When friends of Elpis Enterprises leave the non-profit sector for new jobs, they continue to reach out to us at their new workplaces to see how we can support them with our social enterprises.
That was the case for Christopher Dunham, who had previously worked at Urban Boatbuilders for a few years before joining the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge in 2019 Dunham had toured Elpis’s offices while still at Urban Boatbuilders and the partnership between the two non-profits left an impression on him.
“We got to meet a couple of the young people working on the team and through that, I had actually learned that a lot of the materials Urban Boat Builders was using for their stuff was coming from Elpis,” said Dunham. “It was a really interesting thing to learn about that the partnership was right across the street and wasn’t anything I had really thought about.”
Since joining Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge, Dunham reached out to Elpis Executive Director Paul Ramsour about apparel Elpis can make for their offices. Dunham was tasked with outreach clothing for to wear in the field and knew Elpis was the place to get those shirts made.
“We had a logo but we needed clothing for intern staff we were hiring on and I immediately thought of Elpis. Working with y’all has been great and having that local connection with something that we felt really strongly about,” said Dunham.
Dunham worked with Ramsour and Elpis Screen Printing Director Dustin McChesney on getting designs together for Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge’s new shirts. Ramsour would personally deliver the designs to the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge offices in Bloomington.
Getting the designs made and put on apparel made locally is something that was invaluable to Dunham and his colleagues.
“One of our core goals at the refuge is to be a community asset. While we could have purchased apparel from an online distributor we chose Elpis because of the people and the mission of the organization. Wearing the apparel Elpis has designed for us is something our staff are very proud of and a great way to support our community.”
Once the shirts Elpis had made were delivered to Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge, the employees sported them out at every event they could out in the community. The shirts also qualified as part of the uniform Minnesota Valley employees could wear within their offices as Dunham shared.
“It was great. Adding these new items was great because we were able to provide our seasonal employees with a uniform that gave our program credibility and boosted our team’s morale. So one of the things being part of the Federal Government, if we hire on interns and they don’t have the capacity to wear the federal uniform. Having a uniform that we can provide for them that still associates them with Minnesota Valley was huge. Otherwise, as I understand it in the before times, folks would come and have a nametag but it wouldn’t really fit in so this has actually helped us to build credibility for our program.”
Dunham and his colleagues at Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge are still looking at ways to continue partnering with Elpis into the future. Being an organization that constantly works in nature, they are hopeful to work alongside Elpis’s woodworking program to possibly use birdhouses made at Elpis.
“A lot of our community engagement includes connecting people with wildlife or introducing them to various recreational opportunities in the Twin Cities Metro. We also have internship programs that introduce young people to careers in conservation. I am excited to see our partnership with Elpis grow and would love to see some of the young people Elpis employs get to experience our programs and hopefully inspire them to become some of the next generation of conservation leaders for our agency.”
