To exhibit outstanding leadership in agencies and organizations that provide community services is not a small task these days due to economic difficulties that have affected not only the providers of such services, but also the recipients of those services. The Chamber gratefully acknowledges two exemplary leaders who have managed to maintain, and even increase, the level of services their organizations provide to the people of our community. This year’s Community Service Leadership Awards are being presented to Kim Wettlaufer of the Trinity Jubilee Center and Rachel Desgrosseilliers of Museum L/A, both based in Lewiston.

According to its Web site, Trinity Jubilee Center “is a multi-service agency dedicated to addressing otherwise unmet personal, family, social, and spiritual needs of people in the surrounding communities.” Wettlaufer, executive director of the Center for the past four years, oversees bringing the Center’s mission to life, and in so doing he has enriched the lives of many people in our community. Observers of his leadership of the Trinity Jubilee Center have witnessed his dedication to, and resultant growth, in all of the Center’s programs: The Drop-In Center, which offers daytime shelter; Meals & Food; Refugee Relations and Advocacy & Intervention which are two liaison programs between refugees and agencies that provide services and assistance with food, housing, education, medical communications and interpretation; Parent & Child Care which offers parenting education, diapers and formula; and so much more – including camaraderie and a sense of community.

“I’ve seen big changes take place in the Center’s programs over the past four years,” said Wettlaufer. The Meals program was once a four meals a week program when he first became involved at the Center, but has now grown to provide meals seven days a week. Part of the change in the Meals program is that the Salvation Army now brings their meals to the Center three days a week. “The Salvation Army was once restricted to serving its meals from its truck known as the Meal Wagon. The Center offered the use of its facility for the Salvation Army’s meal program so that people could eat indoors,” noted Wettlaufer. And since the Center is considered an official “warming center” in cold weather, the ability to serve seven meals a week is a win-win situation for the program and the people it services. The collaboration between these two local organizations is a model for community agencies.

The Center has become a place for members of our community to visit so as to connect to resources that fill their needs. The after school homework help program, which was added to the Center’s list of services three years ago, is one such resource that has seen growth under Wettlaufer’s leadership. “Basically, kids come to the Center after school for help with their homework. The help is provided by Center staff as well as volunteers from the community and local agencies.” Wettlaufer added, “On a typical afternoon, you’ll find 60 kids at the Center looking for homework help.” The number of students looking for help with their homework has consistently ranged from 55 to 80 on any one day.

Most of the kids, and families, using the services at the Center are refugees. Wettlaufer said, “We work a lot with the refugee population. It’s a diverse group which has become comfortable with each other.” He noted that the diversity can be observed as the different ethnic groups stand side-by-side in the Food Pantry line every Thursday. “Four years ago, the Food Pantry Center was visited by 30 families. Now, the Center provides basics for over 290 families,” he noted. The Center on Food Pantry day is similar to a village market in the countries from which many of the Center’s visitors have immigrated. “The Center is at its most diverse on Thursday mornings; it is most unlike any other spot in the Twin Cities.” Wettlaufer added, “The Center is a busy, busy place… and it’s also a lot of fun to observe the interactions among our visitors. It gives me satisfaction to be able to contribute to the well-being of our community.”

Desgrosseilliers, executive director of Museum L/A, noted that the museum’s vision is to preserve “the history of work, industry and community in Lewiston and Auburn” and that the museum “serves as a community gathering place; creates engaging learning experiences; and contributes to the civic, cultural, and economic revitalization of L-A.” Through its many programs, Desgrosseilliers, who started working at Museum L/A in April 2004, maintains the Museum’s visibility in the community by hosting reunions, lectures, workshops and tours that make the Museum a vital resource, rich in our community’s culture. She spent the first couple years gathering and saving artifacts and documents for the museum. She’d get word of renovations and demolitions in the area and would visit the sites to ask for anything of historical value for the museum. She even rescued works of art right out of the back of dump trucks. “The value of these artifacts and documents was unknown at the time. What we are saving is priceless. These items cannot be replaced,” she noted.

In leading Museum L/A to be fiscally self-supporting, Desgrosseilliers has established a line of millworker-created artwork titled “Work Art,” which is sold in the museum’s gift shop which opened in 2008. She believes 2010 is going to be a big year for the museum. “I envisioned big things for the museum when I started working here. I see the museum not as an ordinary museum, but rather a museum without walls, part of the solution to making this community grow.” She spoke of the importance of making the museum and its programs relevant to the community and used the “Rivers of Immigration” exhibit as an example.

Speaking of her vision for the museum’s future in the Camden Yarns Mill which is part of the Lewiston-Auburn riverfront development, Desgrosseilliers explained, “The new museum will definitely have major economic impact on the community which is great because the mills were once the economic engine of this area and we are returning to our roots to make that happen again.” She explained that the satisfaction she gets from being part of Museum L/A is in “validating the lives of our workers, how we’re connecting generations to learn from each other, and how we’re instilling civic pride again.” Desgrosseilliers revealed a short catchphrase that is used by visitors to the museum who have come from 32 states and seven countries: “We’re awesome fantastic.” Far and wide, Museum L/A, with Desgrosseilliers at its helm, is much appreciated by a global community.

Leaders often rely on a strong board of directors and staff to share an organization’s vision. “The museum has been lucky to have a visionary board and a professional staff, all of who have made sacrifices to make the museum happen.” Desgrosseilliers added, “Once you start learning about this community’s rich history you can’t help but become passionate about preserving it. We don’t have a choice, really. If we didn’t have this passion for preservation, we’d be robbing our own children and grandchildren of their past.”

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