The Warroad Area Community Fund (WACF) was an integral part of the first Yellow Rose Community Day, celebrated Friday, August 13th, at the new Hampton Inn in Warroad, Minnesota. Further, the WACF was identified as the charity of choice for the Yellow Rose Race the following day.
The community day event featured a pasta fundraising dinner. The proceeds benefitted the local community fund, while a display showcased WACF successes and invited event attendees to learn more about the fund, its impact, and how it works to support local community initiatives.
The WACF display was one of five “activation stations” featured in the event, which displayed downtown redevelopment projects. A big highlight was the unveiling of the downtown Main Avenue streetscape design, which will transform and modernize four aged buildings while retaining their historic architecture.
Yellow Rose Community Day expands on the long-held Yellow Rose Race, an annual event initially held to mark and celebrate the 100-year anniversary of George Marvin coming to town back in 2004.
This is the 18th year of the Yellow Rose Race and over the last four years there has been a lot of momentum with community vitality,” said Brenda Baumann, a member of the WACF and executive director of the Discovery & Development Hub.
While highlighting the Hampton Inn itself as a great result of those community efforts and explaining that Warroad Real Estate, LLC, a subsidiary of the Marvin organization, has acquired local properties that did not have interested buyers, Baumann said there has been a true partnership in town between Warroad and Marvin.
“With all that momentum going on, the transformation we’re going through, and community and company working so closely together, we thought, ‘Why don’t we design a community day?’” she said. “What’s really fun about this event is that it’s co-created. It’s co-created by those working on the race, it’s co-created by our (Warroad Area Community Fund) advisory board, the company, and the community. Everybody just put their heads together, thinking about what would this look like and how do we execute it … and now we have a Warroad community day.”
The Yellow Rose Race, which has always had a charitable component, intentionally selects charities to benefit the Warroad community. This year, the Warroad Area Community Fund was chosen and members of the Warroad Area Community Fund advisory committee were presented with a check for $3,240 to go into the project fund for future community projects.
“I’ve had the great fortune of working with the Warroad Area Community Fund since its beginning in 2002, and I’ve been with it ever since,” Baumann said. “I work with a great group of people that are on that advisory committee and appreciate the Northwest Minnesota Foundation for being a true partner.”
