MVAC thank you breakfast

About 15 people, including Waseca County Commissioners Brad Krause and DeeAnne Malterer and several business owners were in attendance for a “thank you” breakfast put on by Minnesota Valley Action Council (MVAC) Thursday morning at North East Park in Waseca in recognition of their five college students who participated in a Summer Internship program throughout Waseca County.

The program, a mirror of the Martin County Internship program which has been in place for more than a decade, placed five college students as paid interns with Byron Law Office, the NRHEG Star Eagle, Waseca County IT Department, Waseca County Emergency Management Department and Pleasant Grove Pizza Farm.

The program's intention was to focus on showing young Waseca County adults that opportunities exist in their fields of study here in their home county.

The program was supported heavily by Commissioner Malterer, who actually taught one of the students, Sage, an intern for Byron Law Office, during junior high school.

Also participating in the program were college students: Amelia Roessler and Jonah Stafford (Star Eagle); Malloree McCarthy (WCEM); Anna Saxton (Pleasant Grove Pizza Farm).

“The purpose of this program is really to give students a chance to re-imagine their home county with adult eyes, and become aware of opportunities in their own home towns,” Malterer said.

The county has already committed to another year of the program, including more money for next year, an increase from $35,000 to $50,000 next year. The program pays interns $15 an hour up to 29 hours per week at their respective businesses. Interns were given on site initiations with a representative from MVAC, Brooke Wiener, along with the local businesses' owner/manager.

As the celebratory breakfast, catered by Lush Cake of Waseca, came to a close, Wiener expressed her gratitude for the program, which she was largely in charge of putting together. “Personally one of the greatest things about running this program was how willing this community was to make a difference.”

MVAC, the non-profit in charge of this program, has been in operation since the Johnson Administration and was created during the War on Poverty in the 1960s. The group helps people of all ages with a focus on school age children and the elderly, but also do have programs which benefit people of all ages, including energy assistance for those in need of heat in the winter, as well as programs designed to help the unhoused or help people find gainful employment.