Bowdon, ND

The Bowdon Cafe is the hub of activity in Bowdon. When it was closed for weekends this past summer due to a shortage of cooks the residents of our community awoke to the fact that everyone is needed to support business in rural communities. For the Bowdon Cafe it was not the lack of customers but the need for committed workers.

Luckily Brian Tebelius persuaded his wife, Kathy, to work several days per week and because of a Horizons steering meeting where the need was presented, Cindy Hoff, offered to cook Fridays and share weekends. Brian knew he needed a place to eat when Kathy is away teaching art, attending college classes, or sharing her Bible School programs with children throughout the state. Kathy is a busy, multi-talented person who brings a great sense of humor and new recipes to work with her. Cindy’s talents are not to go unnoticed either as she ran the cafe several years before the present owners took over in 2002. Beside being a great cook, Cindy cares about the appearance of the cafe and upkeep that makes a visual difference to the customer.

Two remaining cooks who had been maintaining the balance of cooking with Judy Schlossnagle, whose resignation this summer caused the community’s alarm, are Freida Tebelius and Londa Neumiller. Freida manages the cafe’s kitchen and should be given a reward for working extra hours and refusing to let the owners completely close the cafe this summer. Londa works during the winter when she is not busy on the family farm. Freida is loved for the “cheese buttons” she makes as a special entree and Londa has gained a reputation as master baker, especially known for scrumptious cheesecakes. Both are wives of two present cafe owners.

The cafe has been owned by 10-12 community men since 2002. Each owner has contributed finances to the business on two occasions and know they will not receive any financial dividends from their generosity. Their rewards are knowing they will have a place to eat a hearty, home-cooked meal or just have coffee and a carmel roll with discussion on the latest agricultural pursuits.

Lately the owners have realized that the cafe not only meets their food and social needs but also those of singles and elderly in the community. Meals on Wheels is offered to people in Bowdon from the Sheridan-Wells Aging Council, but there still is a need to socialize while eating and the community is dedicated to meeting this need even if food delivery is required. (A separate strategy of Horizons is meeting the transportation, housekeeping, shopping,and delivery needs of the elderly in the community).

So on January 2 four of the Cafe owners and several BDCI board members met in the school building library to dialogue about the cafe, its future, and its meaning to the community. The number one concern of the cafe owners is to find more help, or to find someone who will take a full-time position. BDCI offered to help by advertising through its website and the “Bowdon Guardian”, supporting the idea of signature foods offered at the cafe; planning and installing decor; and looking at a possible remodel of the kitchen. Long-term goals were discussed and a future meeting of the group was suggested.

The dialogue was pertainent to the goal of “Supporting Local Business”. It’s hard for the community to see itself as growing and thriving when rural North Dakota is changing so fast. The 12 leaders who stepped out to buy and save the cafe 6 years ago responded to a need. Now they will become leaders in looking at the needs a small town and its rural components will have in the future. The January gathering was a recognition that both entities care very much for this community we call Bowdon-Chaseley-Heaton and want to work together to weather the changes of this world and look for opportunities for our community to thrive.

Community Commentators
Bowdon’s Community Visioning process, the fourth step in the Horizons Program, which is sponsored by the Northwest Area Foundation, got off to a great start when participants were greeted by the usual North Dakota spread of good food when they walked into the Bowdon Auditorium on a recent Sunday evening.  Thirty-five people gathered to make comments on nine different categories that were an outgrowth of the paper survey that was sent to 220 households in the Bowdon-Heaton-Chaseley community.  From the 78 responses to the paper survey, the Group Decision Center  from NDSU created an interactive program to gather opinions, solutions, volunteers and more from the highly motivated, community-oriented participants. Laughter, a little frustration from the new-to-computers-crowd, and energy emanated around the room as we used the 35 laptops to answer questions, make comments, and make comments on others’ comments in the pursuit of a vision for our community.

At the completion of the evening, the Bowdon Horizons Steering Committee was given a complete overview of what our community views as important and actionable issues, along with practical solutions and ideas. In addition, many people volunteered to particpate in the implementation of the actions needed to realize the community’s vision.

In a meeting that followed soon after the Group Decision Center night, the Steering Committee and a few other volunteers met to distill the process into measureable goals with doable action steps. Those goals and actions are posted on the blog site. Just look in the column on the right hand side of the page to see them all.

Ready! Set! Go! Bowdon!

Recently, Patti Patrie and Laurel Jones attended a conference/workshop in Mandan, ND, under the auspices of Headstart that addressed the issues of poverty and moving from one economic level to another.

The workshop instructor, Monica Bein, mbein@tulsa-health.org from Oklahoma gave participants many personal anecdotes that illustrated the need to identify the “hidden rules” in any organization or group and to find ways to make experiences in accessing information and services user friendly.

Patti and Laurel purchased some books that are available at the Community Library and also received a workbook to accompany the books.

In the planning are workshops for the community to apply what Patti, Laurel, and Laurene Heintz–who attended an earlier conference on the same topic–have learned.

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!