Litchfield area residents complete Blandin Community Leadership Program retreat

Grand Rapids, Minn. — Twenty-four residents of the Litchfield area returned September 30 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 second time the community has participated in the BCLP leadership program.

Local residents participating in this training were:

Todd Anderson, Beth Boyle, Brian Cruze, Dave Cziok, Eric Day, Lexie Deal, Sarah Doering, Mike Flaata, Brenda Flann, Mike Hicks, Judy Hulterstrum, Joel Janorschke, Darlene Kotelnicki, Dave Krueger, Al Liestman, Justin McGraw, Sara Miller, Kiza Olson, Janaye Prieve, Lori Rice, Becky Rue, Rebecca Warpula, Tom Zens, Shane Zeppelin.

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 – Litchfield area

Participants in BCLP training September 26-30 included:

Back Row: (left to right)- Ed Zabinski (Trainer), Shane Zeppelin, Janaye Prieve, Dave Krueger, Rebecca Warpula, Joel Janorschke, Nehrwr Abdul-Wahid (Trainer), and Todd Anderson

Middle Row: (left to right)- Kiza Olson, Beth Boyle, Justin McGraw, Ann Glumac (Trainer), Judy Hulterstrum, Lexie Deal, Darlene Kotelnicki, Lori Rice, Becky Rue, Sara Miller, and Mike Flaata

Front Row: (left to right)- Tom Zens, Mike Hicks, Eric Day, Brenda Flann, Dave Cziok, Sarah Doering, Brian Cruze, and Al Liestman