By Pauline Schreiber
Posted: Saturday, April 11, 2009 12:09 am

Gary Kasten, a retired Faribault minister, conducts an English as a Second Language class at Faribault’s Welcome Center Friday morning. He volunteers his time to help with the classes that help adult immigrants from different countries learn English.

pschreiber@faribault.com

FARIBAULT — A local organization is trying hard not to withdraw its welcome mat.

Faribault’s Welcome Center, 24 Division St. W., needs donations to keep its doors open between now and June when a grant from Blue Cross, Blue Shield Foundation is due to arrive, said Milo Larson, head of Faribault’s Diversity Coalition, the founding agency of the Welcome Center.

“A bigger issue, however, is ongoing funding,” Larson said. “The grant size this year will be less, so it will help until December, but after that, we need to have a plan so this doesn’t happen again.”

What Larson referred to is a financial emergency. The Diversity Coalition and Bob Kell, director of the Welcome Center, had thought the Blue Cross, Blue Shield grant would come at the same time it did last year. But it is being delayed because of the foundation’s own financial issues.





As a result, the Welcome Center is just a few weeks away from having to close its doors. What is helping, Kell said, is that the local United Way gave its next quarterly funding for the Welcome Center early and the Faribault City Council Tuesday will consider giving $5,500 of a $7,500 contribution approved for the Welcome Center earlier than summer, as scheduled.

But even with those funds, Kell said the agency needs to raise $1,800 in donations to have enough dollars to keep its doors open until June.

Friday morning, Gary Kasten and Gloria Olson, volunteers from the community, conducted English classes at the Welcome Center. Larson explained how the Welcome Center’s English classes are “an overflow from the school district’s adult basic ed’s ESL classes.”

More adults than they have room for in classes want to learn English and the Welcome Center recruits community members to conduct the classes.

The Welcome Center also provides an emergency food shelf for immigrant families who feel uncomfortable going to the Faribault Food Shelf because of they do not speak English well. It organizes a community garden in the summer so families can grow their own food, offers a carpentry class and offers other programs to help immigrant families adjust to living in Faribault.

The Welcome Center’s primary role in the community, however, Larson said, is to offer assistance to immigrant families, many of whom do not speak, read or write English very well, in finding the resources they need to assist them in living in American culture.

Kell told how, on just one afternoon, six people came needing help filling out forms to apply for unemployment benefits and four people needed help with job applications.

The Welcome Center opened its doors six years ago and has kept its doors open mainly with funding from foundations and grants.

“We will continue to apply for them, but almost all of them have suffered financial losses because of the recent financial crisis,” Kell said. “They have less money available to give.”

Kell told of one foundation the Welcome Center has received grants from in the past, whose assets once totaled $50 million and today, “those are down to $39 million in value.”

So, Kell and Larson are appealing to the Faribault community for donations to keep the Welcome Center’s doors open until June.

And, Larson said, fundraising needs to be considered. If someone would be willing to volunteer with ideas, and also willing to head up a committee to raise dollars for the Welcome Center, “that would be wonderful.”



— Staff writer Pauline Schreiber may be reached at 333-3127.