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.
Jan. 21, 1997
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
The Bemidji area chapter of Habitat for Humanity is looking for a few, good families -- families that qualify to be awarded one of the two Habitat houses that will be built in Bemidji this year.
The application process for the Habitat houses opened last week, and Family Selection Committee Chairwoman Deb Dilley said the number of applications the committee has to evaluate is not large, and she wishes more people would apply.
Habitat for Humanity is an ecumenical volunteer organization which helps build or renovate houses for those who live in substandard housing. By paying for or getting donations toward building the housing, HFH saves a family numerous expenses up front which limit the number of people who can afford to own a home.
The partner families -- families living in Habitat homes -- then pay a lower monthly mortgage rate back to Habitat than they would to a bank. the money received from partner families is then put into a local "Fund for Humanity," which is used as seed money for the next Habitat house in the community.
The Family Selection Committee is in charge of recruiting applicants every year, Dilley said, and it distributes applications throughout Bemidji in places they think potential partner families might see them, but she still does not see all that many applications returned.
"Last year we set the due date and ended up extending the deadline. We just don't receive a ton of applications," she said. "We've talked about that at meetings, and we just don't know why. We've had informational meetings, and people just don't come."
Applications for the two houses to be built in 1997 were distributed to locations throughout Bemidji, including Lueken's Village Foods, Bi-CAP, Beltrami Public Nursing, Bemidji Food Shelf, St. Philips Clothing Depot and Beltrami County social services. Dilley said public service announcements were also distributed to newspapers and radio stations in town.
"We don't know why people don't apply. Maybe some people don't know what we are about," said Ted Magnan, local chapter president. "A lot of people are intimidated talking about finances or about buying a home. They don't think they can do it."
Magnan's daughter, Sherry Kloha, a former chair of the Family Selection Committee, said she agrees the number of people who qualify for the final stage -- a personal interview with the family -- is low, but she said there are about 15 to 20 people who do apply every year. Some just do not meet Habitat's qualifications.
"Some (Habitat) people are bothered by the fact that we don't receive many applications. I guess I've always felt that because of our guidelines, they have helped narrow down the applicants," she said. "It's usually a decent pool, and we find one or two good applicants. If we can pull one or two from those qualified, I'm happy because that's all we are looking for each year."
Kloha said the Habitat guidelines limit the number of people who will apply. For instance, when determining the need of a family, Habitat looks at the family's income, condition of their present housing, size of family and the percentage of income spent on housing. Not only that but at least one family member must be employed; the family's current residence cannot be outside of a 15-mile radius of Bemidji; the family must be willing to commit to living in the community for five years; and the family members must volunteer 300 hours of "sweat equity," in which they work on either their own home or some other project agreeable to Habitat.
This year's application deadline is Feb. 7, and applications may be sent to the Bemidji Habitat for Humanity at P.O. Box 1067, Bemidji, MN 56601.
"Maybe people don't understand Habitat enough. Maybe we haven't let people know about it enough," Dilley said. "But whatever the reason is, we sure encourage those who think they qualify to apply."
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