Hibbing Chisholm area residents complete Blandin Community Leadership Program retreat

Grand Rapids, Minn. — Twenty-six residents of the Hibbing and Chisholm areas returned March 11 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 sixth time the communities have participated in the BCLP leadership program.

Local residents participating in this training were:

Bryan Baird, Katie Christenson, Paul Ciochetto, Mike Fredeen, Krystle Glad, Kelly Grinsteinner, Vicki Hagberg, Andrew Hanegmon, Leanne Johnson, Wayne Kangas, Christie Kearney, Colleen Kosluchar, Troy Loeb, Jared Lubben, Julie Lucas, Vern Manner, Jeanne Olson, Kevin Olson, Bill Purdy, Whitney Ridlon, Jessalyn Sabin, Erin Shay, Roy Smith, Erik Torch, Anne Varda and Dan Vidmar.

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 – Hibbing Chisholm area

Participants in BCLP training March 7-11 included:

Back Row: (left to right)- Jared Lubben, Christie Kearney, Wayne Kangas, Vern Manner, Katie Christenson, Dan Vidmar, Erik Torch, Kevin Olson, and Roy Smith

Middle Row: (left to right)- Jessalyn Sabin, Colleen Kosluchar, Bryan Baird, Julie Lucas, Erin Shay, Krystle Glad, Mike Fredeen, Troy Loeb, Bill Purdy, and Paul Ciochetto

Front Row: (left to right)- Leanne Johnson, Whitney Ridlon, Jeanne Olson, Vicki Hagberg, Andrew Hanegmon, Anne Varda, Kelly Grinsteinner, Mary Jo Wimmer (Trainer), and Bill Mease (Trainer)