ABOVE: Lee Kanten performs “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” with accompaniment by Bill Gonnsen at the Red Rock Center for the Arts in Fairmont. The Red Rock and other organizations are looking forward to continuing and improving their programs in 2025.

FAIRMONT–With 2024 in the rearview mirror, local organizations are taking stock of their current situation and their future goals.

Fairmont Community Education and Recreation (CER) Director Stephanie Busiahn said their focus on lifelong learning and recreational opportunities has continued to grow.

“We were relatively successful,” she said. “There’s always room for improvement, right? We were able to increase some of our programming and brought along some additional adult programs.”

One aspect Busiahn said CER struggled with was adult attendance as they continue to build back their adult programming to pre-COVID levels.

“Post-COVID, adult programs have been the last thing in terms of programs to come back,” she said. “As a parent myself, I understand COVID left us with some opportunities to look at schedules. We see some families that aren’t interested in going back to that pre-COVID schedule of every minute of our evenings, every day of the week, planned for us. Trying to pack too much in.”

Looking forward to 2025, Busiahn said they have a new slate of tech literacy programs to bring themselves up to date. She said the opportunity came after their Microsoft Suite teacher had retired, and they were looking to bring in some Google Suite classes.

“I had done some research and tried to figure out what other communities were doing in terms of those offerings,” Busiahn said. “I came across an instructor who has a variety of online tech-based courses for a variety of communities throughout southern Minnesota.”

This includes classes for ChatGPT AI, Venmo, Google Suite and a parent safety toolbox course for keeping kids safe online.

Chris Hasek and Michele Nelson handle the programming for adults and kids respectively at the Martin County Library. Hasek said 2024 was a great year for adult programs, with a Patty Wetterling visit drawing around 300 people.

Nelson said 2024 was a good year for new events and people attending children’s programming.

“We had some new families that participated in things they’d never [done] before,” she said. “We tried hard to get some variety of events we haven’t had, trying to attract new people. We started the Pokemon Club. That’s got some people in that have not been participating in the library before, and drew them in to come to other things too.”

There aren’t any major changes or program additions being focused on, but Hasek said they want to continue to increase attendance numbers on a steady basis in 2025.

“It’s fun to have people that tell you, ‘I love that speaker, bring them back again,'” she said. “I have some people that will come to everything whether it’s their thing or not. It has been a savior for some people to have someplace to go and something different to do.”

For the Red Rock Center for the Arts, Director Sonja Fortune said 2024 was the best year they have had in a long time.

“[This is] probably the highest attendance we’ve had in a very long time, especially since COVID,” she said “Everything seems to be going well, drawing new audience members. Art classes for adults are going extremely well. They seem to fill up faster than we can keep them going. That’s always a good thing.”

Focus for Red Rock shifted slightly in 2024, as they cut back on their art exhibits to better prioritize local and area artists over bringing in artists from further away.

Fortune said she is satisfied with the direction of Red Rock as they head into the new year.

“I’m quite pleased,” she said. “Particularly for me, it’s a job where you come and most of the time people are happy and cheerful. We’re providing a positive service for the community. It’s always an uplifting place to be.”

Red Rock is currently in the strategic planning phase, so they are charting out potential goals and programs for 2025. Fortune said the main idea is to continue doing what has made them successful.

“Focus on providing quality entertainment and opportunities for people,” she said. “Hopefully we keep getting new people in the doors and keep them engaged.”

For more information on these organizations and their program offerings, visit https://www.fairmont.k12.mn.us/o/cer, https://www.martincountylibrary.org/, and https://www.redrockcenter.org/ respectively.