How did we do on our goals?

Many of you who are readers of our e-newsletter know that we talked a lot during 2023 as a year of growth and change. 

The marking of a new year is a good moment to pause and reflect on the question of “how did we do with our growth goals?”

When it comes to serving families, we stated we are on a path to doubling our builds per year. Historically, we’ve completed 4 homes or so per year and with the “Covid years” more like 2. We are proud to say that in 2023, 5 new families moved into their homes! And, it’s equally exciting to share that construction is fully underway for 4 homes, the slab poured on a fifth home and site work started on a sixth.
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We have 5 more homes in the planning stages to get started this year.

When it comes to relocating our offices and the ReStore, we completed the move! Our new space in the East Brainerd Mall brings us to a highly visible traffic corridor – the number of first-time shoppers and donors has grown well beyond expectation. The open, bright shopping area has been well received with so many comments of “wow!” and thanks for bringing such an incredible store to the community.

One of the most rewarding parts of the new space is watching how many customers in wheelchairs have been able to independently enter the building, shop the entire store and leave independently. As hard as we tried to make that possible in our previous space, we just couldn’t consistently deliver…and now we can!

When it comes to expanding our messaging, we set out a plan to be present in as many places and ways possible. Listeners to the BL Broadcasting & RJ Broadcasting networks are sure to have heard our year-long campaign with radio spots. Drivers along the 371 corridor are sure to have noticed our messages on digital billboards. And, we regularly advertised in both the Lake Country Journal and the Initiative Quarterly. We have plans to add intensive marketing in print and radio in the Wadena community soon.

All this leads to what we can only describe as a busy, busy year ahead. We hope you are inspired by our commitment to growth and that you will join us. We have so many ways to support us:

• pray for our continued success;
• join us as a volunteer;
• share our work with your network of friends; and

write a check.​​​​​​

We are also excited to share that coming soon is a way to include us in your long-term giving through a program we joined called FreeWill. Watch for more exciting announcements soon – giving today is critical to our mission; planned giving in the future ensures long-term sustainability and future growth.

We can’t wait to hear from you to learn how YOU will join us in making 2024 an incredible year of service.

In peace,

Kevin Pelkey, Executive Director​​​​​​​​​​​​​