Out of 20,000 applicants worldwide, our newest resident of Granite Falls, Ashley Hanson,  was selected to be one of the 20  Obama Foundation Fellows.  Click here to read the article in the  the Advocate Tribune . 

It's exciting to see our town on the map of all the winners of this award.

 Quoting their website, www.obama.org ""These Obama Foundation Fellows are powerful examples of the many pathways we can take to improve our communities. These civic leaders bring a variety of disciplines and skill sets to their work – including community organizing, healthcare, technology, and the arts – and they apply those talents to a range of missions, from empowering parents and teachers to improve our schools, to ensuring deaf children have equal access to literacy tools, to bringing trauma-informed care to the criminal justice system and refugee camps, to working with partners across the healthcare system to treat addiction collaboratively.
These leaders are working hand-in-hand with their communities to build better futures. They understand that creating change often requires reaching out across the lines that divide us. And their successes to date show how collaborative, community-driven work can lead to strong, imaginative, and long-lasting solutions – even on some of our most intractable and polarizing problems."

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This photo is from an article written in 2013 by MPR, Ashley was then working on a theater production in Granite Falls.  Follow the Facebook page for her downtown building - The Yes House. 

I'm so excited about all the art related activities and new artists coming to Granite Falls!  A vibrant art community benefits everyone young and old, visitors and residents, big and small businesses.  Recent studies by Creative Minnesota in neighboring counties have shown a huge economic impact of the arts with close to one million dollars a year in Renville County.  The study also showed that people are willing to drive two hours for an event.  We see that happen every fall here with the Meander Art Crawl  and the chamber's Friday night event, Musical Chairs.   Pioneer Public TV is bringing a creative group of people into our midst.  Ashley Hanson is working on obtaining funding  for the City Artist in Residency Program and other projects soon to be announced.  See her amazing work on the next "Postcards" on Pioneer Public TV this Thursday evening.
Jessica Gorman was just awarded a grant to fund her photography project along the Yellowstone Trail, a historic route formed in the early 1900s,  which goes right through Granite Falls.  This "Follow the Yellowstone Trail" photography project will involve the counties of Renville, Yellow Medicine, Chippewa, Swift and Big Stone with photographs of today's architecture paired with historic photos.  The chamber is excited to support, help in grant writing and promote all of these projects which result in a reason for young people to move to this area and help businesses in their recruitment efforts.
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 I am a part of the LYFT Pathways Initiative committee for the arts, a  grant program with Yellow Medicine East and Renville County West schools which puts students in a program that gives them real experiences in a particular field.  The goal is for every secondary student in the region to gain marketable skills through meaningful career and technical education .  The committee met at the Berge Building and plans to write the grant for a podcast project along the Yellowstone Trail from Granite Falls to Buffalo Lake. 

​Riverside Market and Muse will also bring in opportunities for the public to learn from poet and songwriter, Brian Laidlaw, Ashley Hanson, blues for kids educator Joey Flip and photographers Gene Stukel and Jessica Gorman.  I have also included grant funds to pay local musicians who would like to perform.  Contact the chamber office at 320-564-4039 if you would like to be included. Vendors are welcome to set up along the downtown plazas on every second Saturday of the month from May 12 - September 8.  
Mary Gillespie,  Granite Falls Chamber Director

Our first monthly Chamber Business Breakfast series on March 13 featured the Granite Area Arts Council's president, Tamara Isfeld and Ashley Hanson from Public Transformation.  Both explained the importance of public art as an economic development tool.  The Riverside Voices mural project will continue this summer along the flood wall.  The City artist in residency program has been approved by the city council.  After the breakfast, Tom Cherveney from the West Central Tribune interviewed Ashley Hanson about the project.  Here is a link to the article from March 18.  http://www.wctrib.com/news/government-and-politics/4419479-looking-artists-take-city-hall

The first of our series of Business Breakfasts will feature a presentation on Art as Tourism and Economic Development by Ashley Hanson and Tamara Isfeld on March 13 from 7:30-9 AM at the Prairies Edge Casino Resort Convention Center.    Please RSVP by March 5.  $5 for chamber members, $10 for non members. The following months feature topics of interest to chamber and community members.   The April 10 event will be held at the chamber office, 807 Prentice St.  

The First Dollar Award was presented to The Rock: Dining and Events on February 22 by chamber board members, Scott DeMuth, Sherry Mathiowetz, Cathy Anderson, Crystal Johnson and director Mary Gillespie.  Welcome to the Granite Falls Area Chamber of Commerce!  The Rock is now open 7 days a week for both lunch and dinner.  Check out their new $6 lunch specials!  

 
The Yellowstone Trail is an old automobile route that was created across the entire country beginning in 1912 in South Dakota.  Today, the route follows mostly along Hwy 212 in the Minnesota stretch, but some of the older routes go through the middle of small towns.  One of the early promoters and president from 1917 to 1919 was Michael Dowling. In 1880, Dowling suffered extreme frostbite when he was stranded outside during a blizzard. He lost parts of both legs, his left arm, and fingers on his right hand.  He went on to become the principal of the school in Granite Falls, Renville and Olivia and a realtor and newspaper man. The trail was  the first transcontinental automobile highway in the United States through the northern tier of states from Washington through Massachusetts.  Yet too few people are aware of its existence or its social, political and economic effects on either the local communities or the nation.
 Recently, there have been efforts to revive the history of this route throughout the USA.  A group of interested community leaders from Granite Falls to Buffalo Lake have been meeting to look for ways to create economic development in the string of small towns along Hwy 212.  The Yellowstone Trail is one of the logical tools in this effort along with the history of agriculture and cooperatives.  The February meeting took place in Bird Island, showcasing their new Arts and Cultural Center -birdislandculture.com/  Convened by Scott Tedrick, formerly the Granite Falls Advocate Tribune editor who is now at the Renville County Register, this is a way to connect and promote our shared heritage. Ideas about how to accomplish this are just in its infancy stages and include events such as an antique car run, long garage sale or market day, historic museums, the arts,  cultural mapping of assets through the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota and Yellowstone Trail signage.  More information about the trail and detailed maps can be found on their website www.yellowstonetrail.org.

​The Granite Falls  Area Chamber and CVB had a great year in 2017.  The chamber has exciting plans for the upcoming year including increased partnerships with the Granite Falls EDA for marketing and other projects, a monthly scheduled chamber networking event starting in March and a new event the evening before the Fagen Air Show on June 15.  With the start of a strategic plan and second planning meeting in December of 2017,  a new mission statement was created. " The mission of the Granite Falls Area Chamber of Commerce is to advance prosperity and community by meeting the needs of business and industry by providing information, services and advocacy for its members.” The new vision statement is  “ The Granite Falls Area Chamber of Commerce is the organization of choice to promote economic vitality and growth.” 
 
 Events are an important part of the work of the chamber and includes advertising and marketing as well as planning.  A review of all the chamber events last year include :
  
- Medallion Hunt during Ole and Lena Days
- Love yer Lefsa shopping event during Ole and Lena Days
-Community Celebration during Ole and Lena Days
-Visit from the State of MN Unemployment Office officials to Granite Falls to answer your questions  
- Worked to create a Dementia Friendly Community with the Act on Alzheimer’s program, dementia education luncheon on November 14.
-Riverside Market and Muse every month in the summer funded by a SMAC grant
-Sod House Theater Performances to Granite Falls, 3 performances in August, 2017
-Cowboy Crazy Daze in June
- Western Fest Kickoff and Kid’s Night during Western Fest
-Musical Chairs on Meander Friday Night during the Art Meander
-Santa and Horse drawn wagon rides during Small Business Saturday
 
One of our important tasks is to encourage shopping locally all year long.  During the holiday shopping season we promote the " Elf on the Footbridge" theme to emphasize our unique river location and famous footbridge .  Events in December include -
Elf Shopping Passes that get stamped with sales with a $500 drawing to encourage holiday shopping locally.
Elf visits to local businesses and organizations to spread the holiday cheer.
Elf on the Footbridge “elf hunting” in local shops with prizes and coupons for the last 2 weeks before Christmas.
" Shopping with the Elves" where kids can shop and wrap gifts for the families at reduced cost.
 
Partnering with the EDA and Granite Area Arts Council, the chamber director helped write the Riverside Voices public art grant with ongoing workshops and events involving the public and YME students.  The first mural is already done and the project will continue with more artwork on the flood wall in the summer of 2018.  The chamber director also up-dates the chamber and CVB websites, blogs on both websites,  social media, writes a weekly column in the Advocate Tribune and is a part of organizations that connect the town and area . The chamber office at 807 Prentice St. was just designated an official Explore Minnesota Information Center which will appear in Explore Minnesota Tourism publications in print and online.  

​​Ron Fagen grew up in the small SW Minnesota town of Maynard.  Fagen’s father, Ray was an avid pilot and an enthusiast of all things related to aviation.  He played a prominent role in the shaping of the pilot that Ron would become.  Ron had a wide interest in aviation ranging from the L-2 Taylorcraft he soloed in to the Pitts Special aerobatic bi-planes in which he flew Competition Aerobatics for a span of ten years.
Fagen joined the Army in 1968 and did a tour of duty in Vietnam in the Army’s 4th Infantry Division.  Upon his return home, he entered the construction field with various commercial and industrial construction companies.  Fagen, Inc. was formed in 1988 and specialized in industrial construction.  Fagen, Inc., licensed in all 50 states, is credited with the lion’s share of the Ethanol industry’s plant construction.  Power plants, wind farms and other industrial projects are typical projects in the company’s resume.  In 2005, Fagen was inducted into the Minnesota Business Hall of Fame. 
Aviation plays an important role in Fagen, Inc.’s success making all areas of the United States readily accessible from Granite Falls, Minnesota.   Fagen and his wife, Diane, are retired from Fagen, Inc. but their sons, Aaron and Evan continue to run the business.  Fagen, Inc. participates in Special Olympic Airlifts and Veterans Airlift Command with their two Cessna Citation aircraft.
In the summer of 2012, Ron and Diane Fagen along with their sons Aaron and Evan opened Fagen Fighters WWII Museum located near Granite Falls, Minnesota, at the Lenzen-Roe-Fagen Memorial Airport.  The 4th Infantry WWII experiences of Ray Fagen included a Utah Beach landing on D-Day, the Liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge.  These and other events are the inspiration for the museum which is a living memorial to this critical time showcasing exhibits, fine art, sculpture, fully operational iconic aircraft and ground equipment used in that epic conflict.  The museum hosts Ray Fagen Memorial Airshows which exclusively feature WWII aircraft including all the Fagen Fighters Warbirds.  Ron continues to “wow” the crowd with the ease in which he flies an aerobatic routine in the P-51 Mustang, Sweet Revenge. 
Fagen continues to enjoy all types of aircraft and when asked, “What is your favorite airplane?” Ron replies, “Whatever airplane I’m flying at the moment.”   

Christmas was certainly in the air last Sunday, December 17 with two family friendly activities going on that afternoon.  The "Shopping with the Elves" event provided an opportunity for children to shop for their family members  and was a great success with many gifts purchased and wrapped.  Volunteer students from Yellow Medicine East were a great help! 

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​The same afternoon featured Lomen's reindeer at the Andrew J. Volstead House with Santa and Mrs. Claus inside taking orders and posing for photos.  Carl Lomen was married to Andrew Volstead's only daughter, Laura, and is credited for bringing part of his Alaskan reindeer herd to parades in St. Paul and other large cities in the 1920s.  So along with celebrating the season, there is also a historical reason for the reindeer to visit Granite Falls.  The warm weather was probably a factor accounting for record attendance at this event. It was fun to see all the family photos with Santa and outside in his sleigh flanked by the reindeer. 

Thank you to all the volunteers who made this possible! Thank you for the donations for the children's shopping mall both from local businesses and individuals.  The Granite Falls Historical Society plans to make this a yearly event and the Chamber will also host the children's shopping mall again next year.