09/29/2011 - Dakota County Tribune Business Weekly

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TAD JOHNSON JOHN GESSNER AARON VEHLING

Eagan college named in lawsuit 6A City wants Xcel to pay for road 6A Lakeville mayor alleges deception 7A

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DATE ##, 2009 SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

VOLUME 30, NUMBER # VOLUME 32, NUMBER 31

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Minnesota courtrooms are doing a better job of linking nonEnglish-speaking residents with interpreters. EDWARD 4A LYNCH FORUM

Image from promotional video

The Race for Hunger Mayor’s Cup at Raceway Park in Shakopee had some promotional videos developed to tout the race at the Click Club USA website.

Race for Hunger raises little money for food shelves Large overhead, lack of ticket sales cited as reasons behind losses by Aaron Vehling and Tad Johnson DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE

Local city officials and some media members racing cars against each other sounds like a fun way to raise money for local food shelves. But the Sept. 9 Race for Hunger at Raceway Park in Shakopee drew a small crowd and raised a small fraction of what attendees and participants anticipated. Rosemount Mayor Bill Droste, Apple Valley Council Member John Bergman, Eagan Council Member Meg Tilley, Lakeville Mayor Mark Bellows and Burnsville Council Member Dan Kealey participated in the event, which lost money for organizer, Click Club USA. Dennis Barlau, president of Click Club USA, said that after the $10,000 to rent the race track and about $1,200 to print the tickets, about “$700 is as close as we can come” to donating to food shelves run by 360 Communities, Neighbors Inc. and the Emergency Foodshelf Network. The event sold 788 tickets, Barlau said, and, in a letter to Thisweek, he wrote that “$1.00 of each ticket sold will go to the designated food shelf organizations.” His company lost about

$5,000 on the event, he said. “I would have been much better off handing them a check out of my pocket for $5,000,” Barlau said in an interview. It was not the first time the Race for Hunger was unable to distribute money to food shelves. A June race with Scott County mayors broke even, Barlau said, leaving nothing for the charitable cause. “We booked it on the night of Scott County graduation(s),” he said, “so everyone bought tickets but no one showed up.” Barlau said that when participants signed up for the recent race with Dakota County officials, he told them that if each of the 20 city participants sold 100 tickets the event would raise $10,000 for the food shelves. “Our food shelves are in such bad shape,” he said. “I wanted to do something to help.” Mike Hellendrung, the general manager of Raceway Park, said the $10,000 cost Barlau paid was “for renting (for the event) and bringing out corporate sponsors to drive cars on difImage of promotional poster ferent occasions.” “Corporate sponsors came out a couple days The Race for Hunger Mayor’s Cup listed 360 Communties and the Emergency Foodshelf after the race night and drove cars,” he said. Network as potential beneficiaries of the See Race, Page 7A event.

Businesses that are hiring should recognize that military veterans have experience and possess special skills. DON 4A HEINZMAN CAPITOL COMMERCE

Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda Casselius approves of No Child Left Behind reforms. BRENDA 8A CASSELIUS CAPITOL COMMERCE

Gov. Mark Dayton says projects like the University Avenue light rail can help put Americans back to work. MARK 9A DAYTON

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