Touchstone Award winners announced

Four nonprofit groups were honored with Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation Touchstone Awards on Tuesday.

The four winners represent three categories: generosity, civic engagement and inclusiveness.

The two winners in the generosity category were the Grand Marais Arts Colony and Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank. The winner in the civic engagement category was Sustainable Twin Ports, and the winner in the inclusiveness category was the Madeline Island Anishinaabeg Gathering.

"This is work that makes our community stronger and makes our community special," said Holly C. Sampson, president of the Community Foundation. "All nine of our Touchstone Award nominees this year offer great examples of the concepts of generosity, civic engagement and inclusiveness. They make this a better place to live."

The awards were presented at a luncheon at the Harborside Ballroom at the DECC.

The foundation provided grants in 2009 for each group's work. In addition, the award carries a $2,500 prize.

The Grand Marais Arts Colony was chosen for its Empty Bowls hunger awareness project, which helps stock the shelves at the Cook County Food Shelf each year. Area artists, students and community members craft ceramic bowls to be filled with soup and bread.

The Second Harvest food bank was nominated for increasing food distribution in response to more urgent needs in recent years. From 2008 to 2010, Second Harvest encouraged more local giving, enabling the food bank to distribute 25 percent more food. That meant 4 million pounds of food went to those who most need it, while volunteer hours increased and financial contributions from individuals and businesses increased 32 percent.

Sustainable Twin Ports was honored for helping to create a sustainable community. The group teaches sustainability principles to local businesses and nonprofit groups. Twenty-three organizations have taken Early Adopters training since Sustainable Twin Ports began the program.

The Madeline Island Anishinaabeg Gathering brought together more than 650 people from all 19 bands of Ojibwe for an educational and celebratory event on the island on Sept. 25, 2009. Madeline Island is the sacred center of the Anishinaabeg world, though band members have seldom lived on the island in the past century. The gathering committee organized a day of presentations, traditional performances and feasts that revived that historical spirit. A similar event also was held this fall.

The other five nominees were Range Transitional Housing, for the Hibbing Transitional Housing Project (generosity); the College of St. Scholastica, for its Alworth Center for the Study of Peace and Justice (civic engagement); Friends of the Finland Community, which built a community center (civic engagement); CHOICE Unlimited: BOLD Choice Theatre Company (inclusiveness); and the Duluth Task Force on Police Accountability

(inclusiveness).

1/3: The Grand Marais Art Colony was the other winner of the generosity award. Back row from left to right: Sharon Frykman, Mary MacDonald, and Kristin Bootoroff. Front row from left to right: Gwen Lenz, Jan Morris, Amy Demmer (executive director), and Beth Kennedy.

2/3: The winner of the civic engagement category was Sustainable Twin Ports. Some members of the board pose for the Budgeteer News. Back row, left to right: Tyler Barrell, Jerry Hembd, Chani Becker, Jeff Madia, and Heidi Timm-Bijold. Front row, left to right: staff member Amanda Bach, Cara Lindberg, and Tracy Meisterheim, former executive director.

3/3: Sue Nichols and Brian McInnes of the Madeline Island Anishinaabeg Gathering accepted the Touchstone award for inclusiveness. Here, Sue Nichols holds her grandson Ozaawaawah, 19 months old.