YWCA receives BIG grant
Otto Bremer Foundation gives Minot’s YWCA $150,000By DAVE CALDWELL, Staff Writer dcaldwell@minotdailynews.com
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Santa came a little early for one area organization, and the big pack slung across Jolly Old St. Nick's back wasn't full of toys it was full of cash.
The Otto Bremer Foundation recently announced that the YWCA of Minot received a grant of a whopping $150,000 for funding general operations.
Nationally, the YWCA is the oldest and largest multicultural women's organization in the world. Worldwide it has more than 22 million members in 130 countries. In America alone, there are more than 2.6 million members and participants in more than 300 associated organizations.
The Minot chapter of the YWCA has been serving northwest North Dakota since 1915. Currently, it serves a seven county area, including Ward, Bottineau, Renville, McHenry, Burke, Mountrail and Pierce counties.
YWCA of Minot focuses on five different areas for its services. Along with providing emergency shelter for homeless women and their children, it also conducts parenting classes, monitors at-risk children between the ages of 14 and 18 and provides a support group for grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. Most recently, the YWCA added an Early Learning Center in a time when many in the Minot area find themselves in a crunch for day care.
Deb Kunkel, executive director of YWCA of Minot, is part of Minot's Child Care Task Force, a group organized earlier this year by Minot Mayor Curt Zimbelman to address issues that began to snowball when a large local day care provider closed its doors, causing a logjam for people frantically searching for adequate child care.
The YWCA's Early Learning Center opened in late August. Bremer's latest grant represents yet another foray into the world of assisting Minot child-care providers. Recently, Bremer also donated $36,500 to St. Leo's Child Care Center for a variety of upgrades.
"Otto Bremer believed that to serve clients, you must serve their communities," said Brent Mattson, president of Bremer in Minot. Mattson told The Minot Daily News in September that 40 percent of the Bremer Foundation's income is given back to communities served by Bremer.
"With tough economic times like this, this is a very gracious gift," said Kunkel. "Bremer is truly making our community better."
