Ivan Beda’s wish list after his release from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center included a Quarter Pounder from McDonald’s, a SIM card for his cell phone, and a new pair of sneakers, T-shirts and underwear.

At the top of his list, however, was a hug from his husband, Erik Beda.

All of Beda’s wishes came true this weekend in Minneapolis after he landed at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport early Saturday morning. The men, both 36, fled Russia in December for Mexico and had been separated since March 20.

About a dozen people gathered to celebrate the reunion, which occurred around 12:40 a.m.

“I was very surprised and deeply touched by everything,” Ivan Beda said. “It was so nice and so sweet. I still feel very awkward. I am not used to such nice and kind attention from people.”

Erik Beda is transgender, which is illegal in Russia. He arrived at the MSP Airport on March 22 from Phoenix with nothing but a small plastic bag containing his Russian passport and other paperwork.

Ivan Beda was released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center in Folkston, Ga., on Friday. ICE officials put him on a bus to Jacksonville, Fla., and he then caught a Delta flight to Minnesota via Atlanta.

The couple, who were featured in a front-page story in the Pioneer Press in April, left Russia on Dec. 23, flying to Istanbul and then on to Mexico City. After two months in Mexico, they crossed the border into Arizona and were detained there.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not keep Erik Beda in detention due to an inability to house a transgender person, medical needs (hormones) and liability. He was provided travel from Phoenix to Chicago to MSP.

Ivan Beda, who was transferred to the ICE Processing Center in Georgia, got word on Thursday that he was going to be released the next day.

“The ICE officer came to Ivan and said, ‘I have good news. Get a plane ticket,’” said John Pundsack, a Travelers Assistance volunteer who has been helping the couple since Erik Beda arrived in Minnesota. “The immigration attorney (we hired) talked to the people at ICE, and all agreed he was in there long enough, and that they just needed to let him out on parole.”

Ivan Beda, left, and Erik Beda visit the Como Conservatory in St. Paul on Monday, June 3, 2024. The men were reunited early Saturday morning, June 1, 2024, at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The couple fled Russia in December and had been separated since March 20, 2024. Erik Beda is transgender, which is illegal in Russia. (Courtesy of John Pundsack)

A GoFundMe online fundraiser for the couple organized by Pundsack’s husband, Joe Briol, has raised more than $16,000.

“With all of the help from our generous donors, we were able to hire an immigration lawyer to help negotiate Ivan’s release, and we were able to pay for his ($579 one-way) plane ticket to Minnesota,” Briol wrote on Monday.

The couple, who had to get divorced in Russia when Erik Beda began transitioning, intend to get married again. They are planning a small wedding with a “picnic in a park” to follow, Pundsack said. Once they are legally married, they can file a joint asylum case.

The couple are at an extended stay hotel this month, but are searching for long-term housing.

“That’s where we really need help,” Pundsack said. “We have been trying to find a place, but the problem is they don’t have references, and they can’t get jobs because they need work permits, but you can’t get a work permit until you file your asylum papers.”

Pundsack is hoping to find a sympathetic landlord willing to rent an apartment to the men. “We can rent a place with the GoFundMe money, but we just need a landlord who understands their situation to rent us a place,” he said.

Erik Beda has an asylum hearing set for April 2025. Pundsack and Briol, who live in Woodbury, are hoping that Ivan Beda’s court date, currently set for July 23 in Atlanta, will be combined with Erik Beda’s date.

Erik Beda said Monday that he still has difficulty believing that his husband is in Minnesota with him. “It all seems unreal to me,” he said Monday, through an interpreter.

“When we were waiting for Ivan to disembark, we saw a lot of people come through the door, and there was no Ivan, no Ivan,” Broil said. “The look on Erik’s face was like a little kid’s waiting to see Santa and then finally got to see him. It was a look of pure wonderment and pure joy, and it was just the sweetest thing. There wasn’t a dry eye at the airport.”

In his GoFundMe note, Briol wrote that he and Pundsack, a retired teacher, have been amazed by the generosity and kindness shown by friends, family and followers of Erik and Ivan’s journey towards freedom.

“Erik and Ivan have both commented that they know there are no coincidences in life, and that they are eternally grateful for the kindness they’ve been shown,” he wrote. “We appreciate any ongoing support you can provide to help give Ivan and Erik a solid foundation for starting their new life here in Minnesota.”

On Monday, the Bedas and Briol and Pundsack had lunch together at the Como Pavilion and then toured the Como Conservatory.

“I want to say how grateful I am to all of the people who have helped me — people who sent money and people who directly helped us, even to those people who just had good thoughts about us,” Ivan Beda said.

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Frankie Capan III has played in two U.S. Open final qualifiers — he’s two for two on advancing to the big show.

The North Oaks’ native was the medalist at Duke University Golf Club in Durham, North Carolina with a 36-hole score of 6-under par. Both rounds were played Monday in what’s known as “golf’s longest day” across the country.

Capan fired a first-round 68, then followed that up with a 66. The top seven finishers in the 84-man field on Monday qualified for the U.S. Open — which tees off in 10 days at Pinehurst Resort & C.C., also in North Carolina.

The Durham qualifier featured a seven-man playoff for the final two qualifying spots.  But Capan was comfortably in well before that, as he finished alone atop the leaderboard.

“It felt good,” Capan told reporters. “It wasn’t my best stuff on the greens today, but I hit it pretty nice. Had a lot of opportunities throughout the day and really just stayed very patient.”

He shot a 3-under, 32 on the back nine of his final round. Frankly, Capan didn’t find 36 holes to be all that taxing on Monday, noting he was in the first group off the tee in the morning and that his group “buzzed around” the course in the morning. He said both rounds went quickly.

“It really wasn’t too bad. I feel like I’ve been playing a lot of golf lately, so I’m used to hitting a lot of shots and practicing, and it didn’t feel all that bad to me,” Capan said. “Like I could probably do a workout  right now and feel just fine.”

Monday was merely a continuation of the 24-year-old’s recent string of strong play. He has four top-10 finishes in his last six starts on the Korn Ferry Tour, including a second-place finish after falling in a playoff just eight days ago in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The success has Capan in eighth place on the tour’s season-long standings. The top 30 at year’s end earn PGA Tour cards. Currently, there are no Minnesota natives on golf’s top men’s professional tour. Capan will soon aim to change that.

But first, he’ll compete in his second major championship. He also played in the 2022 U.S. Open at LA Country Club. He missed the cut, but the experience figures to serve him well as he preps for another shot at a national title.

Capan has had success at Pinehurst No. 2 in the past. He and his good friend, Ben Wong, won the U.S. Amateur four-ball at the course. And now he’ll aim for another United States Golf Association title there.

“We’ve won one,” he said, “may as well win another.”

Capan isn’t the only Minnesota native who qualified on Monday. Minnetonka grad Gunnar Broin — who just wrapped his senior year at Kansas University — shot 9-under over 36 holes at Ohio State University Golf Club in Columbus, Ohio, and then parred a pair of playoff holes to survive a 4-for-3 playoff to secure the amateur’s spot in the U.S. Open.

Notre Dame sophomore Nate Stevens — a Northfield native — finished just one shot back of the playoff in Columbus at 8-under par.

Cretin-Derham Hall junior Sam Udovich acquitted himself well in Georgia. The Inver Grove Heights native shot a two-round score of 8-under par at The Golf Club of Georgia, placing him in a tie for 11th. The top three golfers in that 68-man field qualified for the U.S. Open — 12-under par was the qualifying score.

Blaine native Caleb VanArragon shot a 2-round score of 4-under par to finish in a tie for 17th at the qualifier at Cherry Hill Club in Ridgeway, Ontario. The top seven golfers in that 66-man field qualified for the U.S. Open. Like Udovich, VanArragon finished four shots out of qualification.

Gophers alum Alex Gaugert — who caddies for U teammate Erik VanRooyen on the PGA Tour — finished at 3-under in Ontario.

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After canceling all but one of its 2023 shows, St. Paul’s Park Square Theatre has announced its new 2024/2025 season, which includes four major productions.

“We are beyond excited to not only bring outstanding productions to our stage but also to have a world premier be part of this strong season,” said Park Square artistic director Stephen DiMenna in a news release. “We worked hard to choose plays that can serve as vehicles for many of the Twin Cities most acclaimed and favorite actors while also making opportunities for younger actors to develop their craft.”

Under the guidance of DiMenna, who was named executive artistic director in October, the theater’s staff and board spent the past eight months “engaged in a brand audit of the theater’s past programming, mission, purpose and vision to create a plan for the theater’s future.”

After looking at what other theaters in the metro were programming, Park Square decided to focus on contemporary American plays and re-imagined American classics with an emphasis on the actors and artists who create the work. Park Square’s new brand is “The Stories You Want to See with the Artists You Love” and its new logo symbolizes an open door where all are welcome.

The theme of the upcoming season, the theater’s 49th, is “New Beginnings — Plays about redemption, renewal and rebirth.” The season includes:

• “Holmes/Poirot” (Oct. 9-Nov. 3): This world premiere co-written by Twin Cities playwright Jeffrey Hatcher and actor Steve Hendrickson tells a “tale of intrigue, international politics, wine and murder” involving Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.

• “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” (Dec. 4-22): Adapted for the stage by Barbara Robinson from her much-loved children’s book of the same name, this show inaugurates Park Square’s new Family Series.

• “The Gin Game” (Feb. 5-23): A new take on D. L. Coburn’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play will star locals Greta Oglesby and Terry Hempleman.

• “Between Riverside and Crazy” (May 14-June 8): The 2014 Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy/drama by Stephen Adly Guirgis follows an ex-cop and recent widower and his recently paroled son as they struggle to hold onto one of the last rent-stabilized apartments on Riverside Drive in New York City.

For further details, see parksquaretheatre.org.

Park Square canceled five of its planned 2023 productions, citing the pandemic and slow ticket sales. The company’s sole 2023 play was “The Revolutionists,” a co-production with PRIME Productions that ran in April.

Park Square started in 1975 with 70 seats and has grown to a multi-stage, 550-seat professional theater. In August 2020, Park Square and SteppingStone Theatre for Youth announced they were becoming partners due to prepandemic debt issues. SteppingStone later moved into Park Square’s home in the historic Hamm Building in downtown St. Paul.

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