January 2010
Dakota Woodlands is the only facility specifically for homeless families in our County.
2009 Minnesota Nonprofit Excellence Award Recipient
Links:
From Our Executive Director
Reyne Branchaud-Linsk
Welcome to our first issue of the 2010 Dakota Digest. This year marks our 30th anniversary. Stay tuned to learn about our successes, challenges and exciting activities and events.
We are planning to enhance our services to meet current resident needs and to assist them in continuing to be successful, through our follow up services. We anticipate that there will be challenges as we seek funds to support our work As you know, our state, our school districts, many service providers are struggling to meet the demands for our work.
I love the Winter Carnival's Ice and Snow Sculptures. In the upper left corner is one of my favorites. If you haven't gone to see these sculptures with your family, it's a must-do activity. Bundle up and go.
Thank you for your support of our work and for reading our Digest.
Happy New Year,
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Volunteer of the Month
Brooke Kilgarriff
Our own Miss Minnesota
Brooke Kilgarriff has volunteered for Dakota Woodlands in several ways. She has assisted our children with activities, especially music activities. And, she helped to raise a lot of money in our 4th annual Flying Home Event. She played a special role in raising funds for the adults who stay with us to get their GED. We pay for them to get this high school equivalency certification. She also led efforts to raise money for us to renovate our school-age kids play room. Her parents attended our Flying Home Event as well.
21-year old Brooke Kilgarriff is from Eagan and was selected as Miss Twin Cities before being crowned Miss Minnesota. She is already a seasoned performer. When she was 16, she auditioned for American Idol, winning a coveted golden ticket and got to go to Hollywood. Simon even had praise for her. Though on a short leave right now to represent our state, Brooke is a junior at The Boston Conservatory as a musical theatre major, and plans to graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre as well as a Masters in Music Education.
Next weekend, Brooke will be competing to be Miss America. We wish you a fun and successful week.
Tune in on January 30, 2010, to see Brooke compete for Miss America LIVE from the Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas on TLC.
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Partner of the Month
Barnes and Noble, Eagan
We are highlighting our partnership with the Eagan Barnes and Noble for the month of
January. Barnes and Noble has not only been a great friend to Dakota Woodlands recently
but has supported our work for over 10 years!
Every holiday season we've been selected to receive boxes and boxes of brand new books
for adults and children that are purchased by Barnes and Noble customers as they do their
holiday shopping. The books were recommended by our Education Coordinator and gifted to
each member of our 22 families as a special holiday gift.
These bundles of books not only provide a fun Christmas surprise but also come in handy
during our D.E.A.R time. Periodically, Erin our education coordinator announces to everyone
who works or lives here..."It is now time to Drop Everything And Read."
We are also able to participate in their holiday gift wrapping fundraiser every year. Volunteers
wrap customer's books for a donation to Dakota Woodlands.
Lastly, we bring groups of children to Barnes and Noble for story hour as a fun event.
Thank you to Barnes and Noble and all of their generous customers for supporting our work.
If your business, church, school, or group would like to find out more about partnering with Dakota Woodlands please contact Abby Webster at resource@dakotawoodlands.org or 651-289-3567.
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...How to Help...
Volunteer Opportunities
Start the New Year volunteering to assist Dakota Woodlands and our residents.
We have opportunities for individuals or small groups to assist us, without a large time commitment.
- Evening childcare... we have opportunities any evening 6-8 p.m. to assist with caring for babies, toddlers and school aged children.
- Groups to serve meals... would your group like to prepare and serve an evening meal or for a Saturday or Sunday Brunch.
- Room Painting... we need adults who are willing to paint a few bedrooms and common spaces. If you are available once or once in awhile, this could be an opportunity for you.
If you are interested in learning about ways to assist us, please contact Patty, our Volunteer Coordinator at 651-289-3565 (direct phone number) or email her at volunteer@dakotawoodlands.org.
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Current Needs
- Full sheet sets
- Full and twin plastic mattress protectors
- AAA and 9 volt batteries
- Medium and large sized latex gloves for kitchen and cleaning
- Wet wipes for babies
- Diapers (sizes four and up)
- Baby monitors (new or gently used is great)
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Help introduce us to others
We welcome you to help introduce Dakota Woodlands to your friends, group or family. We have a wonderful story to share. We are the current recipients of the Nonprofit Excellence Award. We'd love to come to the next meeting of your women's club, religious, civic or neighborhood group and bring our DVD, stories of successes, challenges and ways that you and your group can be involved in our work... we'll even bring our beautiful award.
Please contact us... Abby or Reyne at 651-456-9110.
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You can make a donation on-line by clicking this link ....
If you click the link, you'll be on our site, through GiveMN.org...which is a very user-friendly system with no carrying fees for donation processing. We get the full amount of your donation. On this site, you'd even be able to see our short two minute video, produced for the ceremony when we received the MN Nonprofit Excellence Award.
Or, feel free to send your donation to us at the address below.
Thank you for your support!!! Thank your for reading our Dakota Digest.
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3430 Wescott Woodlands
Eagan, MN 55123
Phone: 651-456-9110
www.dakotawoodlands.org