 The Great Places program, launched by Governor Tom Vilsack and implemented by the Department of Cultural Affairs, aimed to concentrate state agency resources on high-potential communities.The local Great Place committee represents an alliance between the nonprofit Whiterock Conservancy, the City of Coon Rapids, and the Coon Rapids Development Group.Whiterock Conservancy is an Iowan nonprofit organized in late 2004 to administer a private conservation land donation from the Garst family of Coon Rapids.