Please plan to join us for our Spring Breakfast, set for Saturday, April 20 at the Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center.

A CHANGE this year: We’ll be starting a little later than in past years: Breakfast begins at 9:15 a.m. with the program starting at 10 a.m., but we’ll still plan to wrap up at 11:30 a.m.



There is no charge for the breakfast. It is one way we can thank all our families and community partners who have been an incredible part of our success over the years. Stay tuned for more details and how to sign up.

Disability Services Day at the Capitol is coming up on Tuesday, March 19.

If you've never been, this is an amazing experience of watching our government and citizen advocacy in action!

Volunteer roles: To assist individuals onto the bus, take a head count going and returning, rally at the Capitol, and assist our lead volunteer and group of individuals we support to the legislators' offices as they self-advocate.

Meals: A boxed lunch will be provided.

When: Tuesday, March 19

Bus location: West office: 1909 Wayzata Blvd, Wayzata, MN 55391 or East office: 2539 County Road E East, White Bear Lake, MN 55110

Time: Volunteers meet at either the East or West office locations at 8:15 a.m. Buses load and depart each location at 8:45 a.m., arrive at the State Capitol and are dropped off at 9:30 . After the day is over, buses will depart the Capitol at 1 p.m. and return to the East and West offices.

Please RSVP to Cathy Thoma, at cthoma@hammer.org or 952-345-8554 by Tuesday, March 12, if you are able to volunteer for this event.

Oakdale Mayor, Kevin Zabel, visited our Hale home recently to meet with the people we support and their staff.

Bringing public officials into our homes is a great way to help them understand the hopes and dreams of the people who live in their community. It also helps the people we support to broaden their connections to the community.

The ladies who live at Hale loved meeting Mayor Zabel. They told him about their love for the parks and the recently improved sidewalks and walking paths. We’re thankful for the time they could spend together.

Mayor Zabel also happens to work for ARRM (our state trade association). Given that he works two jobs, this was a new opportunity for him to visit a group home. Thanks so much for taking the time to visit, Mayor Zabel!

Get involved and make a difference!

SAVE THE DATE:

Thursday, June 13

5:30-9:00 p.m.

Quincy Hall in NE Minneapolis

Support our mission as a Reach for Ralph Sponsor.

Commit soon to receive all of your sponsorship perks! Contact Nathan.Reed@Hammer.org to find out how you will get recognition for your support or view our Online Sponsorship Brochure.

Donate to our auction: We're looking for a wide variety of items:

Vacation home getaways, tickets to sporting events, golf outings, jewelry, interesting experiences, wine, craft beer, restaurant gift cards, power tools, signed sports memorabilia, theme baskets, etc. Please contact Cari at CSheley@Hammer.org with your questions and donations.

We have several employees celebrating significant anniversaries.

Jeff Deitering (pictured left, DSP, 10 years), Sandra Williams (pictured upper right, DSP, 10 years), Jacob Juma (DSP, 5 years), Olaniran Akinyele (DSP, 5 years), Nawal Ahmed (DSP, 5 years), and Rebecca Temu (pictured lower right, DSP, 3 years).

Congratulations and thank you for all that you do!

We recently welcomed a new nurse, Abby Melese, and a new volunteer manager, Julie Huffcut, to our staff.

Abby takes over a caseload of homes on the East side. Julie comes to us with a variety of experience in volunteer and community engagement in the nonprofit and government sectors.

Welcome to Hammer & NER Abby and Julie!

Each month in Happenings we feature some of our favorite photos of the people we support "Out & About" having fun in their communities.

Featured below are pictures from our first annual Valentine’s dance at our East office! Almost 50 people attended. We had pizza, cookies, candy, popcorn and lots of great music and dancing. Volunteers made ten dozen cookies for the event! We also had a Valentine Creation Station where individuals could make Valentines for their loved ones. Several prizes were raffled off. Mark (supported at our Currie home) DJ’d the event and did a great job! He's pictured in the header photo at the top of this newsletter.