From Shared Meals to a Shared Vision: Marietta’s New Gathering Space

April 29, 2025 by Blandin Foundation Posted in Grants, Rural Placemaking, Small Communities

One Sunday each month, 80 to 100 people from Marietta, Minnesota, and surrounding communities descend upon the town firehall for a shared community meal prepared by volunteers from the HomeTown Group, a community enrichment organization that’s been connecting the community since 2009.

For the small Minnesota community on the border of South Dakota, that attendance is 75 to 90% of the town’s population. Without a restaurant, grocery store or school in town and besides funerals, these monthly gatherings are where folks connect.

But the Marietta Firehall can only seat 40 people at once. When a plate is cleared, the seat is vacated so a neighbor can enjoy their meal. “Both the community center and the three churches in town all have steps, making them inaccessible for many residents. And they aren’t large enough to accommodate everyone, whether for these community meals or for BINGO, funeral lunches and other community-building,” explained Robin Stamp, a Marietta native who recently retired from a career in finance and is now lending her expertise as complement to the visionary members of the Marietta HomeTown Group.

Eager to address these barriers and foster community connection, the HomeTown Group hosted a community meeting in early 2024 to explore ways to create a new accessible, safe, welcoming community center. That meeting compelled visits to area community centers, which helped them create business plans, collect cost estimates, and draft an initial fundraising letter.

“We got good counsel after the first meeting to take a beat. To ensure the idea was sound and feasibility was there, to survey other community center projects for best practices, put together floor plan and materials list, get cost estimates,” explained Robin. “It took time to get to what seemed doable.”

Since consensus was they wouldn’t start fundraising unless they were able to secure some kind of grant money first, this group of volunteers would need some help. Kris Shelstad immediately came to mind, having heard about her grant-funded launch of the Madison Art and Innovation Center and its Madison Mercantile just down the road in the county seat.

“Folks from Marietta and another small town, Bellingham, approached me to learn more about grant writing, so we held a brainstorming session,” explained Kris. “Barb Hoyles, lead coordinator of the Marietta HomeTown Group, was ready to do more right at the time when Blandin Foundation was announcing its 2024 grant round. It seemed like a perfect opportunity for these small communities and the ideas they had. Mary Magnuson, Rural Placemaking Grants Program Officer at Blandin Foundation, said, ‘Sure,’ that these three communities in Lac Qui Parle County should give an application a try.”

The Ripple Effects of Community-Driven Grantmaking

Together with the City of Madison’s Economic Development Agency in support of civic and social initiatives benefiting the small towns within the Lac qui Parle Valley School District, the Madison Arts and Innovation Center submitted an application to Blandin Foundation’s 2024 Small Communities and Rural Placemaking RFP on behalf of the towns of Marietta (population 116), Bellingham (148) and Madison (1,518). In July, the consortium learned they had been awarded $75,000 from Blandin Foundation, with $30,000 allocated to Marietta’s future community center.

This specific Blandin Foundation grant opportunity was designed to support community-driven solutions and foster resilience in communities where resources are often limited. By nurturing local pride and revitalization and effectively engaging residents on the unique issues affecting them, funding to support these community-identified can bring about positive, noticeable changes in Minnesota’s tiniest communities

There is no shortage of local pride in Marietta. Take their “I was once a Marietta-Nassau Cardinal!” Facebook group. With just shy of 500 members, this group is a virtual gathering place for current and past residents, and it’s where word and support for the new community center has spread.

The day after the Blandin Foundation seed money was secured, 800 fundraising letters were mailed out by the HomeTown Group, to 700 alumni plus businesses and individuals in town. Within one month, they were halfway to their $400,000 goal. Fundraising thermometers were posted around town and progress was shared through the HomeTown Group Facebook page.

“This response gives pride in community. We haven’t seen any development in Marietta in years,” Robin reflected. “People are excited and invested. We’re almost to our goal, and the vast majority of funding is coming from individuals and businesses.”

Groundbreaking is planned for early May 2025 with hopes that the center can be up and hosting gatherings by September.

Big Differences in Small Town

Rural areas in Minnesota receive only eight percent of philanthropic funding, despite hosting 23 percent of the population, leaving fewer local resources for vital rural projects.

“More than just financial support, these grants are a catalyst for small communities to fight the narrative of ‘rural decline’ by reimagining their future, elevating underrepresented voices, and creating spaces that foster pride, unity and long-term resilience,” said Kyle Erickson, Blandin Foundation Director of Rural Grantmaking. “By funding projects that bring visible change and enhance community engagement, we are investing in the heart of rural Minnesota’s cultural and civic identity.”

This philosophy and approach aligns with Kris, Robin and those involved with this project. “I want to change the narrative about what’s happening out here. We are not small towns that are dying. That people graduate and leave,” Kris explained. “I want to change it to what is true: People want to live here. People want to have a small town life. A life that’s safer, more fulfilling, with a lower cost of living. People are choosing rural. We’re rural by choice.”

Marietta was a great place to grow up, Robin explained. “It had a school, but it burned down and closed in 1990 and the population declined. We’re an elderly population, we have high levels of poverty. It looks a lot different here than when I was a kid, and that’s common for rural and small towns right now. But young folks are back and having kids. The community center can be an amenity for them, too.”

Both believe that in making Marietta, and Madison, and Bellingham good places to live, the other good stuff – jobs, housing – will follow. They choose a collaborative, abundance mindset. “We’re not competing against each other in our small towns,” Kris said. “We‘re collaborating. We have to do this together or no one is going to rise. We might live in one town but we work in the other and shop in another. The spirit of helping the whole town, the whole region to thrive. We’re so interconnected, that their success is our success and vice versa.”

“Blandin believes in us,” Kris continued. “They really helped people feel comfortable opening their pocketbooks for this project and for this community.”

“If the Madison Art and Innovation Center hadn’t applied for the Blandin grant on our behalf, and if Blandin hadn’t awarded the grant, it’s doubtful we would have moved forward with this project,” Robin explained. “We’re especially grateful for the recognition of the challenges we face as a small town with few resources. State and federal grants were impossible for a small town group – architecture plans, lawyers, environmental assessments – and even larger private foundation grants felt impossible with their 85% rejection rates. Kris and Blandin Foundation helped us come up with a creative solution that gave us seed money and a fighting chance to succeed!”