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.
Aug. 2, 1996
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
Staff members and the "grandparents" of the local Foster Grandparent program said goodbye to an eight-year friend Wednesday.
The program had to cut its van service of more than 15 years, and the van driver's position. Sue Moe had been the driver for the last eight years, and Wednesday was her last day of work.
The Foster Grandparent program is a federal- and state-subsidized program under the direction fo the National Senior Service Corps, but is controlled mostly on a state level, said local program manager Elaine Haugen. Recently, state level officials deemed it more cost effective to redirect money used for transportation to other parts of the program. In essence, the programs will not lose the money, but instead it will be used for other aspects.
Haugen said the profile of the senior citizen participants has changed, and more senior citizens such as 60- to 65-year-olds are joking the program. This age group has more of a tendency to drive themselves, and those who provide their own transportation receive mileage reimbursement. This made the state's Foster Grandparents' vans inefficient.
The state officials also wanted participants to use existing public transportation systems more, to provide much needed income in a time of government cutbacks, Haugen said.
The loss of the van will affect about 20 to 25 riders during the winter months and less in the summer. However, Haugen said she is losing more than just the convenience of the program's own transportation. Moe was the "eyes and ears" of the program and informed Haugen when grandparents were sick and what participants were saying about the program.
"She knew the riders. She was the communicator," Haugen said. "It gave us personal one-to-one contact. Although I'll miss Sue, I can see it's time."
Moe said she would miss talking with the grandparents the most. After devoting eight years to the program, she became close friends with them.
"Although the van is done, I'm only a phone call away," Moe said of her friends in the program. "What's more important is that they continue to go to work. I like what they do, and I wish I would have had one when I was in school."
Haugen said she has not solved all of the problems caused by the lack of transportation, but most of the participants have been accommodated. Only one has resigned due to the loss of transportation. "She just didn't want to deal with the hassle," she said.
The Foster Grandparent program is a 32-year-old project in which elders work with children who have special needs, Haugen said. The program focuses on children who have come from "fragmented families," and the grandparents work to establish long-term relationships with the children.
The local program, which is about 27 years old, has helped a lot of kids, she said. There are about 55 participants in the Bemidji area, and Bemidji is the headquarters for about a five-county region.
"One grandparent said, 'I may have lost my ride, but I haven't lost my drive,'" Haugen said. "They will not let this stop them. It's going to be a change, but the program is only going to grow."
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