Mille Lacs area residents complete Blandin Community Leadership Program retreat

In mid-February, 26 area residents from the Mille Lacs area completed a five-day leadership retreat, the first segment of training as part of the Blandin Community Leadership Program.

Since 1985, BCLP has provided experiential leadership training for more than 5,200 community leaders from more than 310 rural Minnesota communities. This is the second course focusing on the Mille Lacs area. Most recent BCLP participants were:

Kevin Armbrust, Cyrilla Bauer, Tom Belcher, Mel Buesseler, Mary Erickson, Dave Gallus, Eric Hanneken, Craig Hansen, Chris Hill, Brian Homan, Crystal Houle, Kris Johnson, Meg Litts, Ehren Mackedanz, Brian Miner, Amanda Nickaboine-Meyer, Linda Osburn, KC Paulson, Lori Puente, Deb Rasmussen, Karrie Roeschlein, Mary Sam, Phil Sam, Mary Simon, Mike Taylor, Nancy Wood.

"Learning and networking towards a common goal of a cohesive and unified lake community has strengthened and validated my heartfelt dream, that no matter our differences or disagreements, we can respect each other and deepen our commitment to a healthy community for all," said Karrie Roeschlein, city clerk for the city of Wahkon.

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 participants reflects their commitment to rural Minnesota."

Mary Sam, from the Mille Lacs Area Human Right Commission, wrote the grant application for the Mille Lacs community to be considered for the program.

BLCP training programs are supported entirely by the Grand Rapids-based Blandin Foundation whose mission is to strengthen rural Minnesota communities, especially in the Grand Rapids area. The program is made available free of charge to participants because of an $89,800 Blandin Foundation expenditure that covers all costs for food, lodging and tuition at the retreat and workshops.