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Image: Image for News Item: Warroad area residents complete Blandin Community Leadership Program retreat

Warroad area residents complete Blandin Community Leadership Program retreat

Grand Rapids, Minn. — Twenty-four residents of the Warroad area returned April 8 from a five-day leadership retreat, the first segment of an intense eight-day training provided by the Blandin Community Leadership Program (BCLP). The team also will participate in three follow-up workshops.

A program of the Grand Rapids-based Blandin Foundation, BCLP has provided experiential leadership training for more than 7,000 community leaders from nearly 500 rural Minnesota communities since it began in 1985.  This is the first time the community has participated in the BCLP leadership program.

Local residents participating in this training were:

Brenda Baumann, Gus Booth, Dave Dalager, Brian Erickson, Brian Farnes, Paula Foley, Tom Goldsmith, Joseph Harren, Marty Howes, Abby Johnston, Kellie Knight, Bridget Lindner, Kathy Lovelace, Jonathan MacArthur, Bill Mattson, Todd Miller, Christy Olafson, Blaine Palmquist, Justin Partee, Joy Phonesavanh, Cyndy Renfrow, Kelly Thiele, Mani Thipphavong and Heidi Trihey Schaum.

The goal of the Blandin Community Leadership Program is to develop and train a broad base of local leaders to build healthy communities. Topics covered during the retreat included: identifying and describing community issues and opportunities, effective interpersonal communication, building social capital, appreciating personality differences, managing interpersonal conflict, understanding community power, mobilizing community resources, and goal setting.

“A healthy community depends on leadership engagement of community members,” said Valerie Shangreaux, director of Blandin leadership programs. “The leadership demonstrated by these participants reflects their commitment to their community, as well as to the region and to rural Minnesota.”

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Photo caption – Warroad area

Participants in BCLP training April 4-8 included:

Back Row: (left to right) –  Kellie Knight, Mani Thipphavong, Kelly Thiele, Mary Jo Wimmer (Trainer), Christy Olafson, Kathy Lovelace, and Joy Phonesavanh

Middle Row: (left to right)– Todd Miller, Joseph Harren, Brenda Baumann, Blaine Palmquist, Abby Johnston, Bridget Lindner, Justin Partee, and Bill Mease (Trainer)

Front Row: (left to right) – Gus Booth, Paula Foley, Brian Farnes, Bill Mattson, Brian Erickson, Jonathan MacArthur, Heidi Trihey Schaum, Dave Dalager, Marty Howes, Cyndy Renfrow, and Tom Goldsmith

 

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