Best of 2011: Edina Native Competes on 'Survivor'

Editor's Note: With 2011 now in the history books, we're taking a few moments to look back at five of our favorite stories. Be sure to stay tuned all week, as we continue to count down the best stories of 2011.

Current and past Edina residents have been no strangers to reality television—American Idol's Paris Bennett and Christopher Straub from Project Runway, to name a couple—over the years. After hearing former Edina resident Keith Tollefson would be one of the contestants on the latest season of Survivor, we immediately set about reaching him for comments.

We were able to speak with Keith both and . It's not really unexpected for someone charismatic enough to be cast on a show like Survivor to be an easy interview, but Keith thankfully didn't take himself too seriously and seemed happy simply to have taken a free quasi-vacation.

"A lot of my friends from Minnesota could do pretty well (on the show)," Tollefson said. "We basically grew up doing all of that stuff, going up to the boundary waters and things like that."