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Major Gifts Consultant
Safe Haven Shelter for Battered Women Position Summary:
Responsible for implementing all major gifts fundraising in coordination with the executive director, Sustainable Funding Committee, and the Board of Directors.
Essential Functions:
– Play an active role in identifying, cultivating and asking for major gifts.
– Support the Executive Director and key volunteers in major gifts solicitations.
– Maintain stewardship contacts with donors; adhere to the highest ethical standards; demonstrate empathetic disposition, and perseverance; reflect optimistic and positive attitude and convey sensitivity to needs of the donors.
– Maintain constituent reports for every donor contact.
– Set and achieve agreed-up performance goals.
– Utilize and supervise entry of progress in donor software.
For a complete listing of the job description and contact information please go to the Safe Haven Shelter website.
Duluth TV Recycling
I finally upgraded the last of our TVs into the flat-screen age. Does anyone know where to recycle this old “boat anchor” that we have left? I suppose there’s a disposal fee. Any idea how much this is? Thanks for the help. Will likely be going to analog TV heaven this weekend.
XC Skiing at Hartley Park
Fresh snow is falling- which makes tomorrow a great time to get to Hartley Park and Nature Center for some cross-country skiing. Tomorrow night, Jan. 12, from 7-8:30 pm, join members of the Duluth XC Ski Club for an evening headlamp ski on Hartley’s trails. Warm beverages will be provided in the Nature Center. Families are invited!
Duluth Housekeeping Services
I am looking for someone who would be able to come on Saturdays, once a month, to clean a small home from top to bottom. Does anyone have any leads? I will need references, too. Thanks!
Amsoil Arena
I went to the game last night and other than the remarkably crappy hockey, I have to say that in my already-addressed 10 years in Duluth, I have never been more proud to be a Duluthian.
What a great building, and as Mayor Ness said, what a great achievement for the men and women who built it and the folks who work there. On my way in I heard employees welcoming people, and on the way out I was thanked for coming and invited back, and it was actually sincere. It’s a beautiful facility and I’m so glad that our community voted to build it.
I think 61% of the city would now vote to get the Bulldogs some defense, but that would be a different referendum.
Anyway, thanks to all of those who worked to get the arena, those who worked on the arena, and those who work in it now. It was a great experience and I’m looking forward to many, many more. I would encourage everyone to visit the open house, even if you’re not a hockey fan. It’s going to be a great venue for concerts and other events, too.
Duluth Citizenship Test
Today jessige and I were having lunch together and we pondered the question: how long do you have to live here to be considered a native? (We’re both transplants from Eau Claire, Wisconsin that have lived in this area for ten years or more.)
Well, that topic has been done before here on the ol’ PDD (someone else can find it, I wasn’t able to), so we extrapolated it to “what questions would you put on a ‘Duluth Citizenship’ test?”
What are the essential things that you have to know to be considered a native Duluthian?
Rolling papers
Simple question: What gas station has rolling papers, close to Fitger’s?
Duluth and Iron Will are chopped liver on Explore Minnesota’s “Top 10 Minnesota Film Destinations”
If crappy Disney movies like Iron Will were exempt from the list, how did The Mighty Ducks get included?
Anyway, on the list are:
A Prairie Home Companion – Fitzgerald Theater, Mickey’s Diner
Grumpy Old Men – Lake Rebecca
North Country – The Iron Range
Purple Rain – First Avenue
The Good Son – Palisade Head
Beautiful Girls – Bryant Lake Bowl
Jingle All The Way – Mall of America
Sweet Land – Southwestern Minnesota
The Mighty Ducks – Rice Park
Fargo – Brainerd Lakes Area (more…)
Setting Duluth’s Priorities
Here’s a chance to voice your opinion about Duluth’s priorities, the quality of city services, and performance standards. Three focus groups will be held in late January and you can apply to become one of the participants. If selected, you’ll receive $35 for your participation.
To complete an application survey, go to either duluthmn.gov or zenithgroup.com.
The research is being paid for by a grant from the National Center for Civic Innovation. Zenith Research Group of Duluth will conduct each of the 90-minute sessions. More than one member of each household can enter, part of an effort to reach a diverse and representative sampling of city residents. A full news release is available for review on the city’s website.
No-so-high-speed decision making
Google is still deciding which city will receive Google Fiber. They were originally going to announce the decision by the end of the year, but now they say to look for an announcement in early 2011.
Not-so-high-speed rail advice
Next week, my daughters and I are going to be heading out on a week-long trip via Amtrak out of St. Paul. Having spoken to someone at the station who suggested that the parking lot there might be full so close to Christmas, I’m wondering if anyone has recommendations for long-term parking options in the general vicinity of the station. No one we know in the Cities is going to be available to ferry us, and both timing and cost considerations militate against the bus or shuttle. Has anybody done this successfully?
Missing Siberian Husky in Duluth
Nine-year-old female husky with two blue eyes and wearing a black collar named Sasha has been missing since Monday, Dec. 6, at approximately 6:30 p.m. She was found in Kohl’s parking lot, but then broke loose from animal control at the Duluth Animal Shelter on 27th West. That is where she was last seen. She is very small for a husky (only about 45-50 lbs) and may appear to be younger than she is, but she has a special diet and will get sick if off it too long. If you have any information, please contact me at 218-391-8149 or call the Duluth Police Department/Animal Shelter. Please help!!! There are kids really missing her.
City of Duluth Quarterly
Duluthians should find the first issue of City of Duluth Quarterly in their mailboxes today, Dec. 10. It’s part of Mayor Don Ness’ plan to improve city communications. The magazine is produced by city staff and New Ventures Publishing Corp.
New Ventures is owned by former Duluth News Tribune publisher Marti Buscaglia and also publishes Duluth-Superior Magazine.
Duluth Christmas Tree Sellers
I was wondering where in the heck a person buys a Christmas tree in Duluth these days? It’s not exactly something you can look up online as far as I know … PDD’s help is greatly appreciated!
Northern Lights Books & Gifts closing?
In my email today:
Dear Loyal Customers,
Sometime in the near future the Duluth News Tribune will be running a story about Northern Lights Books & Gifts being for sale. It is true. Since August I have been contacting our top customers and local book colleagues to let them know I was looking for a buyer. Our lease will be up the end of February and I do not plan to renew.
I have decided to scale back my professional responsibilities so I can be available to travel in order to care for elderly parents in northern Illinois. Over the past year I have been gone nine weeks. I am very grateful to my staff for their professionalism and for their loyal efforts on behalf of the bookstore.
There have also been significant changes in traditional bookselling. I believe we are at a “Guttenberg” moment in publishing with the impact of electronic media. A new fresh approach is required for continued success in bookselling at the brick and mortar level. My heart and head are distracted with other priorities and I do not have the energy to figure out what comes next for profitible bookselling.
It has truly been an honor and a dream come true to serve the community of book lovers who have shopped with us for the past seventeen years. In the meantime we are operating full steam ahead through the holiday season.
Gratefully,
Anita Zager
Northern Lights Books & Gifts
Lake Superior Hand Jive
Does anyone else do this? When people ask where I’m from, I often make my hand into the shape of Lake Superior and say, “This is Lake Superior and I live here, at the western tip.”
I think maybe I’m just a tad jealous of the Michiganders (lower peninsula) getting to use their hands as maps all the time.
Ten Minutes with Naomi Yaeger-Bischoff
I met Naomi Yaeger-Bischoff at a Sustainable Duluth event at the Clyde Iron Works earlier this fall. Naomi came to Duluth five years ago and is currently editor of the Duluth Hillisider, the community newspaper, and a founder of the Duluth Daily Photo blog. Like many of the artists and writers I’ve interviewed here, her passion for what she would become emerged early in life.
Ennyman: When did you first take an interest in writing? And who were your biggest influences?
Naomi: I first became interested in journalism when I was in junior high school. As icebreaker, our typing teacher had everyone anonymously write down his or her favorite television show on a slip of paper. My favorite show was 60 Minutes and when the teacher read it out loud, the whole class erupted into laughter.
As a high school junior, I wrote for our high school paper. The summer before my senior year, I attended Northwestern University’s six-week Summer Institute of Journalism in Evanston, Ill. We participated in mock interviews of famous people and we also had some real interviews. My senior year I wrote for the Grand Forks Herald’s Teen scene. I was paid to produce one story a week on area teenagers. (I doubt any newspapers are paying teenagers to write stories now.)
To see the rest of this interview, visit Ennyman’s Territory and https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com
Thankful in Duluth — 2010 Edition
I’ll lead this year’s PDD Thanksgiving prayer by declaring I’m thankful my Internet is finally back up and running, just in time for giving thanks (and after $100 and hours of anguish.)
I’m also thankful for the batch of glogg I need to start making right this minute!
… and friends and family and yada yada.
What are you thankful for?
(Here’s what PDDers were thankful for in 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 and 2003.)
Oh, the possibilities
Okay, I need a little help. I finally got a M-F, 9-5 job in Duluth and will not have to work weekends for the first time since I was 14 years old. I have a 1 year old daughter and want to take advantage of some weekend family activities but have been out of the loop for a while. What is out there that I may have forgot or have not heard about yet?
Sustainability
lastest reports are that the unemployment rate in Duluth is six point nine . Thank you Mayor Ness . It’s curious that we as a city haven’t embraced sustaniblity concepts beyon(sp) what has been done..I’m curious why we’re not more progressive. Noithing in the paper about solar prodjects. I could get down into that but Mister mayor leave a legacy.

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