Located in the southeast corner of Wright County, Montrose (pop. 2,800) has become a city poised for action. Since a core group of twelve citizens participated in the foundation's Healthy Communities Partnership (HCP) Program, they've been in "go mode".
"There is a turning of the tides in Montrose," commented Mary McCarty, co-chair of the Highway 12 redevelopment task force. "Volunteerism is up, and people are so much more optimistic that we can make Montrose a place we can all be proud to call home."
After graduating from HCP in 2008 and receiving a $15,000 grant, the city's priority goals revolved around increasing community pride, bringing more businesses to the area & making improvement plans for the Highway 12 corridor that runs through the city. Since then, the task forces that were created have met or exceeded all of their goals! A few of the activities and projects include:
"movies in the park", a tree lighting ceremony, a community-wide garage sale and other community-wide events,
creating a video to entice new businesses,
transforming a vacant building into space for an early childhood education center and
completing a design standards manual for remodeling or building in their commerical district.
November 1, 2005 was supposed to be the day for a nice, "little" conference. Matt, our director of communications, was hoping that a couple hundred people would show up. Nearly 2,000 did.
It was our wake-up call that methamphetamine - a highly-addictive, highly-destructive drug - was making its way through central Minnesota and that communities were ready to put a stop to it.
The foundation worked with central Minnesota leaders to create a solution: Minnesota ICE: A Rural Response to Methamphetamine. Since then, 12 community coalitions have been formed. The results of their efforts are incredible - truly incredible. Yet the fight continues.
My friend, Joe Gibbons, from the Central Minnesota Re-Entry Project recently sent me an invitation to a presentation they're sponsoring. It's on Monday, October 12th, in Little Falls and Tuesday, October 13th, in St. Cloud. You can learn more about it (including presenter bios, ticket prices and RSVP info) on the Central Minnesota Re-Entry Project's website.
I hope you can attend what looks to be a moving and inspirational presentation. If you can't, please share this link with others. One of the hardest things we've discovered through all this is that meth crosses all boundaries - it doesn't matter your skin color, age, income or where you live. Meth shows no mercy.
Other resources and information about meth and the foundation's efforts can be found on our website.
Also, a special issue of IQ magazine was created and copies are still available (just pick up or pay for shipping). Contact Anita for more details.
A few months back we closed on a loan to a expanding company in North Branch. Olympic Granola makes gourmet granola bars - touting them as companions to your workouts or as a healthy meal replacement.
So we just got a sample of the bars and it looks like they're made with things like rice bran, rolled oats and flax seeds. Sounds a little bland, right? Well throw in some chocolate, honey and espresso and you get a different story. I just tried the Mocha Mint Coffee House Bar and it was delicious! I might just have to buy a few to replace my latest breakfast trend of coffee, coffee and more coffee.
Hello, I’m Linda Kaufmann and I head up the foundation’s Children, Youth and Families programs. Last week I was asked to do the impossible – convince the St. Cloud School Board that dedicating already finite school and community resources to early childhood was the most important decision they could make this year. A tough task indeed. Oh, and I had a grand total of ten minutes to do it. Well, I mentioned this to my friend Candi Kraigthorpe at the MN Association for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health and she said she knew of a video that would be perfect. Take a look… it is definitely worth four minutes of your time!
So, what did the St. Cloud School Board think about it? They cheered. Yes, literally cheered when it was shown.
I sincerely hope that you too will cheer for the lives of little kids. There’s simply no better economic investment we can make!
Okay, you're a farmer. Or maybe you just own a sizeable piece of central Minnesota.
Either way, you have acres upon acres of windblown land in Stearns, Benton, Morrison or Todd County. One day, a letter arrives in the mailbox from a wind development company. The letter outlines a land-leasing proposal for future wind turbines, promises you a significant ROI, and urges you to act quickly.
The money sounds good. The terms sound simple. Wind energy is green energy, right? (And you do drive a John Deere tractor.) So, do you go for it?
Navigating that decision is the topic of the Initiative Foundation's Wind Energy Forum in Rice. Designed for landowners, the free forum (which even includes dinner!) will cover the considerations, rewards, risks, and best practices for wind development in Minnesota.
We're presenting this event in partnership with the Southwest Initiative Foundation and Benton County Economic Development.
Here are the details:
Wind Energy Forum 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Thursday, September 24 Rice City Hall, 205 Main St. (No charge or registration)
I refer to my brother Donn as “my kid brother.” Sure, he’s past fifty, his hair is even grayer than mine, and he’s considerably more wrinkled than just about every other kid I know. But he’s still my kid brother, and brothers are special.
Maybe that’s why Dave Wood and I became instant friends.
Dave came to our office one day a couple of years back to tell us about his older brother Mark, whose life and untimely death will always be part of the Initiative Foundation. You see, Mark had gotten to know some underprivileged kids through his work as a mentor, where he’d provided a positive role model . . . and more importantly, a friend . . . to kids who really needed one. Through his deep grief, Dave explained to us that when Mark knew he probably wouldn’t outrun the cancer that had invaded his body, he made sure his estate . . . everything he had to his name . . . would be used to support the mentoring program and disadvantaged kids he so cared for. Forever.
Once in a while you get to be a small part of something . . . or someone . . . very special. I think I’ll send this to my kid brother.
Brenden: "Mark gave me something to look forward to."
This fall, we're looking forward to seeing "4" in action. And no, I'm not referring to the grisly, gray-haired gunslinger who retired and unretired for a Metrodome swan song.
I'm talking about another prosperous opportunity to join a winning team.
(Fine, then. No more cheesy sports metaphors...)
Your Initiative Foundation is seeking four communities to participate in a very powerful round of our Healthy Communities Partnership. HCP is our flagship leadership program that gives every citizen a voice in the future of their community.
My talented colleagues, Dan Frank and Don Hickman, train volunteer teams in leadership skills, planning and organizing efforts. Selected communities then receive up to $50,000 over five years to complete projects identified in town-hall style meetings.
We supply the big process. The community supplies the big plan.
This year, a partnership with the Bush Foundation and Minnesota Public Radio will add a new twist. MPR will report on trends and dig up stories in one or more communities, in order to give people a new perspective on who they are and where they go from here.
Applications are due November 15, with community selections announced in early January. Want more info? Take a gander at the official news release or contact Dan Frank at 877-632-9255.
If it's 4th and long for your community, let us know if you want to go deep with the Initiative Foundation. (Hey, a couple of sports metaphors never hurt anybody.)
Hello, blogging world - Curt Hanson here! I’ve only been with the Initiative Foundation a little over five years. Before coming here, I thought the word “philanthropist” referred to Bill Gates or Paul Newman (you know, the kind of folks who get mentioned for sponsoring PBS programs.) Then I met Beverly.
Well actually . . . we haven’t met in person. In fact, I had quite a few conversations and e-mail exchanges with her attorney before she and I ever corresponded. Beverly lives in Washington (the state), but she’s from central Minnesota. She has fond memories of her home town and, as she is getting along in years, wants to do something good there. So Beverly has created a scholarship at her old high school that will help kids achieve something precious . . . something Beverly wanted very much in her own life, but could not fulfill . . . a college education. Ever thought of yourself as a “philanthropist?” I don’t think Beverly Pantzke Johnston did. But I’ll bet kids attending Little Falls High School will come to know her that way. And I hope someday they’ll “pay Beverly forward!”
Getting a healthy return on your investment is a big thing these days. Recently, we did some recalculations and discovered that last year our donors received a whopping 559% ROI.
So basically for every dollar that local individuals, businesses, cities and utilities gave to the foundation, we gave back an average of $5.59 through grants and business loans. What's more, every gift to our general endowment was (and still is) doubled by a matching contribution from The McKnight Foundation. Talk about bang for your buck! So take a gander... how did your county do?
In between important calls on the crimson Batphone, I finally caught up to Chris Fastner regarding VISTA impact. Turns out, as expected, that our poster child for poverty reduction is the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance (RREAL) in Pine River.
Since 2000, RREAL has battled fuel-poverty with the power of the sun. With four Initiative Foundation VISTAs rolling up their sleeves, RREAL designed its own residential solar heating system and installed it in more than 60 low-income homes at little or no charge.
Its goal is to complete 100 more installations in 2009.
The solar panels serve as a simple sidekick to a home heating system and reduce a family's heating bills by up to 25 percent, often eliminating their need for public fuel assistance. And it's all done with clean, renewable energy.
Their current VISTA is the talented Tina Schilawski, who put together this cool video of a solar installation. She's the one in the gray stocking cap. Yo.
RREAL was also the Initiative Foundation's 2009 Outstanding Green Venture. Here's the award video shown at our big event in April, which cast a light on one family's struggle surviving a Minnesota winter.
Located in the southeast corner of Wright County, Montrose (pop. 2,800) has become a city poised for action. Since a core group of twelve citizens participated in the foundation's Healthy Communities Partnership (HCP) Program, they've been in "go mode". 
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