LLAA Foundation Board of Directors

Caren Martin

Longtime Long Lake resident and active AIS volunteer and monitor

Since 1986, our family has spent time in Park Rapids. For 13 years, we rented cabins from Ralph and Sherri Notch at New Frontier Resort. We fell in love with the lake’s characteristics, sunsets, loons calling, exciting fishing, and the sound of wind through the pines. Jeff always was shocked that I would take four little kids in a 16’ aluminum boat to fish and come back with them all and no one was hooked! After more than 20 years owning several lake properties, we finally bought a home on Long Lake—our FAVORITE! This will be our fourth summer engaged in the Shoreline Monitoring Program for Neighborhood 6 and host one of the UMN pilot zebra mussel settlement samplers. Then in 2023 I became a certified AIS Detector. The health of Long Lake is very important to our whole family. It has been an honor serving on the LLAA Board of Directors these past two years.

Jim Seifert

Third-generation Long Lake family member with deep roots in the community

My grandparents bought their property on the Northeast end of Long Lake in 1934. As a child my mom would drive us up to “the Lake” after school was out in the spring and drive us home the day before school started in the Fall. I spent every summer of my life on Long Lake until I was 25. I fell in love with my wife Jona who lived just down the shore from our cabin. My summer “job” was owner of the Cuzzins Candy Store in Park Rapids, that my wife and I and my cousin owned for 14 years, and that put all three of us through college.

Long Lake has been a touchstone for our family for 3 generations. Jona and I feel that we are merely caretakers for our cabin, preserving the cabin, the memories and the lake for the generations that came before us and that will follow after us. Jona and I feel that our mission for our family, and for our lake community, is to protect the waters and the land so that generations from now, our children’s children will look across the lake and see the same shoreline that my grandparents did in 1934.

Darrell Johnston

Lifelong Long Lake visitor with a background in storytelling, law, and conservation

I have visited Long Lake all my life and am grateful for the family legacy in Stover Bay dating back to 1926. Most of my career I toured as an actor/musician working in theatre and film and in 2020 I transitioned to becoming an attorney in Minnesota. My childhood on Long Lake fostered a mind for stewardship and land protection. I have been working seasonally in Denali National Park, AK since 2012 and continue to run the Denali Film Festival, which promotes films about adventure, national parks, and environmentalism. It’s an honor to work with the LLAA and to help protect Long Lake for future generations.

Carolynne C White (CC)

Multigenerational Long Lake resident and longtime contributor to LLAA initiatives

My grandparents came to Long Lake to live in 1929 and I have lived here on the lake every summer of my life except for maybe 5. When I retired from teaching in 2009, I moved home full time. My family has a tree farm that is now part of the Minnesota Land Trust located between Chippewa Loop and County Rd. 6. This means the land will be managed as a tree farm and not be developed even in the future. My family has past on to me the legacy of a deep connection and responsibility to the Long Lake watershed. Since 2009 I have volunteered in many areas especially in helping develop this website and its upgrades.

Todd Hoffman

Third-generation Long Lake family member dedicated to preserving the lake for future generations

My family came to Long Lake in 1928 when my great aunts purchased a cabin on Stover Bay, In 1938 my grandparents, Frederic and Kitten Hoffman, purchased and remodeled the one next to my great aunts. In 1968 my parents GF and Betty Hoffman purchased and remodeled the Art Swanson property next door to my grandparent’s cabin. I have enjoyed swimming, boating and fishing on Long Lake for 62 years. Janet and I and our three children, their spouses and grandchild enjoy our many summer and occasional winter trips to visit our beloved Long Lake. I hope to help preserve the beauty and essence of Long lake for generations to come.