Hi all! Upstream Arts’ Intern Larissa Leshovsky here. May 19th is coming up fast! Each week I will be highlighting our amazing sponsors who have answered our call with support for our upcoming Art of We: Ten Year Anniversary Celebration & Fundraiser. This week, we want to acknowledge our business sponsors who have so generously given in order to make the event completely free of charge for those attending! These outstanding businesses also are deeply immersed in and give back to the communities in which they reside, sharing our strong conviction of the importance of inclusive community membership. Many thanks to the Minnesota Vikings, YESS Yoga, Youth Frontiers, Nokomis Heights Lutheran Church, The Graham Smith Team, Ignited Fundraising, and FedEx who have answered our call for support for the Upstream Arts May 19th Event!
Uptown Natural Care Center
We would like to extend an enormous thank you to our first featured sponsor – our friends at Uptown Natural Care Center who are dedicated to serving our community’s chiropractic needs. Since purchasing Uptown Natural Care Center in 2004, Daniel Conway, D.C has been strongly focused on the overall wellness of his clients. To them he is known as Dr. Dan, but here at Upstream Arts he is known as “The Chiropractor to the Stars”! Many of our own teaching artists have themselves become well adjusted due to their relationship with Dr. Dan. Last year he led the charge as the major sponsor for our annual event! From the bottom of our hearts, and necks, and backs, thank you Dr. Dan and Uptown Natural Care Center for your continued support of Upstream Arts!
For more information on Uptown Natural Care Center, click here.
Minnesota Vikings
It won’t come as a surprise that our Minnesota Vikings, the victorious NFC North Champions, also are champions in giving back to our local community. Since their beginning in 1961, the Vikings have been involved in or have facilitated community outreach programs. Some of these include the Vikings Children’s Fund, which supports children’s health, family, and education services in the Upper Midwest since 1978; Fuel Up to Play 60, which is an in-school activity and nutrition program that encourages youth to live healthy lives; and the Green Team, which is an initiative promoting sustainable practices and educating the community on renewable energy. Ryan Hoag, a former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver, also happens to be a rock star Upstream Arts teaching artist! We give 1,000 thanks to the Minnesota Vikings for their generous sponsorship of Upstream Arts in anticipation for our upcoming May 19th Ten Year Anniversary Celebration & Fundraiser!
For more information on how the Minnesota Vikings stays involved with the community, click here.
YESS Yoga
YESS Yoga, located blocks away from where we will hold our 10th Anniversary Celebration & Fundraiser, focuses on helping members connect both with themselves and the community. Founder Lucia Yess and her community of Yoga Instructors offers brilliant and diverse yoga classes in a community atmosphere. Each instructor strives to share movement and mindfulness with everyone who enters the studio. Our very own event coordinator Elisabeth Pletcher-Harincar is a yoga instructor at YESS yoga and Julie Guidry co-founder and Executive Director of Upstream Arts, along with many other Upstream Arts artists, are devotees to the Yess Yoga studio… Namaste Yess Yoga. We’re humbled by your generosity.
For more information on YESS Yoga, please click here.
Youth Frontiers
Youth Frontiers’ mission is to partner with schools to build communities where students thrive socially, emotionally and academically. They offer one-day retreats on timeless values like kindness, courage, respect and responsibility for students in fourth–12th grades. Youth Frontiers also offers educator retreats to help schools support their educators and create cohesive teams all focused in a common direction: their students.
Youth Frontiers shares our commitment of going into schools to improve social and emotional learning in order to build up our community. We have a long history with Youth Frontiers starting with Joe Cavanaugh, Founder and CEO of Youth Frontiers, who serves on the Upstream Arts Board of Advisors. In addition, Julie Guidry, co-founder and Executive Director of Upstream Arts, was a Youth Frontiers employee from 2004-2006. Thank you Youth Frontiers for your continued support, and for sponsoring our Ten Year Anniversary Event!
For more information on Youth Frontiers, please click here.
Nokomis Heights Lutheran Church
Nokomis Heights Lutheran Church, located in South Minneapolis, has been deeply immersed in serving members of the community since its founding in 1929. Like Upstream Arts, Nokomis Heights Lutheran Church stresses the importance of total inclusion regardless of ethnic background, race, physical or mental disabilities, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, or age. Nokomis also participates in multiple efforts to give back to the community, including serving food to the elderly in partnership with Meals on Wheels and providing meals to the homeless at Our Savior’s Shelter located in South Minneapolis. We are so thankful for our neighbors over at Nokomis Heights Lutheran Church for their generosity in providing an inclusive environment for our community members, and for sponsoring Upstream Arts’ Ten Year Anniversary Event!
For more information on Nokomis Heights Lutheran Church, please click here.
Graham Smith
Graham Smith is a realtor who leads a group, The Graham Smith Team, at Keller Williams Integrity Realty. Keller Williams Integrity Realty as a whole strongly believes that “who you are in business with matters” and “the company we keep can contribute to our lives in untold ways”. Like Upstream Arts, Graham Smith and the realtors at KW are dedicated to positively impacting their clients and the community, which is why Graham notified us in December that he plans on donating $200 to Upstream Arts for every house he sells in 2016! Whether he sells one house or 100 (which is his goal for 2016), his gift means everything to us at Upstream Arts and helps sustain our innovative arts programming we provide to our participants. Many thanks to all those at Keller Williams Integrity Realty for your amazing service for the communities in which you conduct business, and a HUGE thank you to the Graham Smith Team for your continual support of Upstream Arts!
For more information on the Graham Smith Team or if you or someone you know is looking for a home, please visit The Graham Smith Team Website.
Ignited Fundraising
Ignited Fundraising is an amazing fundraising consulting organization run by Lori Jacobwith who has over 30 years’ consulting experience for nonprofit organizations. Lori is a former executive director and development director of nonprofits and utilizes her experience to coach staff and board members to share their stories in a powerful and effective way to raise more money for their own nonprofit organizations. Upstream Arts has had the privilege of working with Lori, and her aid has helped us tell the Upstream Arts story. Her mentorship has had a huge impact on our fundraising abilities and how we communicate with individual donors. Ignited Fundraising is a priceless resource for nonprofits who want to ignite action for their organizations. We at Upstream Arts are so grateful for Ignited Fundraising and all that they do for other nonprofit organizations in the community!
For more information on Ignited Fundraising, please click here.
FedEx
Upstream Arts has been sending out a series of postcard invitations for our upcoming May 19th Ten Year Anniversary Celebration & Fundraiser, and FedEx has offered us a generous printing discount on our postcards! Along with FedEx’s strong support for Upstream Arts, they also actively support other communities in which its stores reside; including creating pathways for employment for underserved populations, strengthening sustainability efforts for transportation, and providing relief aid to communities in need. Thank you to FedEx for your support for Upstream Arts and strong convictions in community involvement!
For more information on FedEx’s community engagement, please click here.
Kowalski’s Markets
Kowalski’s Markets were created out of a family’s love and passion for delicious, healthy foods and inspired by families looking for a place where they’d love to shop and be proud to call their own. As a local family-owned business, Kowalski’s Markets also has been active in the communities they serve, supporting literally hundreds of community and nonprofit organizations in different ways over the years – including Upstream Arts, on multiple occasions! We’re so grateful for their continued support for The Art of We in this 10th Annivesary year. Thank you, Kowalski’s!
For more information on Kowalski’s Markets, please click here.
The Wedge Community Co-op
In 1974 a group of neighbors in Minneapolis started a co-op in order to bring natural food to their community. Now 42 years later the Wedge is still providing natural and sustainable food to Minneapolis. In addition to running a co-op grocery store, the Wedge also co-founded a program in 1994 called Midwest Food Connection that educates school-aged children with lessons about food and farming. Many thanks to the Wedge Co-op for supporting Upstream Arts, and our local community with delicious whole food!
For more information on the Wedge Co-op, please click here.
We are so grateful for our business sponsors who have generously supported our Art of We: Ten Year Anniversary Celebration and Fundraiser. We hope to see you on May 19th to celebrate and reflect on our 10 year journey!
If you would like to become a sponsor for Art of We: Ten Year Anniversary Celebration and Fundraiser, click here to learn more. For more general information about The Art of We or to RSVP, click here.