For those of you familiar with StrengthsFinder, one of my top five strengths is futuristic thinking, so it’s especially exciting to think about the great futures ahead of these graduates.

There are two things I’ll share with tonight’s graduates. One is the value of learning and how important it is to become a “lifelong learner”–to keep learning even beyond their learning at Ridgewater. My grandpa, a farmer who himself when to college, told me that in your lifetime you can lose everything—your job, home, investments—but you will not lose your education. I hope we all continue to make learning a priority no matter where our lives and careers take us.

The other is the importance of a positive attitude. We choose our attitudes, and they make such an impact on the people we meet and experiences we have. We consider Southwest Initiative Foundation to be a cheerleader for our southwest Minnesota regional community and our attitudes as staff, board, donors, partners makes this possible.

We’re proud of all of our regional graduates and their accomplishments. They are our future entrepreneurs, community leaders, business leaders, colleagues, family, friends…our region has so much to offer them, and they have so much to offer our region.

I hope you join me in congratulating all those who make a commitment to their educations!

If you’re a golfer, we would love to have you join us for our very first Scramble for Southwest on Monday, June 24. We’re hosting it at Dacotah Ridge Golf Club in Morton and think it will be a great way to bring friends and partners together from throughout southwest Minnesota. Plus, this is a fun way to impact our work throughout the region because proceeds will benefit the Southwest Initiative Foundation General Endowment.

Get a group of friends or colleagues together to register as a foursome or register individually. And for those with a competitive edge, we have a number of contests where you can play to win—from a $5,000 putting contest to a $1 million shot!

Check out complete details and SIGN UP NOW! Space is limited, so you’ll want to be sure to get a spot. I look forward to seeing you on the green!

The statistics gave our board a great chance to think about our work and our region from a 50,000 foot level. One of the biggest take-aways is that the market really is the world—not just the community, region, state or even country anymore.

Another big take-away was how our southwest Minnesota region compares to the state. According to business owners’ perceptions, we outrank the state in K-12 education, sewage treatment, labor costs, business assistance, availability of land, electric rates and local taxes.

We outperform other regions in:

• Business expansions
• Innovation/new products
• Job growth

BUT, we underperform in:

• Recruiting qualified workers
• International trade

According to the same group of businesses asked, other regions outrank us in recreational opportunities, housing supply for workforce, cultural opportunities, highway infrastructure, availability of buildings, proximity to suppliers, unemployment insurance, worker’s compensation and state taxes.

During our same meeting, Business Finance Director Amy Woitalewicz provided an in-depth overview of SWIF’s Business Finance Program, so the day-to-day of our loan clients and lending partners was also fresh in our minds. It left us thinking about what we need to do to address both the opportunities and challenges facing our businesses today and well into the future.

What do you see as the biggest opportunities or issues for your business?

SWIF Vice President Scott Marquardt and Past Board Chair Sander Ludeman examine a “clean” pig liver.

One of the highlights for our Board of Directors meetings is touring local businesses and organizations. Last week in Glencoe, we saw a Minnesota company doing incredible things in our own regional community.

Earlier this year, SWIF made an investment to help with the expansion of a manufacturing facility for Miromatrix, which is in the field of regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine is the process of creating living, functional tissues to repair or replace tissue or organ function lost due to damage or birth defects. This company has partnered with Midwest Porcine Recovery and is using pig livers for perfusion decellularization, or a cleansing process, which would then make them usable as a natural alternative to synthetic bio-mesh products.

President/CEO Rob Cohen described it in simpler terms by comparing it to buying a house. You find the right location and like the structure of the home but the inside just doesn’t work for you, so you strip it down to the studs and rebuild and remodel to fit your needs.

A few of us were able to gown up and enter a protective area to see the process up close and see what they are doing with live livers.  It is mind-boggling to think of what this means for the future of not only technology, but also the future impact of improving health and lives. This is a true example of southwest Minnesota taking a leading edge with the convergence of biology and agriculture!

The community lunch was a special highlight for the day thanks to the fabulous people who joined us. We heard from a number of innovative businesses located right in Glencoe.

• Miller Manufacturing makes and distributes farm, ranch and pet products internationally
• Twin Cities & Western Railroad creates a direct line of transportation from Milbank, S.D. to the Twin Cities, and beyond
• Glencoe Regional Health Services, which includes a critical care hospital, clinics, nursing home and senior apartments, is updating its electronic medical record systems
• Starkey Hearing Technologies manufactures hearing aids and also has a very active philanthropic side to get hearing aids to children and people who need them throughout the world

We also heard about the Glencoe-Silver Lake High School’s super mileage vehicle team—they’re part of our Youth Energy Summit (YES!) program which gives our young people a chance to discover their potential in engineering and other potential careers, and for this group of students, it’s as they build a car that will get up to 700 miles per gallon.

And, we were able to look around the beautiful Community Center where we hosted our meeting and lunch. The former high school has been renovated to house the Glencoe Public Library, city, chamber and other offices, as well as meeting and event space.

Glencoe is a great example of how southwest Minnesota communities and businesses can work together to strengthen each other through innovation.

SWIF’s microloan team Jackie Turner-Lovsness, Berny Berger, Kurt Thompson, Greg Jodzio and Karen Larson.

To close out the week, we want to share some very positive news for our southwest Minnesota regional community!

First, we want to recognize the Southwest Initiative Foundation’s Microenterprise Loan Program/Entrepreneurship team for receiving a statewide award last week!

The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and MAP for Nonprofits selected SWIF’s microloan program to receive their Dot.Org Award for Innovative Program Delivery. The annual awards honor Minnesota nonprofit innovators for their forward-thinking approach to utilizing technology and communications in their organizations.

The microloan program is a prime example of how SWIF connects many aspects of economic and leadership development, continually looking for ways to better serve entrepreneurs. The team has focused on integrating the Center of Rural Entrepreneurship (CORE) website into our program delivery. It empowers entrepreneurs to follow steps, with the support of staff, to explore and move their business ideas forward.

Congratulations and words of thanks go to our microloan team for finding new, great ways to help people in southwest Minnesota start, expand or transition their business!

SWIF staff and volunteers sorted 10,000 books in one day!

Another SWIF program, our Early Childhood Initiative, also had some excitement last week. A delivery of 10,000 books made its way to SWIF headquarters where staff and volunteers sorted and prepared boxes of books for distribution throughout the entire region.

The books were made available through the We Give Books program, an annual, invitation-only program of the Pearson Foundation. The books are brand new and include many popular titles. Retail cost is about $5-$12 per book, but SWIF and partners were able to purchase the books for just $1 each! It is so important to get books into the hands of young people—from very young children to preschoolers to school age and young adults.

What’s most amazing is what these two examples of SWIF’s work means for people in our region—we’re leveraging resources to help create the best opportunities for entrepreneurs, young children, and so many more in our communities!

My biggest takeaway was getting inspired, and one moment especially stands out for me. At the opening session, a group of children—from very young kids to teenagers—who are part of Soul Children of Chicago performed. Walter Whitman developed this world-class performance group with a single-minded purpose: to utilize music as the motivator and catalyst to inspire young people throughout the world to have faith in themselves, each other, and God. To this day, the group continues to serve the community as a nondenominational, nonprofit educational organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of our youth. Check out my favorite photo from the session here.

Their voices and music were incredible. At one point, they had everyone in the room—over 1,000 people—wave their white napkins in the air along to the music. It was so positive and so inspiring and set the tone for the whole conference, which included stories and philanthropy’s response to the issues of hunger and violence.

I came back so inspired. We have hard work to do but we also have this great opportunity to work with leaders across the country and right here with our leaders in southwest Minnesota. The issues are in the big cities, but we have them too.

And vision and action are two things that our regional community is in great need of this week as we face the aftermath of a devastating winter storm. Based on what I have heard, several of our communities from Luverne to Jackson will never look the same due to damage from this storm. Worthington and Nobles County have been especially hard hit, and we have initiated a response to assist with both short- and long-term recovery efforts.

SWIF has created a Nobles County Area Disaster Relief Fund. I encourage you to consider making a donation and sharing this link with your colleagues, friends and family. It’s our turn to set the tone for a positive recovery effort in our region. Let’s show our support to the leaders, residents, employers and organizations who need some inspiration as they continue working hard to get their communities back up and running!

Southwest Initiative Foundation President/CEO Sherry Ristau has been in touch with mayors in the area. Worthington Mayor Alan Oberloh compares the destruction from the ice storm to that of a tornado going through, and says the community will never look the same because of damage, especially to trees. View up-to-date information about the situation from the City of Worthington or the Worthington Daily Globe.

We care about all of our communities and our heart goes out to the many people affected—leaders dealing with the emergency management, organizations serving large numbers of people, residents and business owners who have damaged property, people who can’t work because of limited power. The physical, financial and emotional damage is great but we are rallying together to help as best we can…and you can join us!

You can help!

SWIF has set up the Nobles County Area Disaster Relief Fund so anyone can financially support communities in this part of the region. Donations will support people and communities with cleanup, repair, rebuilding, restoring services, planting trees and other needs that arise from this natural disaster. We’ll be working with our local fund partner the Worthington Area Foundation to make sure 100 percent of your donation goes where it’s needed most.

Make your gift online to support the Nobles County Area Disaster Relief Fund through Give MN.

Donations can also be made by check to SWIF and mailed to:

Southwest Initiative Foundation
c/o Nobles County Area Disaster Relief Fund
15 3rd Ave. NW
Hutchinson, MN 55350

Contact us at 800-594-9480 or donate@swifoundation.org with questions.

Support Local Food Shelves

SWIF also awarded immediate crisis assistance grants to food shelves in Nobles County so they can get more food and supplies. Thousands  have been without power since Tuesday and many, especially in rural areas, will be without for days more. Stores, manufacturing plants and other employers have been closed multiple days, which will create ripple effects in the community and its economy.

Two food shelves in Worthington have a call out for more volunteers. Contact them for more information and before going to help.

Manna Food Pantry
507-370-0816
In need of volunteers Monday, Wednesday and Friday for a shift from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. to help set up.

Worthington Christian Food Shelf
507-360-9726
They are normally closed Fridays but are open today, April 12, 2013.

On June 12, author Jack Schultz will be in St. Cloud to present “Boomtown USA: The 7 ½ Keys to Big Success in Small Towns.” We’re joining forces with our Minnesota Initiative Foundation colleagues to bring Jack to Minnesota. So much can happen when we take time to learn and share ideas—and that’s what we’re hoping is accomplished during this event. We’ll share more information about this soon.

I encourage you to read his book and consider attending. My favorite key Jack shares is to adopt a can-do attitude. This applies to EVERY aspect of our lives. And, it’s especially important for us as leaders to set a positive tone. So much more can be accomplished in communities of all sizes when people believe in and work together towards common goals.

What do you think makes for success in our rural communities?

We’re already thinking about what the future at Southwest Initiative Foundation will bring. I’ve been enjoying so many great connections in Arizona this week visiting our donors who may live far away, but still hold southwest  Minnesota very near to their hearts. This is a special group of people who love hearing about what’s happening “at home.”

I’m excited for the connections we’ll be making here in our southwest Minnesota regional community throughout the coming weeks and months. As the snow melts away, the energy seems to rise up—hang on as we work to capitalize on unlimited possibilities!

Easter blessings to our many great friends and partners!