January 2021
Starting 2021 with optimism!
By Bill Schultz, President & CEO

As I delivered holiday cookies to each of our OP residences this year, the joy of the people we serve filled me with gratitude. After a year of so many challenges, I am left with a sense of pride for OP, and for the resilience shown by our staff and the people we support.

Our dedicated team members have been creative in fulfilling our mission and supporting people in new ways. From developing virtual services, finding engaging ways to bring happiness while stuck in the house, working long hours (sometimes in different roles), and enduring continuous change, we've learned to live and work in this new world. The OP team did all of this, while following strict safety protocols to keep each other and the people we serve safe.

Through it all, we’ve kept our mission at the forefront. We expanded our apartment services to Minnetonka, integrated people into our services from a provider that closed, and started to rebuild the home in New Hope that burned down in 2019.

Thanks to everyone working together, generous contributions from our community, and financial assistance from state and federal governments, OP was able to end the year stronger than we ever imagined in the spring of 2020. We are on stable footing for rebuilding our services in 2021. Thank you for your support and encouragement in 2020, and I look forward to building a successful new year with you. We are stronger together!
COVID vaccine distribution ahead
We were pleased to be included in a recent KSTP story about the COVID vaccine rollout for people with disabilities and their care providers. We are working now to obtain COVID vaccines for OP's residential locations and discussing the ability to offer vaccines at our day locations. In the meantime, we will continue to wear masks, avoid large gatherings, wash hands, and isolate or get tested if needed. We are all in this together!
OP welcomes new Board members
Ginny Kremer, Bremer Bank
Ginny is Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer, responsible for risk management activities at Bremer. Prior to joining Bremer, she led enterprise risk and audit functions at MoneyGram International and U.S. Bancorp.
Dan Hoke, U.S. Bank
Dan is Senior Vice President of retail distribution strategy at U.S. Bank. He has more than 20 years of service in leadership roles with U.S. Bank and its predecessor, First Bank System.

In other transitions, Ben Knoll, Partners in Food Solutions, was named Chair. Patty Sagert, Rasmussen College, was named Vice Chair. John Kelly, UnitedHealth Group, will continue to serve as Treasurer. Saanii Hernandez will continue to serve as Secretary. Thank you to outgoing Chairman Greg Keane, Bush Foundation, who will continue as a Board member!
Making progress, thanks to you!
We continue to make progress on the rebuild of our home in New Hope which was destroyed by fire in 2019. Denali Custom Homes Founder/President David Bieker is donating a portion of supplies and labor for the project. He has an adult son with special needs and has seen the difficulties people with disabilities and their families can face in finding suitable housing. After the fire, many of our generous supporters donated more than $49,000, and that seed funding led us to today. The four-bedroom, fully accessible home will be completed this spring!