Bowdon, ND

On October 17 Laurel Jones and I attended this great “marketing your community” workshop in Devils Lake.  It was presented by Jim Beatty of NCS International.  Jim made us think about how we sell our community and if we have thought about our “unique selling proposition” and “opportunity story”.  He also shared 12 points that should be included  in the design of an economic development organization’s website.  The points that really resonated with me were: directory of available  buildings and sites, current developments, testimonials,  and comparisons to competitor locations.  Contests can be used to generate traffic. We spent time viewing several communities’ websites and critiqued them.  I learn best by seeing so I’m happy Jim included  the activity.  Rollette’s weekly updates were impressive,  Crosby had a U-tube video, and Devils Lake had pictures changing with the four seasons.  New Rockford had won a prize for its website and Laurel and I cheered because Amy Wobbema, the Economic Director, is from Bowdon.   A panel of  ND resource persons also shared pertinent information.  Grafton’s unique housing incentives renewed my belief in the results of creativity.  Lynette Flage shared about the importance of building “social capital”.  Did you know that 1/5 of Americans move every year?  I can see where the Horizons program in Bowdon has really increased our  connections, trust, and interaction amongst community members. Infact I’m writing this in a computer class that Laurel is teaching in our technology/library room in our retired school.  We are laughing and having a great social time!!!  The  ND ambassador program is doing well and we were encouraged to join and help meet the goal of 2000 ambassadors by March 2008.  The program includes employer alerts on www.LUVND.com.  We received a powerpoint of Jim’s presentation and passed it on with notes to Bowdon’s marketing committee and webmaster, Pam Hoff.  Promoting and marketing our community ranked high on Bowdon’s strategic plan.  Well I’m rattling so this will end.  Just wanted you to know there are great opportunities to learn through Horizons!

Beginning on January 8, Bowdon residents began computer classes at the Tech Center in the school under the instruction of retired library media teacher, Laurel Jones. The classes are free to the public and are an outgrowth of the Horizons Program.
Under the auspices of Bowdon Development Center, Incorporated (BDCI) and the Bowdon Centennial Museum and Library, the former school library has been turned into a community lending library and a technical center with six computers that have high-speed internet access. The computers came from the Fessenden-Bowdon School after they upgraded their technical system. In addition, several community members have donated monitors and other peripherals.
The classes take place once a week on Tuesday evening at 7:00 with a repeat on Wednesday at 1:00. The students are easily able to follow the teacher’s instructions because she uses an LCD projector that is on loan from the NDSU Extension Service in Fessenden So far, students have learned internet skills and what’s in and on their computer.
Everyone’s welcome–just call Laurel at 3633 to make sure there’s room. Oh, and there will be no classes during the last week of January and the first two weeks of February, as the teacher is taking off!

About 40 people spent a fun-filled evening at the Bowdon Community Center heralding in the New Year with music, food, games, and good conversation. This event was sponsored as a Horizons activity, giving members of the community a free way to celebrate and build relationships.
Ages ranged from pre-school to some very venerable senior citizens, all of whom reported having a good time.
The festivities started with a wonderful pot-luck spread that included some exotic foods–seaweed, kimchi–as well as the standard North Dakota hotdishes and everything in between. No one went away hungry. Accompanying supper was music from the CD of Richard Bruer’s bluegrass friends from this fall.
After we were all well fed, the games began. Sequence, Social Security, dominoes, and cards were played across the age spectrum, but the players were distracted by the raucous, rowdy crew that played first Taboo and then Rigamarole.
As the midnight hour approached, a little disagreement arose about the exact time, so the crowd loudly sang “Auld Lang Syne” twice, just to be sure.
The organizing committee was very happy with the attendance and looks forward to providing safe, lowcost, no travel fun for the whole community next New Year.

Bowdon Church of God and Bowdon Country Seventh-day Adventist church and the Bowdon Community came together to celebrate with a wedding reception for newlyweds, Jeff and Terry (Jahner) Bice.  Jeff and Terry were married in August 2007 but Bowdon was unable to help them celebrate their marriage until early in December 2007.  That’s because Jeff works in road construction and they live wherever the work site is during construction season.  But… there’s more to their story… Jeff’s old family home near Dun Center, ND burned right after they unpacked their belongings to live there for the winter.  Not only are they newlyweds but now they’ve lost pretty much everything in the fire.  The Bowdon Community Center offered a great place to host a light supper with a whole lot of celebrating and shareing with Jeff and Terry.  The support from our rural community and collaboration of the local churches is awesome.  

I was thinking recently about the section of Bowdon’s Vision Plan that refers to supporting our local businesses when I went into the Bowdon Locker and Grocery. What did I discover? Our little store had fresh baby spinach, avocados, and cilantro!
All this because someone asked. They have ordered tonic water, soy crisps, and mmmmm-mmmm good Swiss-almond cheese because local people requested them. I think it’s wonderful that the store supports the needs of the community. That’s certainly a good reason for the community to support the store, don’t you think?