Western Wellness Foundation Media
Deb Nelson, chair of the Coalition of Charitable Organizations, left, and Steve Glasser, director of the Strom Center for Entrepreneurship, present the 2011 Southwest North Dakota Non-Profit of the Year award to Kris Fehr, executive director of the Best Friends Mentoring Program and Western Wellness Foundation, Inc.
The Strom Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation is pleased to announce the winners of the first annual Strom Center entrepreneurship awards. These awards recognize those who have made an outstanding impact on southwest North Dakota in 2010.
Nominations for each category were taken anonymously online between February and April of 2011. Winners in each category were announced at an awards luncheon during the Strom Center’s annual Entrepreneurship Conference which was held on April 19, 2011 in Dickinson.
The Nonprofit of the Year Award is presented to a not-for-profit organization that exemplifies what it means to be in service to its community. This first year’s award is presented to the Best Friends Mentoring Program, which serves children and families in southwest North Dakota.
In presenting the award, Deb Nelson, chair of the Coalition of Charitable Organizations (COCO), read the following: The Western Wellness Foundation, Inc. began in July 1994 with a group of concerned Dickinson, North Dakota mental health professionals expressing a need for a mentoring program – such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America – for the region’s at-risk youth.
There has been a documented need for children to have more adult interaction and positive influence in their lives in an effort to increase self esteem issues, improve behavior, change attitudes, and increase academic performance. For many youth, the amount of time they spend with adult family members has decreased, leading to a corresponding increase in the amount of time children spent alone, isolated from caring adults and the community as a whole.
For the past 17 years, Kris Fehr and her dedicated staff at the Best Friends Mentoring Program have matched adult role models with children who need positive adult guidance and friendship. They work with more than 200 volunteers and at-risk youth each year and their evaluations demonstrate that the program works. The impact the program makes on children and their families, and on the community as a whole makes this program a deserving choice for the Strom Center’s Non-Profit of the Year Award.
