Redwood Falls area residents complete Blandin Community Leadership Program retreat

Grand Rapids, Minn. — Twenty-four residents of the Redwood Falls area returned February 27 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 June and August.

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 seventh time residents have participated in the BCLP leadership program.

Local residents participating in this training were:

Jody Becker Bloemke, Jim Boots, Tamara Brown, Dawn Guetter, Jake Jenniges, Bruce Johnson, Heather Koffler, Sarah Kuglin, Cindy LaBrie, Wade McKittrick, Claire Meyers, Briana Mumme, Emily Neperman, Carlos Nunez, Chris Omtvedt, Craig Palan, Brian Pfarr, Tom Quackenbush, Carole Remiger, Kari Rieke, Dan Rohman, Molly Schweinfurter, Mark Trefry and Ryan Weltsch.

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. 

Photo caption – Redwood Falls area

Participants in BCLP training February 23 – 27 included:

Back Row: (left to right)- Kari Rieke, Emily Neperman, Tamara Brown, Mark Trefry, Heather Koffler, Jody Becker Bloemke, Molly Schweinfurter, and Carole Remiger

Middle Row: (left to right)- Cindy LaBrie, Sarah Kuglin, Briana Mumme, Ryan Weltsch, Bruce Johnson, Carlos Nunez, Doug Allen (Trainer), Chris Omtvedt, and Claire Meyers

Front Row: (left to right)- Ann Glumac (Trainer), Tom Quackenbush, Brian Pfarr, Wade McKittrick, Dan Rohman, Jim Boots, Jake Jenniges, Craig Palan, and Dawn Guetter