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.
Dec. 26, 1998
By Devlyn Brooks
A lack of funds and volunteer support has killed the long-standing Snowjourn cross-country ski race held annually in Bemidji.
Andra Vaugh, president of Minnesota Finlandia, which has sponsored the race in recent years, said this week the group has decided to no longer sponsor the 16 kilometer skiing race held in January.
The Snowjourn, which has had a hard time surviving as of late, was started in 1976 by Bemidji State University. The race this January would have been the 23rd annual.
Vaughn said Minnesota Finlandia has dropped sponsorship of the race for many of the same reasons BSU had to several years ago.
First, the funding for insurance and other costs needed for the race has outweighed the money generated by the race.
And second, the number of volunteers needed to operate the race just hasn't been available.
BSU dropped the race for the same reasons about three years ago, Vaughn said.
"Snowjourn hasn't broken even for the last three years," Vaughn, an organizer and former racer of the event, said. "(And) the reality of it is, it takes a lot of people to run a race."
Early in its existence, the race drew nearly 400 participants, but recently drawing 85 racers was a good year, said Lloyd Johnson of Bemidji.
Johnson, one of only two racers that have raced in all 22 Snowjourns, said the number of people willing to race has dwindled significantly for several reasons. One being the changing focus to more competitive skiing versus the entertainment focus of the early Snowjourns.
And Vaughn said the volunteers haven't been available either. For instance, 30 people operated last year's Snowjourn, but it was a slow year. In the past, at least 50 people were needed for the race to be properly run.
Finlandia slims down
The Snowjourn isn't the only race recently dropped by Minnesota Finlandia, according to Vaughn.
At the group's November meeting, they also voted to stop hosting the Go Tour and Ji-Babba races as well.
The Go Tour was a biking event held annually in May, and the Ji-Babba a running and inline skating event held in September.
The group will now host only the huge Minnesota Finlandia skiing weekend, the "Ride, Stride the Divide" race in the summer and the Montebello Niteski in the winter.
Vaughn said group members decided it would be best to host fewer events with more money and volunteers than to keep spreading themselves thin with many events a year.
"It didn't come as an easy decision to drop (Snowjourn). (But) we feel good about it. It's making us a better group," Vaughn said. "For the first time in years we're in the black. We're not in the red."
The resources that were used for the Snowjourn will now be shifted for use during the Minnesota Finlandia weekend held annually in February, Vauhn said.
And it will also be used to support the new Nordic Festival of the North that is held in conjunction with the skiing weekend.
The festival is a one-day celebration of Scandinavian music and crafts held at the Northern Inn.
"I think you have to be a realist when something isn't making a lot of money, and it takes a lot of volunteer hours ...," Vaughn said. "There's just not another alternative."
Losing a friend
The many people who raced in the Snowjourn say it was a special race -- one of a different breed geared for the novice, not the expert.
Vaughn, who hasn't raced in it for eight years, but did when she first attended college at then-Bemidji State College, said it produced fond memories for her.
She was on the now-defunct college women's cross-country ski team, which many northern colleges had then, and raced in the Snowjourn every year as a warm-up to regionals.
"In my heart, it was a very special race," she said. "I still have the pins we received each year for the number of years we had skied in it. It's a race that's very near and dear to a lot of us."
Johnson, who skied in all 22 of the Snowjourns, also will be sad to see the race go.
For him, the most memorable part of skiing in it was being able to compete with friends and also it being a family-oriented event in the early years.
"Obviously, I've looked forward to it," he said. "It was a significant race for those who don't travel all over. I'm sad to see it is ending."
Johnson, soon to be 67, also said being only one of two people to ski every Snowjourn motivated him.
"When it gets down to that, you feel committed to it," he added. "In that way, it becomes important to you. You want to keep it going. It's like holding a record."
A record that come Jan. 10 will come to an end.
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