Next Gen Initiative Shows Progress at the Big Group Gathering & Open House

IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP, MI - by Will Andresen - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - Thanks to everybody who attended the Next Generation Initiative “Big Group Gathering and Open House” Monday night. It was great to see so many people come out on such a beautiful night.

Thanks to Lee-Ann Garske and Denise Stephens for coordinating the food – and special thanks to Jim Lorenson, Bob Jacquart and all of our work-group leaders for taking the time to present.

For those who couldn’t make the meeting Monday night, here’s some information on a few of the things that were presented last night:

The Retain Students by Better Connecting them to the Community work-group has created two nature photography projects (one for high school students and one for college students), which will be shared with their class-mates through peer-to-peer learning to better connect our young people to our nature-based assets.

The Go-In Forward Next Generation Group continues to meet regularly with a variety of great social and networking opportunities – check out their facebook page http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=43429639850&ref=ts.

The Attract Young Workers by Strengthening Our Niche group has created a map for a proposed regional non-motorized trail system and are currently seeking support for the concept through presentations to local units of government.

The Attract Young Workers by Promoting Our Strengths created a new web-site aimed at attracting the target market of young people seeking an adventure lifestyle http://www.felivelife.com/ and also distributed Fe bumper stickers promoting the web-site (if you’d like a bumper sticker to put on your own vehicle(s) to help us promote this new site, please let me know and I’ll be sure to get you some).

More information on the NGI can be found in the attached informational brochure and on my web-site:

http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cty/iron/cnred/index.html

Thanks, everybody, for all that you’re doing to help prepare the Gogebic Range for the next generation!

Will Andresen