Summary of Community Conversation 2018

Community Conversation 2018 was a little smaller crowd than some past years, but what a good conversation! The group was very engaged and floated some great ideas for project work in the next year.

• One group was interested in organizing a square dance.
• The group also discussed expanding the existing Sunday Painting Group to include any artists – just a creative work time where anyone could come and do art of some sort.
• Creating a Readers, Writers and Artists group was also an idea that was discussed.
• Another group proposed organizing a spring chore day to help older people in the community.
• Another group addressed outdoor beautification at the Clair Nelson Center, including sanding down and staining the concrete picnic tables and raising money for better outdoor lighting for the parking lot.
• The Housing group discussed the need for an official assessment of need which could help with procuring funding, and continuing to work with the County to identify possible locations.
• A community sauna project was discussed.
• The need for childcare and some research that has been done toward that end was discussed.
• A group with an interest in food and farming discussed a project to localize grain consumption in the local community.
• Another project discussed was a youth day camp for Finnish, Spanish and/or Ojibwe.
• Another group discussed recreation options at the Center and the possibility of acquiring a foosball table or a ping pong table.

These are all great ideas, and hopefully the discussion groups or others get together to work on these items. If you read this list and one of these projects strikes you as something you’d really enjoy working on or helping out with, please contact us using the form below and let us know. We can put you in contact with the group or committee of folks working that project. Thanks to everyone who participated! It’s looking like 2018 will be another great year!