Transfer of wealth data show that more resources are available in our communities than we might have realized. And we know many of our communities are strapped for resources. How can we connect the two? Read More »
Blog Archives
Rural wealth makes a quiet exit
By Heidi Marttila-Losure Read the obituaries in your local newspaper, and you’ll find stories of lives well-lived (and, perhaps more interestingly, sometimes not-so-well-lived). Most of the obits also have a clue as to whether that personal life story fits into a larger story that will significantly affect rural Dakota communities in coming decades. Here’s how to tell: In the list of ... Read More »
Beyond bake sales
A few years ago, when I was editing a women’s magazine published by The Tribune in Ames, Iowa, I covered a women’s philanthropy event at Iowa State University. The speaker that day was a woman named Kay Ballard, and she wasn’t afraid to get the audience a little riled. Read More »
Rural Wealth Makes a Quiet Exit
The process of assets changing hands as they go from one generation to the next is called the transfer of wealth, and it represents an incredible opportunity for rural Dakota communities if they can take advantage of it—or a significant threat to them if they cannot. Read More »
Postcard: Taking on the South Dakota Gran Fondo
Why would anyone pay $90 for a one-day ride in northeastern S.D.? Ah, but a gran fondo is no ordinary ride. Read More »
People Still Gather at the Galley, Thanks to Local Investors
When the Bunkhouse Motel and Get Away along Highway 12 in Webster was set to close, a group of people came together to save it. Read More »
At Dakota Foundry, Employees Are Also the Bosses
In 2004, corporate owners of Mereen-Johnson Machine Company announced plans to sell the Foundry Division in Webster. Josh Bartos soon discovered the company was more likely to close than sell, meaning laying off all of the company employees. Bartos, who is now the vice president of Dakota Foundry, and others didn’t want to let that happen. So they came up with a radical plan to save the company. From a kitchen table meeting, the idea of an employee-invested company was born. Read More »
Club Eden Wings its Way Upward with Local Investors
In a town with a population of 89, the new owners of Club Eden knew they needed to do something different to succeed. So Club Eden opened in May 2005 as an investor-owned bar and cafe. The business gives their financiers the opportunity to work off their investments. Read More »
Lake Grocery Takes a Step Up Under Community Group
Willow Lake Area Advancement didn’t intend to go into the grocery business. “It fell into our lap,” explained Kristin Vandersnick, WLAA president, about Lake Grocery. Read More »
’Kulm Is My Town’
By Sarah Gackle, Kulm Messenger Rural Resident Puts Her Money Where Her Home Is When Esther Lindgren saw that some of her friends needed to leave town for doctor care, she didn’t just offer a ride. She bought a van. Eighty-seven-year-old Lindgren of Kulm, N.D., has taken this approach to giving for years: She wants to do as ... Read More »