Ambassador Visits April 2021
Our Ambassador Team was able to meet as a full group again this month! We are getting closer and closer to normal operating procedures, which is exciting all by itself. As always, this group is high energy, very inquisitive and super supportive. Thanks again to First Bank Elk River for allowing us to use your board room space to meet as a team before going to our member visits.
The Ambassador Team visited two of our members – Lefebvre’s Carpets in Otsego and Elevier Women’s Center in Elk River. In addition to the scheduled visits, we popped into the Holiday Inn for some updates.
Lefebvre’s Carpet, a longtime member, is now under new ownership and management after the first of the year. Don’t worry though – the business remains in the family, so the same great family-owned feeling is still alive and well when you walk in their doors. Lefebvre’s isn’t just about carpet. They have several other flooring – and countertop – options for you to check out when in their store. Luxury Vinyl Planks continue to be wildly popular and engineered hardwood options certainly have their place in the market as well. Lefebvre’s also tackles refinishing your existing hardwood floors by either buffing and recoating or sanding and refinishing, depending on the look you want to achieve. While approximately 90% of their business is residential, they are growing their commercial business as well. Their service area is mostly Otsego, Elk River, St Michael, Zimmerman and they are getting more and more business in northern Minnesota with people updating their lake/vacation properties.
Elevier Women’s Center, formerly Abba Pregnancy Resource Center, has moved to a new, much larger location. They also completely renovated the entire space and brought in new and expanded services! All services remain free of charge for their clients. The clients they serve are primarily 15-25 years old, have a need for economic help, sexually active/at risk individuals, in a specific service area that find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy without much of a support system in place. They will help that client until the child is 2 years old. They assisted 325 people in 2020 alone.
Much of the expanded services center around the medical needs of the patients/clients they serve. They now have a medical director, a nurse manager, and RNs, along with Client and Patient Advocates .There is an onsite lab to do quality pregnancy testing, medical exam rooms, and on the horizon will be an onsite ultrasound. In addition to the medical needs of their Patients/clients, they have a very secure space with specific safety plans and procedures in place. The staff has undergone trainings for domestic abuse and sex trafficking situations to keep their clients safe in the event of a crisis situation. They have pregnancy and parenting classes where parents can earn “Baby Bucks” to shop in the onsite boutique. They offer support to help them finish school and a variety of other things helping the client prepare for childbirth and parenting. Donations are welcome – they have never had any governmental monies. Their entire operating budget is from private and corporate donors.
