Happy Highlights to You

By Ann Nelson Ann Plans Monthly Blog December 21, 2017

Taking Time to Reflect and Celebrate

Before launching full speed ahead into 2018, I hope you take time to acknowledge and celebrate what has made this year significant, rewarding and fun for you, your family and business. Highlights for me include celebrating 25 years of marriage, running my 12th marathon in Chicago, adopting feline siblings Luke Skywalker and Han Solo in November, and celebrating Ann Plans’ 10th anniversary.

A highlight every year is the work we get to do with our nonprofit partners. This newsletter is dedicated to showcasing some of our clients’ major accomplishments in 2017.

Celebrating 2017 Nonprofit Highlights

The organizations we are blessed to partner with are having great impact every day for individuals, families, and the local community. We hope you enjoy reading about what some of our clients have been up to in 2017:

In June, Lakeshore Players Theatre broke ground on the Hanfil Performing Arts Center, their future home in White Bear Lake. The new center is scheduled to be completed in Spring 2018 and will include a 250-seat main theatre, 60-seat black box learning lab, rehearsal space, beautiful lobby, and community meeting room.
NUWAY is one of the largest nonprofit providers of extended care treatment in Minnesota for individuals recovering from substance abuse and mental health disorders. The organization has four locations in Minneapolis, and this spring NUWAY opened an outpatient site in St. Paul to help address the need for additional treatment options in Ramsey County.
The Nature Conservancy helped make this a great year for water and land conservation in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. Highlights included launching a new effort to ensure that conifers endure in Minnesota’s Northwoods, and partnering with the Minnesota Zoo to reintroduce the federally-threatened Dakota skipper butterfly for the first time anywhere to The Nature Conservancy’s Hole-in-the-Mountain Prairie preserve.
Midwest Special Services (MSS), an organization serving adults with disabilities, began developing the Community Hub which invites and integrates the community into their St. Paul center. Small businesses and nonprofits that hire MSS participants are able to work out of the Community Hub. PCs for People has MSS participants helping refurbish computers for low-income people. Starting soon, Keystone Express Bike Shop will be training participants to repair and sell bikes.
This year, Amherst H. Wilder Foundation’spublic policy team launched and co-chaired the statewide #ThisIsMedicaid coalition to defend Medicaid from harm in proposed federal legislation. Wilder created this graphic which was used by advocates at the state Capitol, in Washington D.C., and at community events across Minnesota.
Mn Adult & Teen Challenge has served a record-breaking number of teens and adults this year through residential and outpatient drug and alcohol treatment programs. A 2017 highlight was the November opening of the Women’s Center long-term treatment program in Rochester serving up to 74 women at a given time.
In June, Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute opened the expanded adapted fitness and wellness center at the Golden Valley campus. This 6,300 square foot facility is twice the size of the previous center, and provides fitness facilities and services for people of all abilities.
This fall, more than 50 students from 13 Twin Cities’ high schools began rehearsing with the newly established VocalEssence Youth Choir. Students are working with VocalEssence Associate Conductor G. Phillip Shoultz, III and guest artists such as Dessa and T. Mychael Rambo. In 2018, the high schoolers will be performing on stages including Orchestra Hall and the Ordway.