Bemidji School District receives donation for EGF

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

July 24, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

The Bemidji School District has found itself the messenger of good news once again. Two months ago, the district was the intermediary for delivering a package of goods donated to the East Grand Forks School District by an elementary school in Evergreen, Colo.

This past week, Superintendent Rollie Morud learned his district was again asked to deliver a care package to the East Grand Forks district -- an anonymous donation of $10,000.

The money -- donated by a man from Ballard, Wash. -- is to be used by the school district to help pay for some of its remedial academic programs this summer for children who missed school during the flood.

The $10,000 check is scheduled to be delivered to East Grand Forks' superintendent today by several Bemidji High School student council members and the group's advisor Assistant High School Principal Doug Henry.

According to a letter sent to Morud by the anonymous donor's representative, the donor is a Scandinavian immigrant who worked hard and built and international business here in America.

"He derives great joy from sharing the fruits of his labor with those who are able to help themselves with just a little boost in the right directions," wrote Vicki Westberg, the man's representative. "He loves America and loves to help others to succeed as he has."

Morud also played an earlier part in the story of the donation, as he developed the plan for Rotary clubs nationwide to help donate money for children of the flood to attend educational and athletic summer camps. The anonymous donor's representative is a Rotarian in Washington, and learned of Morud's plan through Rotarian channels. and that is how the money found its way through Morud and now to East Grand Forks.

"I've never talked to the man, and I don't know who he is," Morud said. "But he must enjoy children."