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In This Issue
Kudos!
Middle School Entrepreneur Academy
Upcoming Events
Pioneer Groundbreaking ceremony held for new distribution center
Sixth grade students become classroom entrepreneurs
Cast Glass Forms blazing path to success
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Iowa Area Development Group Venture Award Hall of Fame 
The Iowa Area Development Group recently released its Venture Award Hall of Fame. Many companies within the Corridor region are included in this prestigious list:
Aero Race Wheels 
Bil-Mar Foods Inc.
Great Lakes Aviation LLC 
Dakota Pack
Daybreak Foods
Eaton Corporation
GKN Armstrong Wheels 
Green Plains Superior 
Iowa Protein Solutions 
Land Mark Products
ITC Midwest
Maurer Manufacturing 
Metal Works
Rembrandt Enterprises 
Rosenboom
Shine Bros. Corp.
Simonsen Iron Works 
Veridian Limited 
Stylecraft
Freudenberg NOK
US Bio Albert City

Kudos!!

Berkley Bedell celebrated his 75th anniversary of Pure Fishing last week in Spirit Lake! 
 
Dickinson county recorder to retire after 22 years. Congratulations Jan Bortsheller! 

Spirit Lake School District received the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Award for its onsite generation of Green Power.

 

2010 FastTrac graduate, Brent Wyman, and sister Leah Wyman open Wyman's Spudnuts in Okoboji. 

Employment Support of the Guard and Reserve named Area 3 for outstanding performance. Area 3 includes Clay, Buena Vista, Dickinson, Emmet, Webster, Calhoun, Palo Alto, Pocahontas, Humboldt and Kossuth counties.

Bruce Klenken was named Siouxland Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) Lender of the Year for 2011. 
 
Iowa Lakes professor Dr. Glenn Rogers, Professor of Humanities published his book "Proof of God inquiries into the Philosophy of Religion - A Concise Introduction." 

Buena Vista County's health advocate, Charlene Anderson, received the "Judicial Mental Health Advocate of the Year" award! 

Spencer Municipal Utilities received the 2012 IADG Impact Award for site development of the Green Industrial Center in Spencer. 

Middle School Entrepreneur Academy 

 July 9-13. 8:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

 

Students who have completed grades six through eight are invited to attend the Iowa Lakes Corridor's Entrepreneurship Academy, held July 9-13 at Iowa Lakes Community College in Spencer. Students from Buena Vista, Clay, Dickinson and Emmet counties can come and learn from local entrepreneurs about how to turn a hobby into a business.

 

During the week, students will focus on the basics of starting a business. They will learn how to write a business plan and create their own flyers. Students will have the chance to learn from real entrepreneurs during the week. They will put a power point presentation together to present to a panel of judges and compete for cash prizes at the end of the week.

 

Students will gain knowledge that they can use in years to come. It is never too early to start teaching students the entrepreneurial mindset that they will be able to apply to their future careers.

 

Cost for the event is $49, and transportation will be provided for students outside of Spencer. Scholarships are available for those in need. Classes will be held from 8:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. each day. 

 

If you know a student who has completed grades six through eight, encourage them to sign up for the academy. To enroll a student in the Entrepreneurship Academy, fill out the application and return it to the Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation at

hpearson@lakescorridor.com

 or 712-264-3474. 

 

Applications will be accepted until the camp is full.

Iowa Lakes Corridor represented at AWEA WINDPOWER 2012 

Area development leaders to promote Iowa at world's largest wind energy industry event 


Iowa produces 20% of all the electricity generated in the state from wind turbines ranking it first in the nation and second in the world.

 

Currently in Atlanta, Georgia, the world's largest wind-focused exhibition in the world is taking place from June 3-6 at the Georgia World Congress Center held by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).

 

 AWEA is a national trade association representing the wind industry, which is one of the world's fastest growing energy industries.

  

The Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation will be among the economic development groups represented at the show promoting Iowa's wind industry.Iowa is regarded as a world leader in the wind energy field, so economic developers from across the state are currently in Atlanta promoting the industry.

 

Kathy Evert, President and CEO of the Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation, will be representing the Iowa Lakes Corridor region at the conference in Atlanta. The theme for the WINDPOWER 2012 is "Manufacturing the FUTURE today."

  

WINDPOWER 2012 allows experts and leaders in the wind power industry to network and learn from others in the field. Professionals from across the nation and world come to find solutions to improve their businesses and reconnect with others in the wind energy business. 

 

The importance of the wind industry in the United States is at an all time high as the industry employs 75,000 people.

  

The WINDPOWER 2012 Conference & Exhibition is the largest annual wind-focused exhibition in the world- it features over 1,000 exhibitors and hosts tens of thousands of attendees.

 

Business leaders from across the nation will learn about the latest wind technology innovations from the industry leaders and learn how to successfully implement those innovations into their operations to maximize efficiencies and cut costs, ultimately driving the industry forward.

  

For more information on Iowa's wind industry, visit

www.iowawindenergy.org 

Upcoming Events
Annual Meeting - at Gull Point State Park, Wahpeton on June 25, 5-7 p.m. Register here.

Middle School Entrepreneur Academy - July 9-13 from 8:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. Register here

Okoboji Entrepreneurial Institute - August 5-10. 

Okoboji's Smoke on the Water BBQ fest- June 22-23.

Estherville Flight Breakfast- July 4.

Storm Lake's Star Spangled Spectacular- July 3-4.

Armstrong's Independence Day Celebration & Parade- July 4. 


Want to be included in The Corridor?
Do you have a Kudos, Upcoming Event, feature story or other item that you would like included in The Corridor? Contact  Carrie and she'll be sure to include it!
 
The Corridor
June 2012 
Greetings!

The Iowa Lakes Corridor has been busy preparing for our annual meeting which will be held Monday, June 25, and will mark our 20th anniversary! The meeting will take place at Gull Point State Park in Wahpeton. Please join us for this special celebration. You can register to attend here. The cost to attend is $15.   

 

The Corridor began its new C3 campaign in November and is pleased with the response and more than 20 new investors/members.  Please thank and welcome our newest:

  • Maurer Manufacturing - Spencer
  • Great Lakes Communications - Spencer
  • Van Hofwegen & Munter Family Dentistry - Spencer
  • Sackett & Sims-Taylor Law Firm - Milford
  • Goodies Candies - Spirit Lake
  • Lake Park Utilities
  • City of Lake Park 
  • Dyno's Oil - Spencer
  • Heying Tax and Financial Services - Spencer

Thank you to all of our new investors, and we thank our current investors for their continued support. 

 

Congratulations to our Communications Coordinator Samantha Miller and husband, Shane, on the birth of their baby girl - Nora Jean! With Samantha on maternity leave, Carrie Cunningham, our intern, will continue to maintain our marketing and communications. To contact Carrie at the Corridor office, email her at carrie@lakescorridor.com 
Pioneer Groundbreaking ceremony held for new distribution center
200,000 square foot facility to be open by fall
 
Community members and pioneer representatives take part in the ceremonial groundbreaking event for Pioneer's new distribution center being built in the Green Industrial Center of Spencer.  
SPENCER, Iowa - Community and business leaders from Spencer and the Iowa Lakes Corridor region celebrated the groundbreaking of a regional distribution center in the Spencer Green Industrial Center. Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, will ship corn and soybean seed products from the 200,000 square foot facility, which is slated for completion and occupancy in October.

 

"We are proud of the continued demand for our top performance products and services, and look forward to a larger presence in the Spencer community," said Todd Frazier, Pioneer business director for Iowa and Missouri. "This regional distribution center will help us meet our customer needs."

 

The Pioneer facility is the second building to be constructed in the Green Industrial Center. About 140 acres remain for other development as well as 70 acres in the Spencer Tech Park South on the west side of Spencer.

 

"We are proud that Pioneer selected Spencer and the Iowa Lakes Corridor region for this new distribution center," said Spencer Mayor Reynold Peterson. "Pioneer is a great company and we thank them for their faith in our community and making this investment here."

 

"This project involved many local partners working together to attract this kind of investment and this celebration today," said Kathy Evert, president and chief executive officer of the Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation. "We thank Spencer Municipal Utilities and the City of Spencer for their leadership in creating and developing the Green Industrial Center, the Spencer City Council and staff for the quality business climate they have created here, our partners in the Iowa Area Development Group, Iowa Department of Transportation, Iowa Economic Development Authority, Northwest Iowa Planning and Development Commission, Iowa Lakes Electric Cooperative and Black Hills Energy for their assistance and support of this project."

 

This warehouse announcement is in addition to several recent Pioneer expansion projects in Iowa, including a new corn research center in Orange City, a new research facility in Johnston and an expanded corn research facility in Dallas Center. 

Sixth grade students become classroom entrepreneurs 
CCE Sixth grade holds SMART-Mart Shopping Mall 
 

ROYAL - After attending the Iowa Lakes Corridor's teacher training for entrepreneurship, Sandy Heerdt, sixth grade teacher at Clay Central Everly, realized the importance of incorporating entrepreneurship into the curriculum. For the last week of school, Heerdt and her sixth grade class prepared a "SMART-mart Shopping Mall," where each student managed his or her own business.

Imaginations soared, and the end product was a diverse and complete shopping mall. 

 

The students quickly learned the real life aspects that managing a business requires. For example, students had to manage money and keep track of the cost of products, advertisements, space and signage. "Not only does this activity meet Iowa Core standards, it also opens the students' eyes that when you finish school, you don't always have to work for someone else - you can work for yourself," said Heerdt.

 

With over 17 stores at the mall, students competed against each other and experienced realistic scenarios of negotiation and partnerships. Over the course of the day, younger students came and shopped in the mall with Mav-bucks.

 

The SMART-mart Shopping Mall had a wide variety of stores and businesses that appealed to different demographics. Businesses included football cards, two bakeries, a crocheting service, a comic strip booth, a theater, face painting, bookmark shops, fish line knot tying service, room decorating, photography and yarn bracelets.

 

Laney Wilson and Sydney Jensen said the idea for their bakery, Pink Watermelon, came to them one day when they were joking around on the bus. "We were kind of joking about starting a bakery because we both love to bake and watch the show 'Cupcake Wars.' We spent forever coming up with the name. Once we had the name and began talking about it more, we realized this was something we could do for our class project. Now, we both actually want to follow this dream when we are older, and start our own cupcake shop," said Jensen.

 

Laney Wilson and Sydney Jensen's business, Pink Watermelon, started out of a love of baking. The two sold cupcakesat the SMART-mart Shopping Mall at Clay Central Everly Middle School.

  
 
"The biggest thing this has taught me is that you don't always have to work for other people, you can work for yourself," said Wilson. "Also, it takes a lot of money to run a business because everything costs."

 

Classmate Austin Heuck's business was a shop where students could learn how to tie fishing line knots. Heuck spends his free time hunting and fishing, so having a business that incorporated his passion was exciting. "I've watched a lot of YouTube videos on knot-tying so I wanted to show others." Heuck's main strategy for his business was to keep costs low. He added, "I had to change my strategy throughout the day; I saw what was selling and what wasn't."

 

Agreeing with his classmate, Alex Jorgensen said, "When I decided to have a paper airplane business, I wanted to have something other than just planes, so I decided to sell juice, too. But when I saw how many other stores had juice, I had to change my deals to appeal to the customers."

 

The students had a busy week transforming their library into the shopping mall. Students created advertisements and planned financial costs for their businesses. Thursday, May 17, younger students and teachers came to the mall, and Friday, May 18, students figured their costs and profits. "The students had to figure out gross profit as well as net profit. This experience has shown them the hard work that goes into businesses, and how to interact within the business world," said Heerdt.

 

Iowa Lakes Corridor is continuously looking to develop and promote K-12 entrepreneurial programming. Heerdt saw the importance of introducing students to entrepreneurship and took the time to implement a new unit into her curriculum. The Corridor hopes to continue working with teachers to develop the next generation of successful entrepreneurs and leaders by encouraging youth to pursue the creation of new ventures and apply entrepreneurship concepts in their career endeavors.

 

For more information about the Iowa Lakes Corridor's youth entrepreneurship programs, contact Holly Pearson at
and 712-264-3474. 
Cast Glass Forms blazing path to success

Fostoria location only glass cast foundry in world

 

FOSTORIA - After 40 years of woodworking, Hugh McKay's hands could not take it anymore; but, rather than seeing this as a setback for his career, McKay ventured off into the unknown world of glass casting.

 

When McKay began glass casting, information on the subject was scarce; however, he read all of the books available on the subject. With a grin on his face, McKay recalls first starting out, "The books are so general and so wrong that they give a beginner virtually no direction." Still, McKay did not let this stop him. The glass casting world is very small, in fact McKay says that Cast Glass Forms of Fostoria is the only glass casting foundry in the world, as far as he is aware.   

Hugh McKay with a buffalo skull for customer Ralph Lauren
Hugh McKay with glass buffalo skull for customer Ralph Lauren

 

Cast Glass Forms uses kiln casting, which requires the use of a solid mould to cast the glass. McKay uses wax most often as his solid material for the model in a process known as "lost wax." Using the lost wax process, the wax can be steamed away by the kiln. The completed mould is then put in the kiln with glass pieces and the melted glass fills the mould. Unlike other casting processes, glass casting has no room for error-once one makes a mistake it is obvious and cannot be fixed. This makes glass casting unique because a mistake can be fixed by a simple touch-up in metal casting.

 

Because of his high status in such a small field, McKay gets business not only from across the United States, but from across the world. He works with customers interested in personal and industrial glass casts. Some famous names that McKay creates glass creations for range from Ralph Lauren to Judy Chicago. Big companies, such as a laser company in Canada, and famous people find out about McKay's business because he is the only glass foundry in the world. 

 

"It's fun, because the glass strikes a chord with the human imagination," McKay explains.

 

Cast Glass Forms' immense experience sets them apart from other artists in the field. "It takes years to learn to read the signs of what went wrong and learn to make intelligent corrections," McKay explains. With McKay's hopeful outlook on the future, he rarely denies a project as he is excited to learn new methods for projects.

 

"Failure," McKay replies when asked about what he credits to his success. An unusual answer, but a genuine one nonetheless. "This art is failure-prone, it is like walking on a tight rope each day. But we make mistakes faster than anyone else, and somehow have found the very narrow path to success."

 

When asked about his advice for young entrepreneurs, McKay advises, "Give it your full focus, and pay attention to numerous details. Basically, if you don't feel like you're overwhelmed, you're probably not making much progress."

 

McKay is grateful to Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation for their constant availability and willingness to help. The Corridor has provided McKay with opportunities to connect with other business leaders throughout the community that have been beneficial to his company. The Corridor has also served as a source of contact for any employment needs McKay may need in the future.

 

McKay does not know what the future holds for his company, but currently he is extremely pleased with how well they are doing considering the economic recession. As long as customers continue to have a big imagination, Cast Glass Forms will continue to turn our imaginations into reality.
The Iowa Lakes Corridor office will be closed Wednesday, July 4, in observance of Independence Day.

Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation Staff

Kathy Evert

Shaun Arneson

Brian Dalziel

Holly Pearson

Samantha Miller

Joanne Follon

Carrie Cunningham