 Hackensack has a plan to change things up for the better. And this weekend, more than 50 community members got together to share their ideas. Lakeland news reporter, Sherell Moore has our story. Kind of nice to see the community pride. It's nice to see the new ideas bounce. Everybody bouncing things off and, and then Hackensack is alive and well. Hackensack wants change. And what's a better way to figure out what needs changing than by asking the community. Really just love the lake. It's one of my favorite lakes in the area. Notice that there's really not been much growth lately. And that's kind of something that's important to me is community development and, and making it a place that my kids want to grow up. I want people to flock from other towns to make it so I'm not alone, I don't have to go to the cities or go to Brainerd or Bemidji to meet up with people my age. The Be the Game Changer story actually started months ago in June 2017. Hackensack submitted a competitive grant to the Initiative Foundation and was eventually chosen as a finalist. Then a panel started a meeting to discuss ways to attract more people to the area. The Initiative Foundation staff even helped by giving special training to the group of game changers. We had training on leadership, identifying our own leadership styles, recognizing other people's leadership styles. We had training on recognizing different work strengths. Flash forward to this past Saturday. All ages were invited out to share their ideas on how to make Hackensack a better place to live. The chatter was almost endless from start to finish. Well, in our table we came up with some ideas, especially spearheading economic development, utilizing the strengths of our area, such as the tourism, you know, beautiful lakefront that we have up here. Different ways to fix up the community center, different ways to make use of the buildings that we already have on Main Street. I've lived here 65 years and I've seen a lot of changers in Hackensack. But we need, right now we need changes and the people that sat at the table seem to have a lot of good ideas. If Hackensack is chosen to move on to the next step, they'll be challenged to match a $20,000 grant, which then will hopefully be used to make their ideas a reality. We have no doubt that we'll have those $20,000. We have no doubt that we've got the time and the talent and the energy to move forward and get that match. Reporting in Hackensack, Sheryl Moore, Lakeland News. Additional training will be provided to the Hackensack game changers in March. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.