Couleecap Inc., Downtown Mainstreet Inc., La Crosse County, the La Crosse Area Development Corporation, and North La Crosse Business Association partnered to create the Launch La Crosse Small Business Recovery Fund to assist small businesses in central commercial districts.

The fund was started to help address the significant and immediate financial need facing area small business owners amid the growing public health concern, including business closings and changing market conditions.

“Many small business owners operate on extremely thin margins under normal conditions, so we knew there would be an immense need for financial support,” said Aaron Reimler, a business and income developer for Couleecap. “We’re extremely grateful for the donors who stepped up to help, allowing us get this program off the ground and start getting funds to small business owners as quickly as possible.”

In order to continue to support the program and work toward expanding eligibility, partner organizations are seeking private donations and funders to assist in continuing to support this fund.

These funds are being mobilized locally to help respond to financial gaps and provide relief with a quick turnaround time.

“Due to the unprecedented and quickly evolving nature of the circumstances surrounding this pandemic, we’re going a little beyond our usual methods to help our community try and weather this storm,” Reimler said. “We recognize that the financial need for our small business community will continue to remain significant and that these local resources can provide a lifeline, which is why we are asking for the community’s help”, said Robin Mosses, executive director of Downtown Mainstreet. “As a community we can make a difference in the future survival of our businesses.”

Contributions can be made at Couleecap.org/business-recovery or by sending a check to Couleecap Inc. at 201 Melby St., Westby, WI 54667 with “Launch La Crosse” written in the memo line.

“Many small business owners operate on extremely thin margins under normal conditions, so we knew there would be an immense need for financial support.” Aaron Reimler, a business and income developer for Couleecap.

Grant recipients

Here is a list of businesses that have received grants through June 30:

• Amanda’s Academy of Dance
• Audiolust Records
• Cannabiz Depot
• David Reay’s
• Diggers
• Dublin Square
• Fat Porcupine
• Full Circle Supply
• Games People Play
• Generous Earth Pottery
• Handmade Natural Beauty
• La Crosse Escape Room
• Lovechild
• Lush Salon
• Marge’s On Rose
• Mind Altering Tattoo
• Monet Floral
• Mueller Photography
• Pickermans
• Pla Mor Lanes
• Twisted Skull
• UnWine’d
• Weber Center for the Performing Arts
• Willow Boutique

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The curriculum can be integrated into existing classes or offered as a separate class.

John Norlin, a Seattle educator and co-creator of Character Strong, the curriculum on which Character Lives is based, will lead the training.

The training will introduce a model to become the bedrock for educators in western Wisconsin, along with techniques to improve student attitudes and school climates.

Advocates of a character-building curriculum for Coulee Region high schools made superintendents an offer they couldn’t refuse — so they didn’…

Coulee Region Whole Child founders include Festival Foods board chairman Dave Skogen and his wife, Barb; Misty Lown, owner of Misty’s Dance Unlimited in Onalaska; Marvin Wanders, CEO of Three Sixty Real Estate Solutions; and Patrick Clements, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel.

Studies have demonstrated that programs such as Character Lives boost academic performance; lower stress and help prevent mental illness; prevent negative behaviors such as drug use, violence and bullying; and equip students with soft skills, including communication needed for workplace success and self-management.

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That’s the introduction Festival Foods board chairman Dave Skogen gave to more than 50 business and community leaders and educators during a presentation Wednesday about a leadership curriculum for area high schools. It also was the wind-up for a pitch for pledges totaling $600,000 spread over three years to pay for the program.

Skogen and his wife, Barb, had considered the idea of a leadership training academy, along with Misty Lown, owner of Misty’s Dance Unlimited in Onalaska, and Marvin Wanders, CEO of Three Sixty Real Estate Solutions, Skogen said.

They suggested to superintendents that the former Festival support center in Onalaska, which has been vacant since moving to its new building in Onalaska, could serve as a potential site for the academy, Skogen explained.

“They said, ‘We’re not interested in busing students to your building,’” Skogen said, eliciting chuckles. “But we like the idea of a leadership academy.’”

One of the driving forces behind the effort to develop a servant leader-minded workforce was a 2013 survey in which more than 700 employers said they had trouble finding recent grads to hire because, although technically competent, the applicants lacked communication, adaptability, decision-making and problems-solving skills they would need for the jobs.

Thus was born the Character Lives curriculum, a leadership training initiative that was launched this semester in 21 area high schools, along with training for 60 teachers and administrators. The group brought in John Norlin, co-creator of the CharacterStrong curriculum on which Character Lives is based, to introduce students to the concept and train teachers.

Attesting to the training’s value was Annie Skogen, a senior at Onalaska High School and second cousin to Dave Skogen, who said students are learning the need to develop relationships, the potential of positive use of influence and the necessity to build a sense of community.

Pinpointing a person who had influenced her, Annie said, “I realized my first-grade teacher still influences me — 12 years later.”

Also a member of the Character Lives team is Patrick Clements, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel who is part of the Coulee Region Whole Child Initiative with Skogen and others.

The initiative strives to teach life skills and cultivate a culture of character, said Clements, who is president of Clements Management Consulting.

Norlin also addressed the lunch group, saying, “Research is not just suggesting — but it’s showing — that, if we teach students only for test scores, that is only one-third to one-half of what they need.”

Holding a cell phone aloft, Norlin said, “Students can engage in five different conversations on six different platforms” on the device, but many are lost when it comes to a face-to-face conversation.

“If you ask them to meet someone and talk, it’s like a death sentence,” he said.

“We are built to be relational, but we are more isolated than ever before,” in part because of the tech disconnect, Norlin said.

Character Lives, which hews to the servant leadership model imbued in the Coulee Region, espouses the mantra, “To Lead is To Serve.” It teaches students to relate to each other and develop character, the foundation for improving the community and the world, he said.

Schools that don’t know how to achieve that simply assign the task to community service hours that don’t necessarily convey the reasons, Norlin said.

“We want to create citizens who want to give back because they know the why,” he said.

While happiness often is cited as the goal for life, “we need to stop living for happiness and live with a clear sense of purpose,” he said.

Norlin scoffed at the slogan that leaders are born, not made, saying that applies to only a precious few, “and it lets everybody else off the hook. We all have influence — we all have skin in this.”

As society has moved away from a culture of character to one of personality, it has lost the sense of caring for each other, he said.

“Personality is a gift,” he said. “Character is a habit.”

Saluting the Character Lives team, Norlin also said, “This community is behind this work” of building character and leaders unlike any other he has encountered.

The next step is to provide the financial base for the training, Wanders said, encouraging attendees to fill out pledge cards with amounts ranging from $300 over three year, dubbed the “Support a Teacher Level,” to the $60,000 platinum benchmark for corporate sponsorship.

More information on Character Lives is available at its web site. Contributions may be sent to Character Lives at P.O. Box 609, La Crosse, WI 56402.

“We want to create citizens who want to give back because they know the why.” John Norlin, co-creator of the CharacterStrong curriculum on which Character Lives is based

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One cannot offer programs without a place to offer them.

Thanks to Kristina Schoh, Coulee Region Gospel Choir, Winona HIMS, Holmen Lutheran Church Bell Choir, and various Holmen High School Students and alums for their performances.

The companies that provided a match to “Stuff the Stocking” are Features in Holmen, Courtesy Corporation, Achieve Physical Therapy, GCS Software, Three sixty real estate solutions at 250, and Halle and Grayson Schoh.

Check out our website www.holmencc.org.

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