Early in the day Augustana Viking Days Royalty Remain Leadership Together since Married couples

Pictured: Darwin and you may Julie (DeWitt) Garcia ‘19 on the big day inside Sioux Drops, inside the (left) and you can John and Shelly (Knudson) Rock ‘94 on their wedding into the Marshall, Minnesota, within the August 1995 (right).

You can not enchantment “love” versus Ole, as well as 2 Augustana College couples is actually research. Because previous Viking Weeks royalty, John and you will Shelly (Knudson) Rock ‘94 and you can Darwin and Julie (DeWitt) Garcia ‘19, took the titles of “queen and you will king” and you may became him or her on the “couple.”

On Oct. 11, 1993, best friends, John and you may Shelly (Knudson) Rock ‘94, was in fact entitled Viking Days Queen and you can King, much on their wonder. After the coronation, John are quoted on the Augustana Mirror saying the best part of getting crowned king “is getting to wade every-where with Shelly Knudson!”

“I think he had been sorts of flirting beside me because the guy asserted that from the magazine, with the intention that was very easy,” Shelly laughed.

Almost 1 year toward date they certainly were crowned, John advised so you’re able to Shelly. And, ten months afterwards, this new Rocks were married.

The fresh couple’s story began on Augustana in 1990, once they were one another first-seasons college student-players – John, an excellent Peterson, Iowa, local, is actually a basketball pro and you can Shelly, away from . Both registered AU’s section from Fellowship out of Religious Sports athletes (FCA).

John finished that springtime that have a history big and you will secondary training certificate, and Shelly resided an additional season doing this lady medical big. For the Oct. 18, 1994, simply annually and another day when they have been crowned queen and you will queen, John was asked by FCA to return to Augustana and speak.

“It was and Shelly’s birthday, and i took her to Minervas downtown,” John said. “After that, certainly my buddies lived in my old dormitory room in the Solberg (Hall), and so i had him or her set it up, and i recommended to help you Shelly in the Solberg.

The guy desired to render e gazebo in which it come relationship

The happy couple had married when you look at the August 1995, in Marshall, Minnesota. The fresh new FCA worship band performed music with the ceremony, and you can other than a few loved ones and you may siblings, their main wedding party and you can site visitors have been made right up regarding Augustana alumni.

Now, nearly 3 decades when they was in fact crowned Viking Weeks king and king, the happy couple resides in Peterson, Iowa, in which John could have been permitting on the family members farm when you’re doing rules as the a regulating lover away from Material Hutchinson, PLLP. Shelly ‘s the exec manager of your Bridge of Storm Lake, a positive youngsters invention nonprofit ministry. The fresh Stones has actually three children, Joseph, 24, Lincoln, twenty two, and you will Caleb, 20.

Which have almost thirty years of wedding not as much as their straps, the brand new Rocks said acknowledging and you will prioritizing one another are very important to one relationship.

“Go having humility, always be ready to forgive and start to become pleased to the that you will get to walk because of life having,” Shelly told you.

“Shelly is similar now just like the she was then where she really links with folks well,” John said. “She is together with never apprehensive with the thought of having to do things which need over, very this woman is extremely healthy by doing this.”

One another Shelly and you can John told you they might be pleased one to Augustana provided them possibilities to expand because the somebody, in addition to service and you can support.

In the 1994, a few months immediately following Viking Months, John and you can Shelly made the dating formal

“It absolutely was an awesome college sense,” John told you. “I experienced a cool knowledge, friends and you will a great partner.”

When Darwin and you can Viking Days King and you may Queen, thanks a lot about group had been noisy given that longtime few posed to own photos, beaming at every most other.

The latest Garcia’s story first started within the 2016, after its first 12 months at the s Workplace (IPO) Rendezvous in which Darwin are offering a demonstration on their domestic country, Honduras. After reading they’d a mutual pal, the two started to talk and bundle studies schedules. Although not, the conclusion the fresh new academic year suggested Darwin carry out return home so you’re able to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, towards june, and you may Julie so you can Yankton, Southern area Dakota. It reconnected on slide, and some days later on, Darwin got a shock.

“We took their to have a walk, and we also averted on gazebo from the Government Building,” Darwin told you. “I experienced my good friend decrease particular cupcakes personally you to told you, ‘Will you be my partner?’”

Julie approved, and three-years and countless investigation times later, the couple graduated out of Au inside the 2019. Darwin is actually a great physics and you can mathematics double major, and you will Julie was a medical big. Immediately following graduation, it gone to live in Rochester, Minnesota, where Julie are a registered nurse within Mayo Medical center Crisis Department, and Darwin are a Ph.D. applicant within Mayo Infirmary Graduate College of Biomedical Sciences.

Inside , Darwin got some other shock. He’d a professional photographer and you can loved ones ready to help your remove it well. Next, the fresh new pandemic hit, and Minnesota try toward lockdown. Given that Julie was working with people with COVID-19, the happy couple felt like it absolutely was most useful to not ever travel.

“We came up with a good scavenger seem, and i informed her it absolutely was a grad university interest one to I desired the girl to test out,” Darwin told you. “They led the woman so you’re able to a beneficial gazebo in town in which I’d pictures hung-up and you may cupcakes once again, but now it told you, ‘Can you get married me?’”

“I’m sorts of upset about how precisely unaware I happened to be, like, I absolutely didn’t come with tip,” Julie laughed. “Really don’t consider an individual word he told you, but it was most unique the length of time and energy the guy set in it. And you can, the brand new cupcakes brought it full circle, which was really sweet.”

The couple fastened the latest knot in the Sioux Falls, to the , an event Julie referred to as both “a good Latino-Midwest combination relationship” and you will “an informed day actually.” The wedding – a great Lutheran and you will Catholic provider joint – is loaded with Augustana contacts. Fr. Kevin O’Dell, AU’s former chaplain, performed the Catholic portion of the service, and you will former Professor of Foreign-language Sam Ogdie interpreted the latest service getting Darwin’s relatives, who was simply here out-of Honduras.

The fresh new Garcias desire to down the road keep a wedding lobby into the Honduras following travel to certainly the isles because of their honeymoon. Before this, the couple is simply grateful to have Augustana getting him or her along with her.

“Julie finds out happiness inside the even the tiniest regarding anything and can most transform my day – when the I’m stressed and you can overloaded, she will be able to lighten my day with her pleasure,” said Darwin.

“In the place of Augie, there was most likely no chance that people might have also fulfilled,” Julie additional. “Thus, the audience is simply most thankful to have Augustana once the in which more you’ll you to commitment occurs?”