Bowdon, ND

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!

As a result of the Horizons Program, the new School Utilization Committee has set up the Bowdon Fitness Center in the south classroom attached to the Bowdon Auditorium.

There’s enough equipment available to rival Gold’s Gym or the Bismarck Y!!

To use the Center, all you have to do is contact Pam Hoff at dnphofs@daktel.com, sign a waiver of liability for insurance purposes, go through an orientation, pay the monthly $15.00 fee, get a key, and start your exercise engine!

The committee is grateful to all of the community members who have donated equipment and is looking for others of us who are using treadmills and other such items as middle-of-the-room clothes closets.

BDCI is also considering a scholarship program for those unable to afford the monthly fee.

All right, you guys, let’s get fit!

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?