Fund-raising efforts by the Concerned Citizens for the Hormel Nature Center kicked off in earnest over the weekend.

Monday, March 27, 2000

Fund-raising efforts by the Concerned Citizens for the Hormel Nature Center kicked off in earnest over the weekend.

Armed with buttons – available for a donation – members of the group occupied a booth at the Austin Home and Vacation Show at Riverside Arena.

Helen and Dick Dixon manned the booth for part of the weekend. Dick Dixon said donations for the buttons ranged from $20 to 25 cents and that they raised more awareness than money.

That’s fine, Helen Dixon said, because the overall response was very positive.

"There were very few people that stopped who were against expanding the nature center," she said. "I would say almost 100 percent said very positive things about the whole issue."

The citizens group also collected signatures on petition forms, which outlined the group’s dual mission: to promote future expansion of the Hormel Nature Center and to protect the Hormel Nature Center and surrounding land from residential and commercial development.

The funds raised by the group will be channeled into two areas. Money from the sale of the buttons will go to defray costs incurred by the group’s activities, things like the new sign, rental of the Ruby Rupner Auditorium at the nature center for meetings and printing costs. Money from proposed pledge cards that are not in circulation yet will go only toward land acquisition costs.

News that grant applications for two large grants from the state Department of Natural Resources would have to wait until next year hasn’t bothered fund-raising chairman Dave Hagen. He is focused on raising funds through other grants and private fund-raising efforts so the group will have matching funds for any possible DNR grants.

"The response is just amazing," Hagen said. "Private citizens have come forth, a couple civic organizations have expressed interest … It looks like we’ve got plenty of work to do."