fetal position on the floor across from the apartment with stab wounds to his chest and abdomen. He died in surgery early Friday at Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

The mother told investigators that she and McKenzie were not together as a couple and that he had come from out of state and broken into her apartment and was living there. He held her inside for three days while he was allegedly using crack cocaine, she said.

She was allowed to leave to go to the store, but McKenzie had taken her car keys and cellphones. He followed her around the apartment, she said, and forced her to remain naked. At times he would punch her in the head or threaten her with a screwdriver, she alleged.

On Tuesday, he strangled her, she told police. She said she tried to appease him and show him affection to keep him from hurting her further.

When her daughter and the others arrived on Thursday night, McKenzie ordered her to put clothes on and then opened the door and stabbed her daughter’s boyfriend, she said. She ran and hid in a bedroom and tried to block the door with a chest freezer, but he forced his way in and stood over her with a knife, she said.

She agreed to tell police that the boyfriend had a gun and that McKenzie had only acted in self-defense when he stabbed the man. The mother told police she only said this so he wouldn’t hurt her further. She told investigators the knife was under the mattress in her bedroom.

After he was read his Miranda rights, McKenzie agreed to speak with police. He said he and his wife had been on a marijuana and crack binge for a few days and that he had wanted to stop but she hadn’t. Then he said that his daughter, her boyfriend and her cousin came and demanded the mother leave with them.

He told police that he told them, “She’s not going with you.”

He said that the boyfriend pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger, but the gun didn’t fire. He said he tried to defend himself and that the boyfriend was injured in the scuffle. When asked to elaborate on the scuffle, he did not answer.

When asked if he stabbed the boyfriend, McKenzie said he wouldn’t answer without a lawyer.

After obtaining a search warrant, officers retrieved the knife with blood on it under the mattress.

The criminal complaint said that McKenzie has 14 prior felony convictions, including assault, burglary and robbery.

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Either Jayden Kinsel Arredondo or Drew Altavilla had a role in all of Two Rivers’ five touchdowns on Friday night.

But both know much of the game’s credit needs to go to the guys who don’t get enough of it.

Behind a dominating offensive line, Two Rivers ran for 270 of its nearly 350 total yards in a 35-20 win at Simley.

“They just want to run people over all of the time,” Altavilla said of the three returning seniors, including 350-pound Dayven Clairmont, and two new starters which he agrees are the heart and soul of the Warriors. “They keep everybody happy. They’re a family of one every day in practice, they back each other up all the time.”

“They are the leaders of our team. If they’re not here, we really don’t have what we have,” added Delfino Mancha, who ran for 98 yards and routinely set the Warriors up with good field position with his kick and punt returns.

He and Arredondo, who ran for a team-high 111 yards, are a nice, albeit unlikely, 1-2 combination.

“He’s a big boy, he’s going to be punching it. I think I’m big, but realistically, I need to bounce to the outside sometimes. A littler guy coming in, they don’t expect it, so I lower my shoulder, always kind of works,” Mancha said. He’s listed at 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds, but acknowledged he’s more like 5-foot-4 and 140 pounds “on a good day.”  Arredondo is listed at 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds but runs bigger.

While Two Rivers (1-1) pounded the ball with success; Simley focused on an air attack. Christian Urbina threw for 146 yards and three touchdowns, two to Justin Runge. Seven Spartans caught passes.

“We had more time in the pocket, we were getting off the ball faster, our receivers, than last week (a 45-7 loss at Minneapolis North), and we were more mentally there,” Urbina said.

The game can be summed up in an early third quarter sequence.

After forcing Simley (0-2) to punt, Mancha returned a punt to the Spartans’ 48-yard line. The junior followed up with a pair of rushes to the 33 before Arredondo scored from the 17 four plays later, leaping over one defender, for a 35-12 Two Rivers lead.

Urbina threw a 3-yarder to Vincent Yang that, combined with the 2-point conversion, kept it a two-score game.

Looking to maybe ice the win, Two Rivers fumbled deep in Simley territory early in the fourth quarter. Going the other way, the Spartans reached midfield, but a first down was nullified by a holding penalty before Simley turned it over on downs.

Up 7-6 in the second, Two Rivers scored 21 straight points, including a pair of 12-yard runs by Arredondo.

Two Rivers, which lost 34-14 to Spring Lake Park last week, took nearly eight minutes off the clock on its 12-play opening drive that ended with a 27-yard Lonnie West touchdown reception on fourth down. West also had a touchdown reception in the second quarter.

Taking advantage of a Warriors fumble deep in its own end, a 16-yard touchdown pass from Urbina to Runge got the Spartans on the board on the opening play of the second quarter.

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