The West-Central region members of MARL Class 13, Emily, Emily, Katie, and Dustin, explored Granite Falls on Mar. 20. The morning began with a treat from locally-renowned Carl’s Bakery. Carl’s opened in 1957 and has been a cornerstone of the Granite Falls community ever since. The bustling hole-in-the-wall offers a variety of quality bakery and farm goods to enjoy there or take home. The bakery is currently owned by the Streblow family, who have leveraged it as an opportunity to provide diversified farm-raised products to the community, including pork, eggs, chickens, baked goods, bulk goods, crafts, mastiff guard dogs, and more.
Healing Hearts with Hands and Hooves. The group visited Vicki Patterson at Lee-Mar Ranch, a non-profit organization that does therapeutic riding with people of all ages from a five-county area. This program has physical, emotional, and social benefits for people with a wide range of disabilities and is one of the few across the state. We enjoyed seeing their facilities, meeting some of the horses, and learning more about the impact the location has on lives in Granite Falls and beyond. The experience highlighted the true visionary leadership it took to transform a dilapidated barn into the facility it is today.
Next, the group met up with Les Bergquist of the Granite Falls Kiwanis. Les gave us insight into the Granite Falls community and taught us about the history and impact of the Kiwanis Popcorn Stand. The popcorn Stand is the main project of the Granite Falls Kiwanis; it draws patrons from far and wide, and the money raised goes into the community. One key takeaway from the experience was that having a targeted organizational goal (i.e. popcorn and rootbeer) can help improve volunteer participation and success.
At lunch we had a lively conversation with Marti Paulson, CEO of Project Turnabout. Marti has over 20 years of service to Project Turnabout in many different roles. She shared with us the history and mission of the organization. We also talked about the struggles that rural citizens face when seeking treatment. Marti shared that many individuals that are involved with agriculture may be too proud to ask for help and then are faced with the financial challenges of being self-insured or with high deductible plans. Project Turnabout does offer programs for individuals willing to discuss their treatment and financial situations to make sure they are successful in their recovery. Marti shared about her advocacy work with the Minnesota Alliance of Rural Addiction Treatment Programs, which brings together individuals and businesses in rural Minnesota to advocate for Addiction Treatment Programs across Greater Minnesota. Marti’s assertive leadership and advocacy work has been crucial to the growth and expansion of Project Turnabout in West Central Minnesota. Project Turnabout has facilities in Granite Falls, Willmar, Redwood Falls and Marshall offering services from family programs, out-patieint, in-patient, and transitional living for both chemical dependency and gambling addiction. They also offer a DWI Clinic and Diversion programs.
We visited Pioneer PBS in Granite Falls where we enjoyed a tour of the facility. Shari Lamke told us about Pionner’s mission to bring the world to the viewers and lift their voices to the world. Shari shared her story about her journey with PBS and how the business has changed over the years. She discussed the need for transparency as a leader and how in her role she needs to be transparent with both her staff and the viewers of Pioneer PBS as they encounter challenges and successes. Our group asked Shari the same question we were asked during a Wednesday virtual session which was how she would define Change, Shari stated, “Change is Necessary.”
Overall, this regional seminar was a valuable experience for the four of us. Although some of us were already familiar with Granite Falls, spending a day intentionally digging for more details provided new insight.
An engaging video – complete with free DQ ice cream cones can be viewed by copying this link and placing into your browser.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T9_JaiDE1GwTtDxX0WmrtQTjMqXMIPGB/view?usp=drive_link
