In August 2022 I was appointed the publisher of a group of three community newspapers, collectively known in Forum Communications Co. as the "Lakes Group." I hadn't been a full-time publisher in a number of years, but I saw an opportunity to return to working in the community newspaper space. And while the gig only lasted 10 months before an eventual company restructuring, it was one of the most rewarding professional stints I've ever had. Hats off the the staffs at the Detroit Lakes Tribune, Perham Focus and Wadena Pioneer Journal for welcoming this old newspaper hack for a great run!
Dec. 22, 2022
By Devlyn Brooks
WADENA — On a recent blustery, cold winter afternoon construction workers, bathed in sunlight from large south-facing windows, installed gorgeous tongue-in-groove paneling on the vaulted ceiling of the soon-to-be lobby of the new Wadena County Humane Society building.
A year after the project began with poured footings for an expansion on the east side of the building, one can start to see the interior of the building taking shape. The tireless dreaming, fundraising, planning and orchestrating by the WCHS board and staff is paying off with a state-of-the-art facility that will make the saving of hundreds of cats and dogs the organization does each year more efficient and professional.
The Wadena County Humane Society is a nonprofit organization founded in 1997 by dedicated local volunteers. The rescue accepts pets surrendered by their owners, strays brought there, and animals at risk for euthanasia from other crowded shelters when the facility has the space. WCHS then provides medical care and behavioral support to abandoned pets, and all the animals are spayed or neutered, microchipped and given shots before they are adopted.
In 2022 alone, the humane society will have adopted out 550 cats and dogs, an incredible number by anyone’s standards, given the facility is independently funded. All donations come from generous donors, and much of the work at the shelter is performed by volunteers. That means the dream taking shape in the former Freshwater Education District building along U.S. Highway 10 on the east side of Wadena is generating a lot of excitement among the WCHS faithful.
WCHS Board Treasurer Jeff Harrison is overseeing the large construction project, and says that while the first $1 million necessary to begin Phase One of the project was pledged before work began last year, construction has been hampered by the familiar supply chain issues and other challenges that all building projects currently face. He’s hopeful, though, that the building will open sometime next spring.
“When we broke ground a year ago, I was optimistic we’d be in here by now,” Harrison said during a recent tour of the new facility. “In just a few days, though, things can change! Just the other day, the workers got in here again, and the Sheetrock and electrical are now all going in.”
Tracy Adams Kooman, a WCHS board member for nearly a decade and a half, and president for much of that time, says that “It’s been an exciting process but not without challenges.”
“Skyrocketing lumber and supply prices made it more difficult and while remodeling we hit unforeseen structural issues that delayed the start,” she said. “As ceilings were torn out, we made the decision to take a lot more of the building to the studs for the quality and safety of our new structure.”
But now, despite the twists and turns, “the lights are on, and we’re working,” Adams Kooman happily exclaimed.
The story of the new WCHS facility is one of serendipity.
“We were at the right place at the right time,” Harrison said.
The building, which was built in the early 1980s, was first a government agricultural building, Harrison said. Later a doctor bought the building and made it the home of his practice. Then it came into the hands of the Freshwater Education District, which recently constructed a new facility south of Wadena so that they could consolidate their programs.
So, Freshwater was looking to get out of the building at the same time WCHS was considering building its Phase One building on adjacent land it owns just to the north of this new building. The circumstances couldn’t have worked out any better, Harrison said. Being Freshwater was a nonprofit organization and so was WCHS, the purchase was easy.
As a bonus, Harrison said they now have the land they originally planned to build on for Phase Two of the project, and “we gained Highway 10 frontage, so we have good exposure now. We didn’t have that with our other piece of land.”
But the history of this expansion project goes back even further than the Freshwater building, to a time when Adams Kooman dreamt of taking the organization to the next level.
While Adams Kooman no longer lives locally, she has been integrally involved in WCHS for more than a decade, and with others, she envisioned a better future.
In 2020, she was contacted by close friends in the Twin Cities, where she has lived since growing up in Wadena. Armand and Mary Brachman contacted her and said they wanted to make a $300,000 gift toward a new facility for WCHS. They shared Adams Koomans’ passion for cats and rescue and wanted to make a difference.
It was that initial gift that spurred others into action. With that in hand, they were able to attract other donors and marched closer to the $1 million needed to begin construction. That “pledged” milestone was reached in spring 2021, and the renovation of the Freshwater building began.
So what does a state-of-the-art rescue facility look like?
On the tour, Harrison leads us in from a “secondary” door located at the northeast corner of the building. This entrance leads into the new addition, which makes the building about a third bigger than before.
As you enter, to your right is a mechanical room — one of four independent systems that power the facility — and straight ahead is a bathroom. As you hook a left, you walk into a “Community and Education Room,” a space that will serve multiple purposes, including training, a boardroom and a space for the community to rent. There is a locked door between this space and the rest of the facility, meaning that the community can use it at various times of the day without staff needing to be present.
On the west side of the room, there is another glass door that leads to a second, smaller training room which might be used for things like video and online training and other uses. Go through another west door and that brings you to a crossroads: To your left is the beautifully vaulted lobby area, straight ahead you head toward the new cat facilities, and to your right is the back of the facility where there’s another mechanical room, employee break room and locker room.
The focal point of the new building is the gorgeous sun-splashed vaulted lobby that will face Highway 10. Patrons will enter through new glass doors in the southeastern corner of the building to the two-story lobby that will hold both cat and dog retail and the WCHS front desk.
Another exciting segment of this part of the building will include two cat rooms, each containing large picture windows to the south or east and designed to be a showstopper for anyone passing by the new facility. The rooms were a request by large donors who wanted the cats to enjoy ample sunshine and be visible to the public. The rooms will contain cat climbing perches and sitting areas for visitors to enjoy time with the cats.
Exiting the lobby to the west you enter the cat facilities, including an intake room where surrendered animals will be examined, another lobby area designed for the care of cats, and five suites of rooms where cats will be housed. One of those cat rooms is dedicated to the humane society’s future “Red Rover” program supporting cats displaced from homes where their owners are in abusive situations. As individuals get the help they need, WCHS will care for the cat until both are able to live safely together again. Additionally, one of the cat rooms is being outfitted to serve as a temporary surgical suite where cats will be spayed and neutered until WCHS’s Phase Two is complete.
Going north in the building from the cat facilities, there will be a suite of offices, three regular-sized offices along the northwest corner, and a larger office for the WCHS’s operations manager. Just outside of that office is a media center countertop where all the operation’s printing and mailing will be done.
Finally, heading east from there, you will find the employee break room and locker room at the end of the hall.
In all, Phase One of this project will enlarge WCHS’s cat-dedicated space from the 140 square feet it currently has to 925 square feet dedicated to the felines. You can see the joy in Harrison’s eyes when he talks about the big changes.
So what about this Phase Two that is talked about?
Harrison said that eventually, the organization will need to raise additional funds to build the new dog-dedicated facility to the north of this new facility. That building also will house the permanent medical facility that will then serve both cats and dogs. But, he says, there’s no telling how far into the future that will be.
Adams Kooman adds that in addition to the progress being made on the new facility, the organization has other reasons to celebrate.
For instance, this fall the staff was asked by local law enforcement to assist in the rescue of a “skittish, feral dog” that was running around the southwest part of Wadena. After several days of concerted efforts, they managed to capture “Bentley,” and bring him safely back to the shelter.
And, she said, there is the kindness displayed by donors.
Recently the Wadena-Deer Creek High School Honor Society held a supply drive to benefit the rescue. They brought in a large number of valuable goods that will help to keep the organization in operation.
And on Wednesday, Dec. 21, WCHS received a $5,000 donation from Kenny’s Candy & Confections, a division of KLN Family Brands, based in Perham. Employees were asked to nominate and vote for their favorite nonprofit organizations, and WCHS was a top vote-getter. There was a check presentation held at Lakeside Golf Course.
Donations such as the NHS supply drive, and the check from Kenny’s Candy & Confections, are operational donations, Adams Kooman said, which can sometimes be confusing. These are donations that help WCHS keep the doors open and the facility operating on a daily basis.
And while the shelter’s greatest need is operational donations, Adam Kooman said in the future, the organization will look for financial assistance for Phase Two of the expansion designed for dogs and to contain a permanent medical facility. Those will be funds that go strictly to the building project.
Adams Kooman says that just because the community will s
tart to see the new facility coming to life, WCHS is far from the goal needed to complete Phase Two of the structure. But she’s counting on the continued generosity of a community that has helped WCHS come this far.
Two members join the WCHS board
Two new members have recently joined the Wadena County Humane Society Board. Here are short bios of those new members:
Stacy Atkins: Atkins was born and raised in Stillwater, Minn., where she and her family still reside. She is married, has four adult children and four dogs. She works for CarePatrol helping seniors find trusted senior living options, and owns an art therapy practice called Olive Art. She enjoys spending time boating on the St. Croix River, but her true passion is animals. As a child, she was always bringing home stray animals trying to find them a home. Last year, when she was assigned to northern Minnesota territory for CarePatrol, an area that included Wadena, WCHS board member Kelly Brooks Paradise asked her if she was interested in working with the board since she would be in the area on a regular basis. “I was thrilled to accept this opportunity!” she said. “I look forward to many more years with Wadena County Humane Society.”
Kelsey Browne Budke: Browne Budke was born and raised in Wadena, which she has always called “home.” She currently serves as vice president of the WCHS. In 2011, she moved away for college at North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in management, she started her career in banking. She lived in Fargo until 2020 when she moved back to Wadena to continue her career at Wadena State Bank, owned by her family. “I was excited to move back and was even more excited to get involved in the community,” she said. “My love for dogs is what sparked my interest in getting involved with the amazing organization at the WCHS. I couldn’t think of a better organization to get involved with because I truly believe in their mission as they do wonders in saving lives of beloved companion animals and finding their forever homes. I am excited to be back in the community with my husband, Tanner, and our beloved yellow lab ‘Drake.’ We are excited to be more involved and to help find the most caring animals in this world their forever home!”
Large donations kicked off Phase One of WCHS project
Several large gifts have helped to fuel the fundraising efforts to build the Phase One expansion of the new WCHS facility at the old Freshwater Education District building on the east side of Wadena.
Those large gifts include $300,000 given by Armand and Mary Brachman in late 2020, which was the true kickoff to the Phase One expansion project.
Other donors of gifts larger than $10,000 include:
Lane and Donna Waldahl
Luther and Marilyn Nervig
Judy Erdahl (in memory of Bruce Erdahl)
Brothers Rich and Tom Paper Family Trust
Dennis McIntire
Wadena State Bank
Jack and Alvida Browne Family Foundation
Rosemary and Harry Harrison Foundation
Peter and Tracy Adams Kooman
Jeff and Kathy Harrison
Dr. Shaneen and Kent Schmidt
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