Image: Image for News Item: Hermantown area residents complete Blandin Community Leadership Program retreat
Hermantown area residents complete Blandin Community Leadership Program retreat
Twenty-four residents of the Hermantown area returned April 12 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 follow-up workshops in July and September 2013.
A program of the Grand Rapids-based Blandin Foundation, BCLP has provided experiential leadership training for more than 6,000 community leaders from more than 425 rural Minnesota communities since it began in 1985. This is the second time local residents have participated in the BCLP leadership program.
Local residents participating in this training were:
Gretchen Appelwick, Joe Biondi, Kelly Biondi, Missy Francisco Carlson, Michelle Cartier, Patrick Chaffey, Jim Crace, Brad Johnson, Keith Johnson, Lynn Johnson, Tim Ludwig, Nathan Madill, Dianne Mathews, Lisa Neitzel, Marty Olson, Blaine Peterson, Chelsea Roy, Brian Schmidt, Jonathan Thornton, Arlene Tucker, Amy Ugstad, Jordan Urshan, Michelle Wall and Natalie Zeleznikar
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.”
BCLP training programs are funded entirely by the Blandin Foundation, whose mission is to strengthen rural Minnesota communities, especially the Grand Rapids area.
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Photo caption – Hermantown
Participants in BCLP training April 8-12 included:
Back Row: (left to right) – Ann Glumac (trainer), Brian Schmidt, Blaine Peterson, Marty Olson, Joe Biondi, Jim Crace, Nehrwr Abdul-Wahid (trainer)
Middle Row: (left to right) – Michelle Cartier, Natalie Zeleznikar, Dianne Mathews, Missy Francisco Carlson, Kelly Biondi, Patrick Chaffey, Jonathan Thornton, Brad Johnson
Arlene Tucker
Front Row: (left to right) – Amy Ugstad, Michelle Wall, Chelsea Roy, Lynn Johnson, Lisa Neitzel, Tim Ludwig, Jordan Urshan, Gretchen Appelwick, Nathan Madill, Keith Johnson