Enriching Life in Plymouth:
The Plymouth Community Foundation

Plymouth has a lot going for it as a city. It’s known for its parks, open spaces, commitment to the arts, opportunities for seniors and youth and much more. It is these types of amenities that contributed to the city being named the Best Place to Live by Money Magazine.

Plymouth Community Foundation Chair Jean Hill and Vice-Chair Larry Brauch recently sat down to talk about the non-profit organization. The foundation helps fund initiatives in Plymouth that promote cultural, environmental, social and educational activities. The Plymouth Community Foundation, which was officially launched in 2003, is designed “to keep the standard of the community high... help it continue to be a great place,” said Larry Brauch, current board member and a founding member of the Plymouth Community Foundation.

The foundation began when then Mayor Joy Tierney assembled a group of citizens and civic leaders to work together to implement her vision of having a community foundation. “This was at a time when it was becoming clear that the city itself needed to put more of its budget dollars into basic services and therefore less into niceties,” said Brauch.

The founding members of the Plymouth Community Foundation made the decision to have the group aligned with the Minnesota Community Foundation, allowing it to use of its professional investment and granting services. This decision also permits the foundation to spend nearly 100% of the money it raises to make grants and establish its endowment fund.

The Plymouth Community Foundation has established four core areas that it will consider when making grants:

• Arts, cultural endeavors and programs.
• Open spaces, such as parks, trails and wetlands.
• Social needs, with a focus on youth and the elderly.
• Educational initiatives.

“We’re still building the foundation,” said Jean Hill, chair of the Plymouth Community Foundation. “In 2007 we provided grants to two groups - Home Free and the Mosaic Youth Center. 2008 has been a building year in that we were still working to raise funds. In 2009 we plan to provide some grants and will also continue to increase our funds and our visibility in the community.”

2009 will also be a year that sees new members added to the foundation’s board. The group’s bylaws that set term limits kick-in, so some of the original members will no longer be eligible to stay on the board.

Additional information and grant forms are located on the group’s web site - www.plymouthcommunityfoundation.org. Residents and business leaders interested in serving as a board member should contact Jean Hill at 763-449-9170.

“I’ve lived in Plymouth for 15 years and my family has benefited from the great amenities and services,” said Hill. “Once you re in this community you realize what a great city it is and you want to do your part to preserve and enhance those things that make Plymouth such a great place to live.”

The Plymouth Community Foundation accepts monetary donations of all sizes and also accepts deferred gifts such as life insurance, memorials and honorariums. “Whether you can contribute $5, $50, $500 or more, your contribution will be put back into our community,” said Hill. “You can help Plymouth continue to be the Best Place to Live.”

Plymouth Civic League:
Bringing Music to Our Ears and a Tradition to Our Community

Music and summer are synonymous in Plymouth. For 36 years, the community has been coming together at Music in Plymouth to hear the Minnesota Orchestra perform a free concert under the stars.

PCL President and Chair Barbara Willis and the all volunteer Plymouth Civic League work year-round to plan the annual outdoor event and to enlist the support of businesses and community groups. The Hilde Performance Center is shown in the background. While Music in Plymouth is well known, what is less known is that an all volunteer group organizes this community tradition. For nearly four decades, the volunteers of the Plymouth Civic League have labored year-round to raise money from local businesses and coordinate logistics with the City of Plymouth, a co-presenter of the event.

Music in Plymouth has changed venues over the years and grown in size and sophistication, but its goal has remained the same - to build community identity around a free musical event.

Music in Plymouth got its start in the early 1970s when then Mayor Al Hilde Jr. saw a need to build community identity in a city that was served by four school districts and divided into sections by four major highways. Mayor Hilde realized that for the city to really be united, an event was needed that would bring the community together. The event would have to be unique, unlike anything that other villages, towns and cities were already doing.

Mayor Hilde’s vision was to have a free event with musical entertainment of the highest caliber for the citizens of Plymouth. It was from this idea that the event now know as Music in Plymouth was born. What started in 1972 with a performance by the Minnesota Orchestra at a vacant lot in the Minneapolis Industrial Park now draws some 15,000 people.

Over the years, the event was held in various locations. In the 1990s, the City of Plymouth created an amphitheater in open space next to Plymouth City Hall, giving Music in Plymouth a permanent location.

Since 2002 the Minnesota Orchestra’s has no longer needed to perform on a temporary stage. Today the orchestra performs in a picturesque band shell, called the Hilde Performance Center. This state of the art facility was built using a donation of more than $1 million from the man who first came up with the idea, former Mayor Hilde and his wife, Jayne. The Hilde Performance Center has also become home to both professional and amateur community groups that perform throughout the summer.

During its history, other musical acts, entertainment and fireworks were added to the program. Festivities now include a 5K run/walk the weekend before the main event, a jumbo screen to enhance concert viewing and many other events and features surrounding Music in Plymouth. Yet, music is still the undisputed draw.

“Mayor Hilde had the foresight to see that with the four school districts and the highways bisecting our city, we needed to find a way to become a united community,” said PCL President and chair Barbara Willis. “What a wonderful way for residents to feel really good about their community and to be proud to say ‘I live in Plymouth.’”

Each year the Minnesota Orchestra performs under the stars at Music in Plymouth, the community?s signature event. Making Music in Plymouth Possible

While the event has grown and changed, what has not is the dedication of the group responsible for coordinating and putting all this on each year -- the Plymouth Civic League. “The sole reason the Plymouth Civic League exists is to produce this event, which we think, and the City agrees, is the most spectacular event in Plymouth,” said Willis.

Willis and her team of volunteers work year-round to enlist the support of local businesses to make the event possible. Contributions from hundreds of private citizens and businesses, including major corporate donors Carlson Companies, Mosaic, Satellite Industries, Community Bank Plymouth and Lunds, have helped to make the event better each year.

Today the Plymouth Civic League Board of Directors has 36 members representing companies, volunteer organizations and the public.

The Plymouth Civic League has also embarked on an endowment campaign. The goal is to raise $1 million to ensure the continuance of Music in Plymouth and the Minnesota Orchestra playing a free concert at the Hilde Performance Center. The endowment may also be used to assist the City of Plymouth with possible capital expenditures related to the Hilde Performance Center. If you would like to contribute or to find out additional information on this endowment fund, contact the Music in Plymouth Endowment Fund at MIPEF@musicinplymouth.org.

Additional information on the Plymouth Civic League is available at the group’s website, www.musicinplymouth.org.

Keeping Plymouth’s History: The Plymouth Historical Society

A recent history class for Suzanne Graft’s second grade class from Oakwood Elementary School was anything but boring. The students were visiting Plymouth ’s Old Town Hall where a group of dedicated volunteers, who are a part of the Plymouth Historical Society, were helping the students learn about the City of Plymouth’s past.

Second grade students from Oakwood school pose for a photo after learning about Plymouth’s history. “When I lived out east for a couple years I found that those folks really loved their history,” said Gary Schiebe, a member of the Plymouth Historical Society. “When I moved back to Plymouth, where my family is from, I started digging into my family’s history and found that it’s also part of the history of Plymouth.”

In the late nineteenth century, when the horse and buggy were still the norm for local transportation, Schiebe’s great grandfather and his son s Carl Jr. and Gustave played a critical role. The Schiebes hotel, dance hall, ice house and barns were the stopping off point for farmers taking goods to market in Minneapolis.

The Schiebe property, which appropriately enough today is home to the Plymouth Metrolink Transit Station and ramp at Co. Rd. 73 and Hwy. 55, was at the intersection where roads from Watertown, Wayzata and Hopkins all met and was the place to stop for the night before heading onto Minneapolis.

Gary Scheibe of the Plymouth Hisotrical Society shows off his 1914 Model T. It wasn’t long after this time that the lakes in the area, Medicine, Parkers and Bass became the “up-north” cabins of the day. Resorts and cabins were built to serve vacationers from Minneapolis and elsewhere looking to enjoy some time at the lake.

For much of the twentieth century this was Plymouth, a farming and resort community. The big changes would come in the 1960s and 1970s. The interstate highway system was created and cars had become the dominate mode of transportation.

It was in the early 1960s that Curt Carlson and others bought hundreds of acres of land in the city and created what was known as the Minneapolis Industrial Park. With businesses now moving to Plymouth, the need for employees and for housing also grew.

Today, with more 70,000 residents, Plymouth is one of the ten largest cities’ in the state. This means there are tens of thousands of people living in the community who aren’t originally from Plymouth and don’t know the history of the city. “When the Historical Society put together a history tour to coincide with Plymouth on Parade, many of the people on the bus were new residents wanting to learn more about the city they now call home,” said Schiebe.

Plymouth’s Old Town Hall is now a history museum run by the Plymouth Historical Society. The building is located in Plymouth Creek Park just off of Fernbrook Lane. The Plymouth Historical Society operates a museum at the Plymouth Old Town Hall building, 3605 Fernbrook Ln. The Historical Society holds regular meetings on the fourth Monday evening of each month at the museum and opens it to the public on the third Sunday of each month, as well as by appointment.

The biggest event of the year for the group is the Old Fashioned Christmas which takes place each December at the Old Town Hall and Plymouth Creek Park.

For more information on the Plymouth Historical Society or to join the group, contact Gary Schiebe at 763-473-4889 or by email at garyschiebe@isp.com.