Good Morning Long Prairie - Bringing people together

The primary goal of the Long Prairie Area’s Chamber of Commerce is to promote  businesses and nonprofits in the community while nurturing the livability and connectedness of the Long Prairie Area. Instead of asking, “What do you want your chamber to do?” members prefer to know, “What kind of a community do we want to be?” By learning from one another, the Chamber can help connect community members to businesses, and nonprofits while ensuring economic viability for years to come.

An effort in this direction is the Good Morning Networking Breakfast series. Held every fourth Thursday, Good Morning Breakfast offers businesses and nonprofits the opportunity for networking and building new connections. This event, which begins at 7.30 am sharp, is co-hosted by the Chamber and a business or nonprofit  in the area. The session begins with 30 minutes of networking between attendees, followed by a short presentation by the host and a local non-profit group. Everyone is welcome to attend the event and share notes about their business, nonprofit and community events. 

Mark Blees, the Public Relations Chairman, of Long Prairie’s Lions Club has attended most GMB meetings. He says, “The interactions that take place here are really good. Everybody is given a chance to talk about their business, nonprofit and contributions to the community. As members of the Lions Club, it gives us a chance to educate people and inform them of the various activities and projects that we are hosting. It gives us a chance to network and collaborate with various Chamber members. It helps us to know each other better, on a more personal level.”

A. John Peters, of A. John Peters Computer Services in Long Prairie feels that the GMB meetings helped his computer business to garner more publicity, and this helped his trade take off. He says, “I handle computer repair, software installations and repair, rent out multi-media conference rooms, create online training content, and hold computer training sessions, especially for senior citizens. A large part of my work is in training people to use computers.  These meetings give me a chance to let people of the community know what we are doing, and the word-of-mouth publicity that results from each meeting is very good for my business.”

Rev. Kali Christensen is a pastor of the Communities of Faith United Methodist Parish & Peace United Church in Long Prairie. She regularly takes part in the GMB meetings, stating that “they are full of good information and hope.” She says, “....we are always stronger together, better together. Moreover, people enjoy coming to these meetings. Sometimes, they are held out in the open, during summers, and all of us have a good time then. What’s more, the meetings are usually short, they last for an hour, so people can get back to their work well in time”. 

Rick Utech, Executive Director, Todd County Development Corporation, has this to say about the meetings. “The Long Prairie Area Chamber of Commerce is a vital partner of our community and economic development efforts at Todd County Development Corporation.  Participating as a host of the “Good Morning Long Prairie” program, allowed our organization to gain insight from businesses and community members on important issues.  The program additionally helps everyone participating to meet in person and share ideas.  This program reflects Todd County Development Corporation’s tag line of “Building Communities Together”.

Luan Thomas-Brunkhorst, Director, Long Prairie Area Chamber of Commerce and who helped to initiate the breakfast meetings, calls them “an effort towards building connections, networking, and communication for the community.” The idea for these meetings was drawn from “Wake Up Alexandria”, a breakfast networking event. “We started in 2019, shut down in 2020, started again in 2021 with virtual/outdoor sessions - it is only now that we have been properly able to connect and promote businesses, non-profits, and individuals, and get them talking and getting to know each other.  It has been delightful to see people networking,  finding answers and resources that help them move forward in their work, business and life.”

Are you interested in being a sponsor for a Good Morning Long Prairie Breakfast session? Visit https://www.longprairie.org/ for more information.