Northwest Blog

The McKnight Foundation visits each of the Minnesota Initiative Foundations once every five years. We had the pleasure of hosting and touring around the Northwest region last week! Our first stop was Itasca State Park. McKnight board members and staff were able to see the headwaters of the Mississippi. Some even braved the slippery rock, to walk across the headwaters. Ken Grob, Dan Kittelson and Jim Steenerson spoke on behalf of the  Hubbard County Coalition Lake Association. Discussing the importance of their work to preserve the natural resources in the region.    From Itasca State Park we visited the town of Fertile. Community members banded together to show how a rural area can thrive! The Ferile area provides a good sampling of NMF's programs, including a planning grant, three component funds, including one taking part in our Sustaining Community Success program, an Early Childh...

NORTHWEST MINNESOTA FOUNDATION AWARDS $25,000 GRANT TO NW Regional Sustainable Development Partnership NMF Board Member, Jon Quistgaard & Linda Kingery, executive director of NRSDP The Northwest Minnesota Foundation (NMF) recently awarded the Northwest Regional Sustainable Development Partnership (NRSDP) a $25,000 grant to assess land owners’ attitudes toward water management and conservation practices in the Red River Valley. “The goals are to determine why land owners are not readily adopting best practices, and how local agencies can help farmers overcome those barriers,” said Linda Kingery, executive director of NRSDP. The primary concern is related to water resource management.   Along the Red River Valley, seasonal flooding is a major issue year after year. Recent dike improvements and water storage projects remain part of the solution, but water management on privately held lands is the real issue, according to NRSDP. A sizeable portion of land wil...

Do you recognize the building? It's certainly come a long way since the beginning of September when we last updated you! Check out what's been happening inside and out. Walls, hallways and doors are framed. The interior design committee chose rich chocolate brown for our bathroom colors! Paint and tile are in tact. This is Nancy's wall .... it was the orignal exteriror wall of the building and now we get to enjoy the exposed brick and history each day inside our new offices. Staff is super excited about the spacious bathrooms! This was our conference room a few weeks ago..... as you'll see below, we have more walls! This is what we think to be the orignal flooring in the building! We too will have a tile floor! The top floor of the building is completely open for renovation. The exterior of the building is coming right along! Bricks are ready for mortar! It's a nice vi...

The NMF Board and Staff had the pleasure of touring Northland Community & Technical College last week! In particular we learned about the Aviation Maintenance Technology program. We visited classrooms and learned what the program had to offer. According to NCTC's website, "The Aviation Maintenance Technology (AMT) program concentrates on aircraft Airframe and Powerplant maintenance to prepare students to test for certification as a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) maintenance technician." Gary Purath, Chair of the NMF Board inspects aircraft machinery. Dan Klug, Executive Director of the NCTC Foundation was our tour guide. Pictured left to right: Dan Klug, Jon Quistgaard, Eric Bergeson, Gary Purath, Nancy Vyskocil, Marty Sieve, Faye Auchenpaugh, Bob Hager, Laurie Wilson, Tom Anderson, Caryl Turnow, Nate Dorr and Lisa Peterson. Board Member, Eric Bergeson. Board ...