BOREAL COMMUNITY MEDIA LAUNCHES
NEW EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS ONLINE RESOURCE
#LSN_PublicSafety
COOK COUNTY, MINNESOTA — May 20, 2018 (LSN) Boreal Community Media has received a major grant for development and launch of an on-line clearinghouse for emergency preparedness information, outdoor recreation safety tips, law enforcement alerts and other important information for residents and visitors of northeast Minnesota’s Arrowhead region.
The Boreal Emergency Preparedness Portal website was launched recently and will be accessed through the www.boreal-emergency.org domain address and from links from the www.boreal.org website.
Thousands of visitors come to the Cook County and the Arrowhead region annually to enjoy natural beauty, year-round recreation activities, arts, music and more. But many people are not fully aware of the risks of venturing out in a vast wilderness area. The Emergency Preparedness Portal is designed to be a one-stop online resource to help residents and visitors better navigate the Arrowhead region safely.
A $10,000 grant from the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation has helped Boreal Community Media staff the initiative, collect and curate content, create the digital platform and work with the members of our emergency management community to share information critical to public safety.
“Every year, our region witnesses drownings, injuries and accidents, lost or missing persons, severe weather, risk of wildfires and other threats to public safety,” said Lisa Bauer, Executive Director of Boreal Community Media. “We want our residents and visitors to ‘know before you go’ by visiting our digital resource. If one life is saved, the program will be more than worth the effort to create it. We deeply appreciate the Community Foundation’s generous support to aid the safety and health of our community.”
“This will be a powerful collaborative effort,” said Boreal Community Media Board Member Eric Block. “We have created a partnership between Boreal Community Media, the Community Foundation, the Cook County Office of Emergency Management and Public Safety, the first-responder and medical communities and city, county, state and federal officials as well as community volunteers committed to public safety. It will be an important resource to keep people informed and safe.”
The Community Foundation awards annual grants through a competitive application and review process. Funds for this project came, in part, from the Barnum Fund and the Community Opportunity Fund.
“Being prepared for emergencies is critical to help avoid human injury and property damage,” said Holly C. Sampson, President of the Community Foundation. “There is a vast amount of information available to help the public be better prepared. The Boreal Community Media emergency preparedness project will help the public find that important information easily and quickly.”
This effort is in line with the Community Foundation’s commitment to help communities through disaster philanthropy, to which the organization strongly committed after a devastating 2012 flash flood in the Duluth-Superior area. The Community Foundation is now an active participant in the national Philanthropic Preparedness, Resilience and Emergency Partnership, which helps communities prepare and recover from disasters, in part by building resources and resiliency.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Lisa Bauer, Executive Director, Boreal Community Media, 651-500-4433 or [email protected]
ABOUT THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: The Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation encourages private giving for the public good. The foundation is a permanent endowment built by hundreds of gifts. It makes grants to nonprofits and to individuals for scholarships and also provides leadership on important initiatives in northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin. Since starting in 1983, it has distributed more than $50 million and holds 396 funds. The Cook County Community Fund, created in 2003, is a regional affiliate of the Community Foundation. Learn more at dsacommunityfoundation.com.
ABOUT BOREAL COMMUNITY MEDIA: Boreal Community Media is a 501c(3) non-profit corporation designed to provide local news and information about community activities as well as connections to residents and visitors of Cook County and the Arrowhead Region of northern Minnesota through boreal.org. The website also offers a business directory, free classified advertising and a regional events calendar to keep our communities connected and engaged. Boreal Community Media serves the communities of Grand Marais, Gunflint Trail, Hovland, Grand Portage, Lutsen, Sawbill Trail, Schroeder, Tofte and the greater Arrowhead region.