Happy New Year! We started 2024 with new signs at our East office with our fresh logo.

Back at the beginning of 2021, Northeast Residence was acquired by Hammer Residences, and we began to work together to merge the two organizations. On January 1, 2023, Hammer & NER officially became one organization making us one of the largest nonprofit disability service providers in Minnesota.

To better distribute our social media posts as one organization, we will now only be posting to the Hammer & NER Facebook page. Be sure to "like" the Hammer & NER Facebook page if you haven't already so you don't miss any posts!

We will keep the NER Facebook page active if you'd like to view older posts and pictures, but going forward all of our new posts will be on the Hammer & NER page. Thanks for your support!

Our doors are open to everyone, whether you’re family, staff, a volunteer, Board member, donor, advocate, or community member. Save these dates and participate in our events.

Watch for more information on each event in the coming months.

Save the date for Day at the Capitol on Tuesday, March 19!

If you can join us in person for any part of the day, listen to the livestream, or post about it on your social media feed, we welcome your support! We are always looking for volunteers to help us on the bus and at the Capitol! More details coming about this fun day. Lots of changes this year to make the event more accessible and better organized. Stay tuned! Registration coming soon!

Hammer & NER Advocacy Director Mary Gaasch and CEO John Estrem are hosting a virtual training about using social media to tell your story on Wednesday, February 7 at 4 p.m. Send Mary an email at maryg@hammer.org if you are interested. We will record the session in case you can't make it.

Get involved and make a difference!

SAVE THE DATE:

Thursday, June 13

5:30-9:00 p.m.

Quincy Hall in NE Minneapolis

We need help in the following areas: Games and Activities, Graphic Design, Silent and Live Auction, Publicity, Sponsorships and Program. Our first meeting is in March.

Become a Sponsor early so your name gets on all of our promotional materials. Contact Nate Reed to find out how you will get recognition for your support.

Donate to our auction: We are looking for a wide variety of items:

Vacation home rental, tickets to sporting events or performances, golf outings, jewelry, interesting experiences, wine, beer, restaurant gift cards, power tools, signed sports memorabilia, theme baskets, etc. Please contact Ginger Venable with your questions and donations.

Sign up to be a monthly donor and be someone we can count on every month.

Your gifts will provide much needed and reliable funds which help us provide quality, trusted care, and safe, accessible homes.

We named this amazing group Alvina’s Angels, because like our founder, Alvina Hammer, you care enough to do what it takes to give people the life they deserve.

To provide dependable support for dependable caregiving visit our Monthly Donor webpage: hammer.org/monthly-giving-angels/

Employees Michelle Hartmann and Wade Hartmann are celebrating their 10-year wedding anniversary on February 11. They have been together for about 23 years. 

Michelle has been employed with NER since 1995, and Wade was employed from 1997-2018, and returned in 2021. Michelle is the Program Manager at our Hale home and Wade is a Lead DSP at our 9th Ave. home.

They officially met at Target in 2001 when the NER charge card wasn't working and Wade looked around the register area wondering what he was going to do. Michelle approached having just made a purchase for the Arcade site she was working at. Wade asked her for help, then asked Michelle on a date as they walked toward their work vans. Michelle and Wade began dating shortly after this lucky encounter. 

Congratulations to the happy couple!

We have a few employees celebrating significant anniversaries.

Virginia Carpenter (pictured upper left, DSP, 35 years), Enos Korti (DSP, 20 years), Greg Spah (upper right, Maintenance, 20 years), Lauren Pehler (Case Management, 10 years), Owolabi Oke (DSP, 10 years), Jeanine Magalis (DSP, 10 years), Matt Berg (bottom left, IT, 5 years), Malik Mohamud (bottom right, Program Manager, 3 years), and Christine Tokpah (DSP, 3 years).

Congratulations and thank you for all that you do!

Each month in Happenings we feature some of our favorite photos of the people we support "Out & About" having fun in their communities.

Featured below are pictures from the recent Winter Wonderland party put on by our Community Life Department. It was a fun night full of cocoa, cookies, and karaoke!