by Frank Lee
operations@thenewsleaders.com
As part of the Rice Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual outing, members recently took a field trip from Rice City Hall to the most hallowed of ballparks for Minnesotans: Target Field.
The connection between commerce and catching foul balls on the fly seemed tenuous, but as the Major League Baseball team and its fans often say – even about Rice – “This is Twins territory.”
“Usually the chamber’s annual field trip is in April or May, and it’s usually more local,” said Chamber President Cassie Larkin as she shopped for Twins gear at the ballpark.
The licensed insurance agent with Kampa Gerbi and Associates, which has locations in Rice and Little Falls, helped arrange the 90-minute tour – the chamber’s first group tour at Target Field.
“I came along to learn a few marketing techniques and just to network with other members,” said Bill Novak of Anywhere Log Furniture.
Novak also belongs to the chamber and went on the April 20 bus trip with other chamber members to Target Field. The stadium opened in Minneapolis on Jan. 4, 2010.
“Rice is a small community, but I say it could be self-sufficient with its businesses doing business with each other right in the Rice area,” Novak said.
The chamber members sort of stood in awe among the sculptures and surrounding skyscrapers outside the $545 million ballpark before the guided tour began inside the stadium.
Curt Smallbrock of Pine Country Bank in Rice would not have minded if the Twins organization would have allowed him to run the bases, but he had his sights set on other things, too.
“Presented by the marketing group here in Target Field, maybe the tour will be a chance to teach some of the business owners in Rice how to market their business,” Smallbrock said.
Larkin said 19 chamber members from about 15 business organizations left Rice, with its population of about 1,275, to ride on the bus trip to Minneapolis, the state’s largest city.
“I have never seen Target Field,” Larkin said of the field trip. “I kind of wanted to stretch our wings a little bit and do something a little out of the box that we have never done before.”
The cost was $20 per person and included boxed lunches from Subway and bottles of water for chamber members who shouted out answers to Twins trivia questions to pass the time on the bus.
“Normally, they have about 15 chamber members go on the field trips,” Larkin said of the chamber’s annual outing. “But this time, we had a little bit better of a response even though it took a lot more out of the business day than our field trips normally do.”
ESPN The Magazine ranked Target Field as the No. 1 baseball stadium experience in North America in 2010, even as the Twins may have stumbled a few games that season with losses.
“As a chamber, we always want to experience and learn and open our eyes to ways different organizations work,” Larkin said. “And that’s kind of what the field trips are meant for – to travel to these different places and see what makes them special and unique and efficient.”
Target Field hosted the 2014 Major League Baseball All-Star Game; it was the third time the All-Star Game was played in the Twin Cities.
“Obviously the Twins are doing something right in their organization, so we kind of wanted to see what they do as a sports team,” Larkin said of the interest of the chamber, which includes more than 100 members.
For example, the Twins organization early on adopted the name of the “Minnesota Twins” rather than, say, the “Twin Cities Twins,” which allowed it to broaden its appeal beyond the Twin Cities to even include parts of Minnesota’s neighboring states.
“They are an amazing organization all on their own, so to see how that works up close is pretty cool,” Larkin said of the small workshop later given by members of the Twins organization.
According to the chamber’s website: “Rice has grown to include a diversified business and industrial base with employment levels at one-and-a-half times the city’s population.”
“The city of Rice prides itself as a city on the grow,” Larkin said as she stood in Minneapolis, with its population of 4.1 million residents. “And it’s been that way for many, many years.”
Larkin said members were surveyed in January to find out what members wanted out of the chamber, and one of the big things was networking and social events.
“We are always looking to grow,” Larkin said of members. “We’re always looking to expand and make ourselves larger, and the only way to do that is to touch every different facet that we can . . . and show them what we can give back to them as well as what they can give to us.”
“We really want Rice to keep the hometown feel, so you know who owns The Old Creamery Café,” she said as an example when talking about the chamber. “But we want others to know they are joining a network of people that’s really looking to better Rice as a community as well.”
Rice Area Chamber of Commerce members took a field trip on Aug. 20 from Rice City Hall to Target Field in Minneapolis as part of the chamber’s annual outing.
Bill Novak of Anywhere Log Furniture waits for a group tour of Target Field in Minneapolis to begin and he belongs to the Rice Area Chamber of Commerce, which arranged the April 20 networking event for its members.
From left to right: Cheryl Bovy of Rice American Legion, Curt Smallbrock of Pine Country Bank, Emil Williams of Rice Community Church, Crystal Siltman of Rice Women of Today, Bill Novak of Anywhere Log Furniture and Beulah Williams of Rice Community Church look around the visitor’s locker room at Target Field in Minneapolis on April 20, part of a group tour arranged by the chamber as part of its annual outing for members.
Rice Area Chamber of Commerce President Cassie Larkin shops for Minnesota Twins gear at Target Field before an April 20 group tour for its members began, a field trip from Rice by bus that was arranged by the chamber, which includes more than 100 members.
ESPN The Magazine ranked Target Field as the No. 1 baseball stadium experience in North America in 2010, even as the Twins may have stumbled a few games that season with losses.
Rice Area Chamber members tour the home plate seats at Target Field in Minneapolis on April 20 during a group tour. From left to right are the following: Doug Luepke of Luepke Trophies, Chris Scheel of Rice City Council, Emil Williams of Rice Community Church, Chamber Presient Cassie Larkin and Jacki Retka of Kampa Gerbi and Associates, and Jack Saldana of Saldana Excavating. The Minnesota Twins seats behind the batter were among the closest seats that Major League Baseball has to offer fans.
Cheryl Bovy of Rice American Legion, Chamber President Cassie Larkin and Jacki Retka of Kampa Gerbi and Associates, Sandy and Jack Saldana of Saldana Concrete, and Emil and Beulah Williams of Rice Community Church sit in the Minnesota Twins dugout as part of a field trip on Aug. 20 from Rice City Hall to Target Field in Minneapolis.
