Loren Woerpel

ESCANABA — Loren Woerpel passed recently and I have had an opportunity to review some of his many contributions to the community. Mr. Woerpel was very involved in the Delta County Chamber Delta Force Leadership program. 

The program has been blessed to have many great leaders that have collaborated on putting together what was learned from one year to the next with feedback from the program participants. Many leadership programs are positioned to be annual events, but lose traction based on the effort to put together a meaningful curriculum or run out of participants and slowly dissolve into an old story. Because of community leaders like Mr. Woerpel, the Delta Force Leadership program is still going strong after more than 20 years. There have been about 500 participants that have gone through the program to date, with new participants signing up already for the 2023 class.

I am going to add some of Mr. Woerpel’s comments to the other facilitators after one of the earlier classes so you can hear his passion for the program and the community: “The specifics of a sustainable community must be defined from within the diversity of the community, both human and environmental. Each community is differently arranged depending on what is there and how it came to be. To understand the effects of change as we build the community of the future, we need to capture at present the understanding of our interconnectedness, our interdependence. To do that we need to daily stop for a moment and pay attention. We have been doing that with Delta Force over the past four years. They have learned that our community is complex in unique ways. Their times of interaction with each other, with us and with the community infrastructure has sped their understanding of this community ecosystem. As a result they are better equipped to understand the requirements of change issues that face us, including economic, social, governmental, education, health care, diversity and common infrastructure. As business and institutional leaders, we all need to learn to deliberately stop our crazy busy lives at least once a day and think. Looking to work together to find new ways we can build a unique sustainable community that is framed for use by the next generation.”

I have been involved in the Delta Force program since 2014 as participant or a facilitator. I am always impressed with the young leaders that take part in the program. My feedback to the group has always included a message to get involved, spend time to make something or some group better. Provide much needed feedback to your civic leaders to help them do their jobs to the best of their abilities. Always provide balanced feedback, there is nothing worse than seeing comments from a person that are only negative. By being better connected to the boards, commissions or civic organizations everyone will feel better about our plans for business expansion, housing, talent attraction and many more. If you or your organization has not considered sending an employee through the program, give it a try. Your investment in that employee will pay dividends for a very longtime. You can apply for the 2023 Delta Force Class on the Chamber Website deltami.org or call 906-786-2192.

In recognition of Loren Woerpel’s dedication to create young leaders in our area through the Delta Force Program, the Delta County Economic Development Alliance is announcing the Loren Woerpel Delta Force Annual Scholarship program for a deserving student or young entrepreneur to join the Delta Force Program.

Happy holidays.

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Ed Legault is the director of the Delta County Economic Development Alliance