Touchstone Energy Cooperatives' powerful gift kicks off exhibit gallery
The State Historical Society of North Dakota and its Foundation are grateful for their terrific partnership with the Touchstone Energy Cooperatives of North Dakota. Not only did the partners sponsor the Governors Gallery, they also partnered with the Society to produce the first exhibit in the gallery. The Power of the People exhibit opened November 2, 2014 and was on display for one year. It told the story of the cooperative spirit and how electricity was brought to rural North Dakota.
The members of the Touchstone Energy Cooperatives of North Dakota that made this happen are: Basin Electric Power Cooperative; Great River Energy; Minnkota Power Cooperative; National Information Solutions Cooperative; North Dakota Association of Rural Cooperatives and its member cooperatives. Together this group gave more than $1.6M to the expansion of the Heritage Center.
The parts of the exhibit live on at various sites across North Dakota, Minnesota and Wyoming at cooperative network facilities and in North Dakota State Historic Sites. The Society and Foundation are very grateful to be able to use parts of the exhibit at various State Historic Sites. The first site to use this new exhibit will be the Confluence Center at Fort Buford. It will be installed in October 2016.
Two young visitors learn the concept behind building an electric cooperative at one of the many interactive aspects of the REC exhibit.
Gov. Jack Dalrymple and wife Betsy lead the inaugural visit of the Governors Gallery.
Foundation board members Dalles Schneider, Vice President; Jon McMillan, President; and Barb Lang, Treasurer stand with North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives General Manager Dennis Hill.
Dennis Hill, General Manager of North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives, presented a check for $15,000 to Claudia Berg, Director of the Society and Marlo Sveen, Development Director of the Foundation. This money is used to assist State Historic Sites where the Touchstone Exhibit will be on display.
Visitors of the exhibit learn about the cooperative’s core values and its impact on past, present and future generations.
Interactive video tells the electric cooperative story and how the unique business model changed the quality of daily life for North Dakota’s early pioneers.