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Portraits in Steele | Page 36
Community supports children and youth We’ve dubbed it the Day of Giving — a day in which Steele Countians show just how generous they can be when it comes to supporting youth-related organizations. Once a year on a Saturday, generally in April, three organizations here in Owatonna host remarkable fundraising events one on top of the other. Each event by itself will raise tens of thousands of dollars. Collectively, that number will reach into the hundreds of thousands.
auctioned off or space to be used free of charge, like Spare Time Entertainment’s bowling lanes. We always knew that Owatonna and Steele County had a very generous business community. All we had to do was to look at the generosity of those businesses, both large and small, to prove how generous they truly are.
Then, of course, there are the people who attend the various events and open up their pocketbooks to support these organizations. Two years ago, the three programs combined For any one organization to do as well as raised more than $290,000 in that single it does on that one single day is pretty day. Last year it was in the neighborhood of remarkable. For all three to collect as much as $295,000. This year they might break that they do on the same day is nothing short of $300,000 mark. And wouldn’t that be great. astounding. But it takes those people in attendance at the events to raise that kind of money. Of course, there’s a lot of hard work that goes into the planning of these events. Events What’s most amazing is that all three events like Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern in their own way help support programs Minnesota’s Bowl for Kids’ Sake, the Young that support children and youth in Steele Life Cake Auction and the Night of Knights County — Big Brothers Big Sisters with its auctions don’t just happen. They take months youth-mentoring programs, Young Life with of planning and promoting by volunteers who its faith-based programing for youth and St. are giving of their time and energy to make Mary’s School, supported by the Night of the events seem flawless. Knights auctions. Then there are the businesses — and plenty of them — that donate merchandise to be
These are their stories…
