Everything fell into place yesterday to create an outstanding visit to Glencoe for our Southwest Initiative Foundation Board of Directors meeting. We knew it would be a full day—a business tour, guest speakers, community lunch, program spotlight, board agenda—but it was a truly great day of connecting.
The community lunch was a special highlight for the day thanks to the fabulous people who joined us. We heard from a number of innovative businesses located right in Glencoe.
- Miller Manufacturing makes and distributes farm, ranch and pet products internationally
- Twin Cities & Western Railroad creates a direct line of transportation from Milbank, S.D. to the Twin Cities, and beyond
- Glencoe Regional Health Services, which includes a critical care hospital, clinics, nursing home and senior apartments, is updating its electronic medical record systems
- Starkey Hearing Technologies manufactures hearing aids and also has a very active philanthropic side to get hearing aids to children and people who need them throughout the world
We also heard about the Glencoe-Silver Lake High School’s super mileage vehicle team—they’re part of our Youth Energy Summit (YES!) program which gives our young people a chance to discover their potential in engineering and other potential careers, and for this group of students, it’s as they build a car that will get up to 700 miles per gallon.
And, we were able to look around the beautiful Community Center where we hosted our meeting and lunch. The former high school has been renovated to house the Glencoe Public Library, city, chamber and other offices, as well as meeting and event space.
Glencoe is a great example of how southwest Minnesota communities and businesses can work together to strengthen each other through innovation.
