Featherlite Pioneer Immersion Program

Featherlite, Inc., of Cresco, Iowa, will collaborate with Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum by becoming the primary corporate sponsor of the museum’s Featherlite Pioneer Immersion Program (formally known as the 4th Grade Immersion Program).

The company has agreed to contribute $16,000 annually for five years, for a total of $80,000. This gift will allow Vesterheim to offer its Featherlite Pioneer Immersion Program to several school districts in Northeast Iowa and Southeast Minnesota.

“This partnership is groundbreaking in demonstrating how the worlds of business and nonprofits are intertwined,” Janet Blohm Pultz, Vesterheim’s executive director, said.

“Museums are one place where people can enhance their education by using resources in their communities,” Pultz continued. “By funding this program, Featherlite is helping Vesterheim train a whole new generation of learners and reach a more demographically diverse audience.”

Featherlite, Inc., is a national leader in designing, manufacturing, and marketing specialty trailers, custom mobile marketing trailers, and luxury motor coaches. As a corporate leader in today’s business world, Featherlite believes that the future of our rural communities depends on the solid education of today’s children.

“We look forward to helping Vesterheim and local school districts bring this innovative educational program to students in the area,” Conrad Clement, president and CEO of Featherlite, Inc., said.

“Many of Featherlite’s 900 local employees have young people in their families. They and the entire grade-school population in this multi-county area will get an opportunity for an in-depth off-campus educational experience that classroom work alone can’t provide,” Clement continued. “Our school children need support from business leaders here to help make such wonderful resources available to them. Featherlite is excited to be a part of this new approach to education,” he said.

Each spring, Vesterheim becomes a classroom for area elementary students. From April through mid-May, students and their teachers spend at least one hour each week at the museum, immersing themselves in the history and culture of nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century pioneers.

The museum’s Featherlite Pioneer Immersion Program is a great opportunity for the museum to collaborate with area schools.
“We plan to expand the immersion program over the next five years to include many more school districts in this region,” Pultz said. “We have this world-class ethnic museum right here in our own backyard. It’s a great educational tool for area schools, and it needs to be shared beyond the Decorah area,” she added.

Vesterheim’s Immersion Program for Decorah-area students has been growing since it started in 2002. The program began as a collaboration between Jennifer Johnston Kovarik, then Vesterheim’s director of education, and Decorah’s fourth grade teachers, working with the school system’s instructional facilitator, Joann Voltmer.

During its years of development, the program was aided by support from Bank of the West (formerly Community First National Bank). Bank of the West continues to be the program’s local sponsor for the Decorah area. As the program continues to grow, additional local sponsors will team up with Vesterheim and Featherlite to secure the success of this popular youth offering.

For more information about the Featherlite Pioneer Immersion Program.