Hutchinson area residents complete Blandin Community Leadership Program retreat

Grand Rapids, Minn. — Twenty-five residents of the Hutchinson area returned February 28 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 600 rural Minnesota communities since it began in 1985.  This is the third time the community has participated in the BCLP leadership program.

Local residents participating in this training were:

Tiffany Barnard, Morgan Baum, Matt Beilke, Dean Bertram, Steven Broll, Tim Burley, Matt Feuerborn, Ashley Gabbert, Beth Gasser, Lisa Hill, Candace Hoversten, Matt Jaunich, JoEllen Kimball, Josh Laffen, Tom Lambert, Andrea Moore, Karlie Mosher, Joe Nagel, John Rodeberg, John Sanken, Jenelle Stiras, Hannah Tjoflat, Jill Warner, Sara Witte and Dave Wollan.

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 through the lens of the 9 dimensions of a healthy community, 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 Kathy Annette, president and CEO of Blandin Foundation. “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 – Hutchinson area

Participants in BCLP training February 24-28 included:

Back Row: (left to right)– Joe Nagel, Matt Jaunich, Tiffany Barnard, Dave Wollan, Matt Beilke, Karlie Mosher, Hannah Tjoflat, and Tom Lambert

Middle Row: (left to right)– Josh Laffen, Dean Bertram, Matt Feuerborn, Sara Witte, Andrea Moore, Morgan Baum, Candace Hoversten, John Roderberg, Tim Burley, John Sanken, and Tyler Zabriskie (Trainer)  

Front Row: (left to right)– Lisa Hill, Jill Warner, JoEllen Kimball, Ashley Gabbert, Beth Gasser, Jenelle Stiras, Steven Broll, and Julie Steiff (Trainer)