NWMIF helps area businesses

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.

June 16, 1996

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

In its first 10 years, the Northwest Minnesota Initiative Fund has awarded more than$1.2 million in loans and investments to Beltrami County businesses. This impact has not gone unnoticed, especially by those who work for organizations that have been assisted by NWMIF.

A recipient of one of those loans is Jasper Consulting of Bemidji, which recently set up shop in the Paul Bunyan Mall to test its new product, the Fingerprint Identification System. NWMIF invested $75,000 in the enterprise.

Lisa Bruns is the president of Lady Slipper Designs, a cottage industry supplier that provides at-home work opportunities for about 300 skilled craft people, and she is one person who has also noticed what NWMIF has done.

Although Lady Slipper Designs has never taken a loan from NWMIF, the company has sought technical and managerial advice from NWMIF, Bruns said. The company has also received grants to enhance its product development from the fund.

This is the second major area NWMIF uses to expand northwest Minnesota's economy: organizational support. NWMIF has spent more than a $1 million providing technical, managerial and start-up advice to communities and organizations in its 12-county service region.

"They've been a resource to us for aspects other than financially," Bruns said. "They're very interested in a number of ways they can impact the region's economy."

Bruns said she feels the NWMIF is an asset to Bemidji and the surrounding community. "The fact that they are local to this region is fortunate," she said. "They are just an invaluable resource to have."

The third area of support NWMIF has extended northwest Minnesota has been training and education. According to NWMIF literature, the organization has spent more than $300,000 in its 10 years on training programs such as intensive leadership development programs. The organization has also sponsored seminars on understanding and promoting cultural equity.

"They've been very good to a lot of people here in the community," Bruns said. "They are a viable asset to this community."