In 1991 Progress, Inc., opened its doors in Pipestone. Their mission statement, which is on the back of their business cards, states, “Progress remains dedicated to promoting the independence of people with a variety of needs and challenges – offering training, vocation, community, person-centered and social support to find meaningful work and lead rewarding lives.

According to former director Sylvia Newell, Progress, Inc., decided to open a branch in Edgerton in 2002. All the ladies left their Edgerton area homes to go live in the Hope Haven home in Edgerton, so it just made sense. There was a large town meeting to see if Edgerton would support the Progress clients with jobs. The people said yes, of course, and offered jobs. Huisken Market was the first to offer. After that, the Pizza Ranch in Edgerton, the Edgerton Library, the school, ambulance garage, and Fey Industries all found jobs for the Progress clients.

The first Progress building was located in the Dave Hulstein building just east of Edgerton. A large open area was remodeled for the needs of the Progress clients so they could work on large projects such as mailing and packaging. The Hulstein family was very generous with their time and labor once Progress found the building “on the hill.” Part of the skill training was to teach self-help skills such as grocery shopping and being part of a community. The first Edgerton Progress clients in 2002 were Anne Sankey, Lisa Landhuis, Lori Boer, Ron Schaap, and Amy Kruse. There were two trained supervisors and one helper.

Progress clients pictured below are working at collating data information sheets:

Progress is now located on the west side of Main Street in the building which housed Huisken Photography. Progress moved into that building in 2017. They currently have 5 clients. The Edgerton site is staffed by five people who are trained to help provide services in Edgerton. The staff rotate so the clients get to see different faces and have different experiences with staff who have different skill sets. The clients look forward to doing different activities with different staff so life does not get to be monotonous for them.