Environmental learning and PFLAG leader honored by Kiwanis as Red Wing Neighbor of the Year

There's a lovely story in the most recent issue of the Red Wing Republican Eagle about the respect that "quiet strength" and "fight for truth" earned for a city resident deeply involved in environmental education and human rights for LGBT people.

From that most main street of organizations, the Kiwanis.

Danielle Killey writes in A respected neighbor:

When Bruce Ause went to Thursday’s Noontime Kiwanis meeting, he thought he was there to help talk about the early years of the Environmental Learning Center. Instead, he was honored for his work with the ELC and other community involvement when he was named the 2013 Red Wing Neighbor of the Year.

He was chosen from a handful of nominees and stood out for getting the ELC off the ground, work at the state Capitol and locally for Red Wing PFLAG, and his “quiet strength” and fight for truth, Kiwanis members said.

A google search returns a couple thousand hits on his name, and the Red Wing Republican Eagle story condenses that record into a life spent changing people's minds:

In his work with PFLAG, Ause has been “fighting for equality when it’s not very popular,” Leise said.

“He’s one of the few people who can change people’s minds,” she said. “By changing minds, you can change a community.”

Ause said his work with PFLAG has been aimed at curbing discrimination, which he said many people can’t fully understand until they’ve experienced it.

“I am most appreciative of the fact that Minnesota is leading the country in respect and dignity for those that are different,” he said.

The Red Wing PFLAG chapter must be pretty persuasive, since only 43.75 percent of the Goodhue County city voted for the 2012 amendment to restrict the right to marry.

Ause began working with the Environmental Learning Center when it started in 1970, seeking "to make a difference one kid at a time,” Killey reports. Ause was also speaking up in April, 2011 about the need to scrutinize industrial scale frac sand mining, according to an Associated Press report, SE Minn. Could Become Hotbed For ‘Frac Sand’. While most people were still babbling on about a "new gold rush," Ause was more cautious:

But some residents fear that sand mining will spoil the local environment, said Bruce Ause, retired director of the Red Wing Environmental Learning Center.

“It’s not that they don’t want any development whatsoever,” Ause said. “But I think they want smart development, sustainable development that doesn’t damage the main reason that people live here or want to live here.”