Pictured Left to Right: Federated Insurance CEO, Al Annexstad, Governor Tim Pawlenty, and HealthPartners Pediatrician, Dr. Leonard Snellman

Snellman received the Partnership’s 2004 Connecting with Youth Award in front of 700 business and political leaders attending the Partnership’s Annual Dinner. “It is too easy to see the problems in our community as overwhelming,” Snellman told the audience. “We help to solve them one child at a time.”

For the past year, Snellman has made room in a busy physician’s schedule to spend time with a sixth-grader, riding bikes, going to movies and sporting events, and building a relationship that benefits both the mentor and the mentee.

“Being too busy is one of the primary reasons people don’t get involved in mentoring,” said John Stanoch, Minnesota President of Qwest Communications, who presented the award and chairs the Partnership’s youth mentoring initiative. “Dr. Snellman is a great role model for his mentee – and for all of us.”

In addition to Snellman’s Connecting with Youth Award, the Partnership presented Al Annexstad, chairman, president and CEO of Owatonna, Minn.-based Federated Insurance Companies, with the Connecting with Youth Lifetime Achievement Award for his leadership and generous support of Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Governor Tim Pawlenty, who presented the award on behalf of the Partnership at the MBP Annual Dinner, said, “Al Annexstad knows all to well what the research indicates, that when adults take an interest in a young person, that youngster is more likely to stay in school and out of trouble, and go on to succeed in life. Al knows it, because he’s lived it.”

Long a passionate advocate for Big Brothers Big Sisters, Annexstad was instrumental in bringing the Arby’s Charity Tour to Minnesota in 1998. Since that time, the Minnesota leg of the tour has raised nearly $3 million for children in Minnesota.  This year’s event alone brought in nearly $600,000, making Minnesota’s contribution by far the largest on the national tour.

Annexstad’s support and commitment doesn't stop when someone in Big Brothers Big Sisters reaches 18. The Annexstad Family Foundation provides full-ride scholarships to select “littles” to attend Gustavus Adolphus College, the University of Notre Dame, and other Minnesota colleges and universities. Scores of Federated employees in Owatonna and across the nation follow Annexstad’s lead by mentoring young people through Big Brothers Big Sisters and other programs supported by Federated.

“Every child has a dream.  For some, those dreams will come true.  For far too many, they won’t.  You see, some children just can’t do it alone.  They need mentors to show them the way.  Things that seem so natural to all of us and our families, many kids may never grasp without our help,” Annexstad told 700 business and political leaders attending the event.

The Partnership also honored several “Heroes of Mentoring”: Mark Bailey, director of staffing with General Mills; Marilyn Dahl, a regional president for Wells Fargo Bank Minnesota; Jodi Lange, a business systems supervisor at the HealthPartners Como Clinic; and Cheryl Rowles and Carissa Thomas, two legal administrative assistants at the law firm of Faegre & Benson.

The Minnesota Business Partnership and the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota present the Connecting with Youth Awards each year as part of the joint MBP Connections program. Through MBP Connections, the two organizations are working together to promote youth mentoring among Minnesota’s largest employers. Currently, more than half the MBP’s member companies are involved in mentoring, connecting at least 17,000 young people in Minnesota with a caring adult.