Sebeka, MN

For over one year we’ve been talking about implementing the Voices of Rural Minnesota program. We are happy to say that the application materials are available and the program will launch this fall!

Purpose Statement

The Voices of Rural Minnesota program seeks to increase awareness of the rural and tribal experience by educating key stakeholders on the realities of small rural and tribal communities through storytelling and information dissemination.

Program Goals

The Voices of Rural Minnesota Program will engage a group of up to 30 individuals from across Minnesota to:

1. Identify and develop individual public presentation skills
2. Recruit and train a diverse group of speakers representing all regions of MN
3. Provide speakers with accurate information to use to move audiences to action
4. Educate, motivate, and empower community members to play a larger role in community issues
5. Identify and collaborate with partners to identify and research impact of current policies on rural issues
6. Identify venues for speaking engagements
7. Create powerful public presentations that highlight life in small rural communities
8. Create and implement evaluation processes to access impact of program

Please forward this post and the attached application materials to anyone you think would be a good candidate.

Voices of Rural Minnesota Application Packet

At their meeting on May 17, the Sebeka Horizons Team approved forms for in-kind donation reporting and project completion reporting. The Articles of Incorporation have been done and work on becoming a 501(c)3 is continuing.

The Needs People Need Project Team had a soup supper planned for Monday, May 24th. They are continuing the backpack program to provide food over weekends to some youth.

The Sebeka Community Asset Builders Team is working on the kiddie parade for Red Eye River Days and categories for prizes. Their parade will start at the Skate Park. They still need volunteers to help with judging the entries. This team is also working on raising money for the Sebeka Pool.

The Sebeka Economic Development Team has mailed brochures to Sebeka High School graduates. They have the information booth ready to be placed in the Park. It is something to look forward to seeing there-thanks to the fine work of Tom Cary, Richard Gronlund, and the students who worked on it. The Valspar paint will be brought to Sebeka soon to “Spruce Up Sebeka”, as part of the Minnesota Beautiful initiative. The marketing area profile was presented and explained on May 13. The project to apply for a DEED grant is moving forward. The June 9 meeting is postponed until later and Nimrod will be asked to join Sebeka and Menahga in this effort.

Stay in touch with Horizons, and volunteer to help if you can. How about offering to help paint? You can call the Sebeka Resource Line at 837-5641, email Sylvia at srmw123@yahoo.com, or even comment on this blog. We are listening…..We’d love to hear from you!

The Sebeka Horizons Team, Sebeka Economic Development Team (SEDT), received a Market Area Profile report on the Sebeka-Menahga area at a meeting held Thursday, May 13. Adeel Ahmed, Extension Educator from the University of Minnesota Extension, created and presented the report. The report was based on data from a study of the local trade area. It determined that the local retail market includes 9,921 people living in 3,846 households. Those people were calculated to have a total market potential of $82 million. 
The area covered in the study included Menahga and Sebeka as well as Wolf Lake and Nimrod and the corresponding rural area east and west of Highway 71 between Park Rapids and Wadena. The study area was based on input from businesses and community leaders in Menahga and Sebeka. Throughout the report, local data was compared to state wide data.
The report was intended to give businesses and/or potential business investors in the area a general description of the average resident, including their income and their interests. The study also looked at what businesses the area could use. 
According to the study, the largest percentage of people in the Sebeka and Menahga trade area have the following characteristics: they live in rural areas, have no children living at home, typically own a riding lawnmower as well as lots of tools and equipment. They drive pickup trucks, enjoy outdoor activities, are pet owners, and listen to country music. They are also conservative shoppers with simple tastes.
Ahmed noted that the description developed by the profile was borne out by the existence of so many hardware stores in local retail centers, along with discount stores.
The types of businesses that the report suggested the area could support included: retail clothing, fast food, cosmetics and make-up, used merchandise, pet care, florist, and gift or novelty. 
Ahmed stated that the report could be a valuable source of information about the area to be used for targeted marketing. He offered that the area could use greater promotion of existing services through internet-based information services designed for devices like smart phones. He said there was room for greater internet and ecommerce education for area residents.
The report included other data about the area, such as:
•The median household income is $40,491.
•15.7 percent of people in the area are not high school graduates, compared to 9.8 percent statewide.
•The number of people who work from home is higher than the state average, at 9.5 percent compared to 4.6 percent.
•24 percent of housing in the area is considered seasonal or vacant.
•18 percent of people in the area are 65 and older, and the median age is 42.
•The highest influx of people moving into the area was in the 1990s.
•Almost half of the houses in the area were built in 1969 or earlier.
For the detailed report, click on this: Sebeka Menahga Area Market Area Profile

SEBEKA COMMUNITY NETWORK SOUP SUPPER
Who: All Sebeka Community Residents Interested in the Community
When: Monday, May 24
Time: 4:30-6:30 P.M.
Where: Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church
Sponsored by the Needs People Need Group of Sebeka Community Horizons.

**Horizons is dedicated to ending rural community poverty through Community-based programs developing stronger rural communities.
**Needs People Need Team Purpose Statement: We are committed to helping people in need, get basic and emergency assistance with food, shelter, clothing and health care.

4/24/2010, ST. CLOUD, Minn. Twenty Minnesota communities gathered at the St. Cloud Civic Center on April 24th to celebrate their progress as a participants in the Horizons program. The Horizons program mobilizes communities with populations under 10,000 and poverty rates over ten percent to learn, lead, and take action to create a more prosperous community. Thirty-three Minnesota communities and over 5,500 people have participated in the program since 2003. It is funded by the Northwest Area Foundation and is led by the University of Minnesota Extension Center for Community Vitality.

“Sharing the Horizons program experience with Minnesota communities is an enormously satisfying example of the work of our Center,” said Dick Senese, Associate Dean of Community Vitality. “We’ve watched and been impressed as Horizons communities have learned and mobilized. They are making a big difference for their communities. It’s inspiring.”

At the gathering, communities shared their stories and learned about the future of the program, which will include continuing the efforts of work teams and networking with other Horizons communities. Beverly Durgan, Dean of University of Minnesota Extension, presented each community with a plaque in celebration of their successful Horizons work. The plaque is being displayed in the Sebeka City Office.

Sebeka will soon see the Information Center in the City Park. Work is going forward on a paint project called “Spruce Up Sebeka”, which brought us 83 gallons of paint from Valspar Corporation, through The Initiative Foundation in Little Falls. The Small Cities Development Program brings together the cities of Menahga, Nimrod and Sebeka, to consider a DEED grant application through the Central Minnesota Housing Partnership.
These are some of the many efforts of the Horizons Teams.

For more information about Horizons in Sebeka, contact the Horizons Resource
Line at 837-5641, or write to Horizons, P.O. Box 357, Sebeka MN 56477, or email srmw123@yahoo.com. Remember to check our blog at Sebeka.communityblogs.us.

For more information about Horizons throughout the state, contact Monica Herrera, Horizons Program Director, 612-624-7649, herre066@umn.edu.

The Sebeka Community Profile has been updated! The most recent version includes evaluation findings from Study Circles and LeadershipPlenty and copies of the community’s Horizons Team Agreement and workplans. (Keep in mind that the team agreement and workplans are subject to revision as community priorities and resources shift.)

Download a PDF version of the Sebeka Community Profile.

Sebeka Horizons was recognized for community efforts at a statewide event held in St. Cloud on April 24th. Beverly Durgan, Dean of University of Minnesota Extension, presented each community with a plaque in celebration of their successful Horizons work.

Sebeka High School’s Senior High Knowledge Bowl Team won first place at the State Competition in Brainerd on Thursday and Friday, April 15 and 16. Competing students are: Paul Schmitt, Brett Malcore, Dylan Gronlund, Kyler Pittman, Jonathan Miller.

Students Brandon Kvare, Robert Cusey, Logan Skov, and Harley Eckman take a short break for a photo next to the framework for the Information Center. Horizons SEDT Team is working with the School and Sebeka Lumber Co. to get the Center completed and set up in the City Park.

Pictured above; Back Row: Sam Eckman, Brett Malcore, Jonathan Miller, Paul Schmitt, Dylan Gronlund; Middle Row: Taylor Pederson, Eve Hanson, Dani Fulfs, Jeremy McDonald, Lawrence Sams; Front Row: Zach McDonald, Jayde Pickar, Luke Meech, Luke Graham, Kyler Pittman. Thanks to the School Website for the photo and Mike Heino for putting names to faces. These students will be representing the Senior High Knowledge Bowl Team at the State Competition on Friday, April 16, in Brainerd: Kyler Pittman, Jonathan Miller, Dylan Gronlund, Paul Schmitt, and Brett Malcore. We congratulate them for their accomplishments so far and wish them the best as they compete.