News
Annie's House receives special donation
Tyler Ohmann
07/30/2013
A very special visitor came all the way from Pennsylvania to visit Annie’s House at the Bottineau Winter Park this past Tuesday.
Reed Grumann, a middle-school student traveled more than 1,500 miles to deliver a $3,000 check to the Friends of Annie’s House to help with costs in the adaptive ski program.
Grumann created a special fundraiser to collect the donation.
“Every day after school me and some friends would meet in the conference room and count all of the coins donated that day,” Grumann said. “When I got home me and my dad would calculate the online donations as well.”
“The overall experience was great, because I got to work with my friends and family, raise money for a great cause and test my leadership ability,” Grumman added.
Grumann has a special connection with the cause.
“They’re dedication made me want to help too,” Grumann said about the creators of Annie’s House. “I have a personal connection to Annie’s House, because of my brother Simon. He has disabilities that make him incapable of skiing on his own, but now with special equipment and instructors he will be able to hit the slopes next winter.”
The Grumann family, who toured the facility during their trip to drop off the check, hopes to visit this winter to take advantage of the adaptive program as well.
The check was presented to Jenette Nelson, mother of Ann Nicole Nelson for which Annie’s House is named. She is involved in the Friends of Annie’s House. She was moved by the efforts of Grumann.
“I have worked and been around teenagers all my life, and I have never seen anything that tops this,” Jenette Nelson said choking back tears. “Congratulations to you and congratulations to your family.”
More kids participate in summer activities through Annie’s House
Another group of kids were the next to take in an afternoon of fishing and hiking through the Annie’s House program this past week.
The kids came up from the Devils Lake area and were treated to a morning of pontoon fishing on Lake Metigoshe and a long hike on the trails at Bottineau Winter Park.
Mary Stammen, who was instrumental in starting the Annie’s House program for disabled children, volunteered along with several area volunteers including Gary Nelson.
She said that it was a unique way that the summer program has come about.
“In the winter we were contacting groups to come up here,” Stammen said. “It was interesting because the groups that came up this summer contacted us.”
She said the idea of fishing and hiking came from a lot of thinking on the part of those involved in the program.
“We had to put on our thinking caps too, because we knew about the skiing thing, but we weren’t quite as confident about the summer things,” Stammen said.
The support from volunteers has been overwhelming thus far according to Stammen.
“We’ve had way more volunteers then kids actually, and after today I feel like the volunteers had more fun than the kids,” Stammen said. “When we left the volunteers kept saying, ‘well the next time I’m going to bring a fishing net, the next time...,’ so the volunteers are already talking about the next time.”
As for the kids, they had a pretty great time too. Between the two pontoons that took out the kids and volunteers they reeled in more than 30 fish by Stammen’s estimation.
“They had so many experiences today,” Stammen said. “The kids had never caught fish before, they had certainly never touched leeches and worms. Initially we were doing that for them, but after the hour and a half, they were pulling them in.”
“The kids were pretty quiet at first, but by the end they were not quiet. They were laughing and having a blast,” Stammen added.
The day was also a success in that Stammen and others were able to brainstorm other ideas for kids to participate in on future visits.
“As we were working today, we were coming up with other things we can do,” Stammen said. “It’s just a matter of coming up with a list and figuring out how we can do it.”
Another day of activities is in the work for Wounded Warriors in August.
Stammen and Gary Nelson both said there is no doubt these will continue to be successful in the future.