Grocer wins contest: $1,250 will be used for playground equipment at Bagley school

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.

April 7, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

BAGLEY, Minn. -- Keith Kubiak, owner of Kubiak's Family Foods, is trying to get involved early in his children's education.

The father of 3-week-old and 18 month-old children recently won a national promotional contest involving the Campbell's corporation "Labels for Education" program, procuring more than $1,200 for a Bagley Elementary School playground equipment fund.

Kubiak entered the contest, coordinated by his grocery store's national food distributer -- Nash Finch -- in which stores competed to produce the most creative promotional campaign to collect Campbell's soup labels.

For winning the contest, Kubiak was awarded 50,000 bonus Campbell's soup labels, in certificate form, to use in the Bagley community effort toward purchasing new playground equipment for its elementary school. He was also awarded a 1,000 labels certificate just for entering the contest, he said.

Campbell's Labels for Education program allows schools, preschools, day-care facilities, public libraries and military institutions to redeem Campbell's soup labels -- among other of their product's labels -- for educational equipment. The program is in its 24th year, and Campbell's has awarded more than $50 million worth of school equipment in that time. The company also donated 180,000 labels to the Nash Finch contest winners.

Kubiak presented the certificates to the Bagley Elementary Parent Committee, which helped him run the Campbell's promotion, at a March 4 ceremony. For his efforts, he was even given a cake, he said.

As Kubiak just switched to the national distributor -- Nash Finch -- last year, this was his first encounter with the contest, which was held the third week of January.

"I saw the papers (concerning the contest) come across my desk" Kubiak said, "and I said, 'Ooh ... this is a good one.'"

When he first entered the contest, he called his Campbell's soup representative and asked what were the chances of winning. The representative told Kubiak he heard of no one else in the region served by the Fargo Nash Finch warehouse that had entered the contest.

So, Kubiak entered the contest, thinking it would be an easy win. Only later did he discover it was a nationwide contest, and he had won first place in the independent division.

The contest was such a success and a community builder, Kubiak said he plans to keep the Campbell's bins in his stores, and other local businesses, to collect labels year round. And next year the labels will be added to the 80,000-plus -- 50,000 from the contest and 30,000 from the elementary parents raised in addition -- that were banked from this year.

The Campbell's company allows schools to bank the labels they collect each year if the amount is not enough to purchase their desired equipment. Kubiak said he thinks it will take about 200,000 labels to qualify for the playground equipment the parents want.

"The budgets for the schools are so tough now. They are so tight; they can't afford anything extra," he said of the equipment. "But education is education. It's books and stuff, but it's about working together. And the kids did for this contest."

Kubiak said he appreciates the attention he has received for winning the contest, but would as well like to see recognition given to the elementary kids who collected labels. He said they are the real reason he won the contest.

Plans for next year's promotional contest are already in the works, but he declined to share any of his strategies. The competition does not need any hints, he said.

"This year we won," he said, "but next year everybody'll be after me. I'm not going to say we're going to repeat, but we'll try our hardest."

And besides, he always has the inspiration of his own children to keep him going.

"They'll be attending the elementary school some day," he added. "This is my little way of helping."