News

FairPoint Communications Becomes Key Partner of the Hannah Grimes Center

FairPoint Communications has provided $10,000 in support for the community and economic development programs of The Hannah Grimes Center in Keene, NH. 

“FairPoint appreciates the opportunity to be part of the Key Partners Program,” said Bruce Ballantyne, Vice President of Economic Development, FairPoint Communications.  “These partnerships help build collaboration, fill gaps and foster innovation-driven strategies enabled by broadband in addition to expanding local community and economic development capacity.” 

"In the short time that FairPoint has been present in our community, we have already seen a world of difference in the outlook for broadband access for our region.  FairPoint also brings a passion for community economic development -- providing great tools to help communities grow their local economies," stated Mary Ann Kristiansen, Executive Director of the Hannah Grimes Center. 

 FairPoint Communications, Inc. is an industry leading provider of communications services to communities across the country. Today, FairPoint owns and operates 32 local exchange companies in 18 states offering advanced communications with a personal touch including local and long distance voice, data, Internet, television and broadband services. FairPoint is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol FRP.  Learn more at www.fairpoint.com. 

Hannah Grimes: entrepreneurs and ‘localvores’ alike

   

    

In the early 1990’s, Mary Ann Kristiansen started making soaps at home, but found that local retailers were slow to carry her products. Ultimately, she started a nonprofit to help promote locally-made goods. She named her enterprise Hannah Grimes, after the 19th-century farmwife who had once lived in Kristiansen’s Roxbury home.

Today, Hannah Grimes Marketplace is a for-profit store that carries the work of 200 local retail entrepreneurs, including artists, craftspeople, food producers and the like.

From that beginning evolved the nonprofit Hannah Grimes Center. Besides overseeing the Main Street store, the organization offers entrepreneurial educational programs and workshops, and provides office rentals and technical support to nearly a dozen start-up and emerging small business owners. Beyond that, the nonprofit facilitates a number of community programs.

Among them is the Hannah Grimes Localvore Project, part of a national movement that originated in California. The term, coined by three West Coast women, is a play on “carnivore” (meat eater) and “herbivore” (plant eater), and refers to individuals who commit to buy and eat locally produced foods.

The nonprofit, which launched the movement locally three years ago, asks Monadnock Region residents to consider purchasing foods grown or made within a 150-mile radius of Keene.

Food choices are plentiful in that area — from vegetables, fruits, and syrups to beef, poultry and dairy products, produced by both small growers and large commercial enterprises.

“Cabot butter is made within one hundred fifty miles. There’re lots of supermarket foods that we promote,” she said. “We work with Hannaford’s. People can check for Localvore signs (identifying local foods) in the store.”

“If you think of farmers as entrepreneurs, there didn’t seem to be match between local farmers and markets,” said Kristiansen. “We just want to get as much information geared to the consumer out into the community.”

“We’re increasing the size of our local economy by increasing that section of the economy,” she said.

The nonprofit maintains an updated database of area food providers at www.hannahgrimes.com. Individuals also can sign up for a free newsletter with localvore news, recipes and current Keene farmers market information.

Also available on the Web site: monthly featured farms, and Monadnock region localvore events. Recent examples include an informal workshop on how to make strawberry rhubarb wine, and this afternoon’s tour of a root cellar, a winter storage place for fresh vegetables.

The group also encourages area food service professionals to purchase local foods. Monadnock Region chefs and restaurant owners serving locally grown food products in their establishments are awarded localvore storefront window decals; commended on the nonprofit’s website; and promoted in the newsletter.

“We’re promoting and strengthening our local food system,” said Jennifer Risley, program coordinator. “We’re helping farmers, protecting the land, and meeting lots of people.”

Community members who wish to become localvores can sign up for free on the Web site, or contact the nonprofit.

~ Joan Geary

“Making a Difference,” a weekly feature, is a collaborative project of The Keene Sentinel and Giving Monadnock, which seeks to raise public awareness of the role of nonprofit agencies in the Monadnock Region. For more information, e-mail info@givingmonadnock.org or call 357-7171.

 

     

Jennifer Risely, left, and Mary Ann Kristiansen of Hannah Grimes Center.
MICHAEL MOORE / Sentinel

The Hannah Grimes Center Receives Rural Development Grant

Keene, N.H. – USDA Rural Development (RD) awarded a $24,150 Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG) to the Hannah Grimes Center in Keene, NH.  The grant will fund the Hannah Grimes Entrepreneurship Project, a year-long business development program that offers participants the skills, resources and support to reach the next level of their business goals. Hannah Grimes is seeking additional funding to film the twelve month class to make it more widely available. 

“Over the past decade, USDA Rural Development has watched the Hannah Grimes Center grow to support more and more New Hampshire born and raised businesses. The technical assistance Hannah Grimes provides to entrepreneurs is boosting the local economy and creating jobs. RD is proud to continue this vital partnership,” said Jolinda LaClair, State Director for USDA Rural Development, NH. This grant, joined with the over $2 million invested in Keene businesses and organizations since 2001, helps to foster growth and new opportunities for business development. 

Mary Ann Kristiansen, Executive Director of the Hannah Grimes Center adds, “Since 2004 the Hannah Grimes Entrepreneur Program has helped over 40 entrepreneurs take their business to the next level.  This grant will enable another class of seven graduates to follow that same path to success, and if Hannah Grimes can raise the funds necessary to film the course, a version of the program will also become more accessible and affordable.” 

Since 1997, Hannah Grimes has successfully developed a grass-roots model that focuses on supporting creative entrepreneurs as a means to a thriving local economy.  Hannah Grimes provides a comprehensive set of programs and projects that support and create infrastructure for small producers, farmers, craftspeople and consumers to create a vibrant community woven together by commerce and culture.   Hannah Grimes has become known for its innovative and entrepreneurial programs including:  

  • Hannah Grimes Marketplace, serving 275 members with an opportunity to learn skills that help them enter and succeed in the marketplace and a place to sell their product, network and take advantage of a variety of group benefits. 
  • Educational programs including workshops, one-on-one technical assistance and a successful 12-month entrepreneurship class. 
  • Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship, a successful business incubator that rents space and provides support and networking opportunities to small businesses. 
  • Community Partnerships that build community infrastructure by linking individuals with one another and with community resources.  These projects include the Localvore Project that connects people with local farmers; an Angel Investor network to connect entrepreneurs who need angel financing to investors interested in local wealth-building opportunities; a Friends & Neighbors program that connects local business owners to producers of local products; and the Pinnacle Mountain Broadband Committee committed to connecting homes and businesses in our rural areas with high-speed internet solutions.

 The mission of USDA Rural Development is to enhance economic opportunity and the quality of life for rural residents. Since 2001, Rural Development has invested more than $90 billion and created more than 1.7 million jobs. Rural Development’s RBEG program funds rural projects that help small and start-up businesses succeed.  For more information, visit http://www.rurdev.usda.gov.  

Entrepreneurs’ Project Creates Growth in the Local Economy

KEENE, NH (November 27, 2007) –  From a pilot group of five local businesses that started classes in 2004, the Hannah Grimes Center has since graduated five classes of local entrepreneurs striving to take their businesses to the next level.  From an initial success rate of 30% growth in the pilot group, the most recent entrepreneurs graduating from the program increased their businesses’ sales growth by 119 percent in just 12 months – adding an additional $1.4 million into the local economy.  Each business has also added an average of one new employee. 

Suerae Stein of Stein Graphic Design stated, “The Entrepreneurship program motivated me to work harder, think more positively, and take leaps that I never would have considered a year ago. Our monthly group meetings have given me a great perspective on small businesses and I’ve gotten fabulous information from sharing ideas and contacts.”  

For Neil Giarratana, President, Lucidus Corporation, “The Entrepreneurship program was invaluable to the success of my com­pany. It prompted me to focus the vision for my company and guided me towards reaching that vision each step of the way.”   

Nancy Wibben, Owner, That Soap Guy says she “went from having an out of control hobby, to being a business owner. One of the biggest problems with being a sole proprietor and only employ­ee of my business is that there’s no one handy to bounce ideas and informa­tion off of. I don’t always have time for networking or appointments with experts.” 

The impetus for the program came when Founder and Executive Director Mary Ann Kristiansen recognized the need to provide a higher level of business skill training to the more ambitious members of Hannah Grimes Marketplace – those members who were ready to take their business to the “next level”.   Funding from USDA Rural Development helped launch the new program to help five local businesses increase sales, markets and employees as well as to build the programming capability into the Hannah Grimes organization to help existing businesses who were looking to build the skills they needed to drive their businesses forward. 

In January of 2006 the Entrepreneur Program became a foundation for programming when the Hannah Grimes Center took over operations of a business incubator at 25 Roxbury Street in Keene.  The organization and its entrepreneur program expanded its scope beyond New Hampshire artisans to include a wide range of businesses including builders, high tech, professionals and service providers. 

The program is a facilitated group of seven business owners who meet in a three-hour monthly meeting for a total of 12 months to learn business skills and receive tangible problem-solving input and support.  Month by month, businesses also complete a full business plan during the course of the year.  Participating businesses range in size with annual sales from $2,500 to nearly $1 million and from artists to high tech businesses.  The program includes opportunities to network with program alumni and to attend the annual Hannah Grimes Center’s annual Entrepreneurship Conference.  

Hannah Grimes educates the successful entrepreneurs that support a thriving local economy and vibrant community built upon our region’s heritage, culture, natural resources, and the entrepreneurial spirit of its people.  Established in 1997, the Hannah Grimes Center operates a successful Marketplace at 42 Main Street in Keene that serves its 275 members and the community, and provides resources, networking and office space to small and emerging businesses from its main office at 25 Roxbury Street in Keene. 

Building Green with Eco-Logic Homes

When it comes to identifying a major source of pollution in this country, many would be hard-pressed to choose where they live over what they drive.

But it might surprise many to know that when it comes to polluting the atmosphere, your car takes a back seat to your home.

Read more here.

Craig Brandon recognized by Boston Media

At 3,165 feet, Mount Monadnock is hardly a giant. Yet it has been a muse and a motif to writers and artists as well as a favorite with hikers for hundreds of years.

In the newly published "Monadnock: More than a Mountain," Craig Brandon offers a sweeping and colorful history of what is the most climbed peak in North America.

Read more here.

Key Partners

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