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. 8, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
CASS LAKE -- On a recent afternoon, Myron Nyberg stands in the middle of a small pile of rubble in a house on main street, surveying the damage he has done.
Surrounding him are the walls of an aging structure. Bare studs show through in places; a dark wood paneling reminiscent of the 1970s still stands in spots; and underneath that there's a silver, leafy-patterned wallpaper circa the 1950s -- all a testament to the many lives the building has lived.
As Nyberg -- clad in work pants, a long-sleeve shirt, suspenders and a stained baseball cap -- slowly lifts a thin foam mask covering his mouth, he roughly chokes on the plaster dust hanging thickly in the air.
"It's hot in here," he says. "Dusty too."
Nyberg, his wife Lorraine and Mindy Jones-Ruby -- all residents of Cass Lake and board members of the infant Boys and Girls Club of Leech Lake/Cass Lake -- are gutting a former house that sits about midway down Cass Lake's Second Street Northwest.
Within a few short weeks, this once residence, once beauty shop, once telephone office, will house the community's Boys and Girls Club -- a culmination of five years of work by a dedicated group of Cass Lake residents.
A long time coming
All three volunteers are giddy as they describe what the building will look like in a couple of months. A television viewing area here. A visiting area complete with a radio and resembling a family living room there. And a 25-by-25-foot game room in the back.
But the future wasn't always this bright.
Randy Finn, the chairman of the Boys and Girls Club's board, spearheaded this effort five years ago with nothing more than a vision.
Over the years, he and other volunteers have had their share of challenges -- naysayers, a lack of funding and a lack of volunteers.
But none of it was as frustrating for club board members as last year.
After years of searching for a home for the club, the city of Cass Lake offered its old city hall to the club when the city offices were moved into a new building on main street.
Just when the new home of the Boys and Girls Club was within the volunteers' grasps, the dream was wrenched away because the building was so dilapidated it didn't meet building codes and couldn't be insured.
Subsequent buildings also weren't suitable, and one was moved into by another agency before the club could acquire it.
But finally this year, the club raised enough money to purchase their current building from Finn himself. It was a house he purchased and lived in last year, but he sold it to the club for his original cost so the club would have a home.
Two weeks ago, volunteers moved in and started gutting the place, while the club officially took ownership about a week ago.
"It's been a long time coming," Jones-Ruby said, "but it will be worth it for the kids."
Facelift
The one-story building sits about midway down Second Street Northwest on a 50-by-100-fot lot. The house abuts the sidewalk, and behind the house stands a one stall garage which will be linked to the house to form about an 80-by-25-fout building.
Entering the future club from the south, one will see a television viewing corner to their right and several tables with chairs to their left. Further north a renovated, handicapped accessible bathroom and two offices will sit across the room from a lounging area built to resemble a family living room.
Just a bit more north, there are pop and food vending machines and tables opposite a set of lockers. Completing the structure, in the garage-turned-recreation room will be video games and ping pong tables and pool tables.
In need of volunteers
Although it would seem the retired Lorraine and Myron Nyberg would not have as much of a vested interest in the Boys and Girls Club as Jones-Ruby -- who has three young children -- they joined a couple of years ago because the said they felt a responsibility to help with the project.
"We live on main street, and we see the kids. There's nothing for them to do," Myron Nyberg said. "We've got a senior citizen building next door. Why can't we have one for the kids? They're the future of our nation."
Although it has attracted 16 people to serve on the supervising board, and countless others to perform various task, the club is in dire need of volunteer laborers.
It is hoped the club will be open in a couple of months, but in order for that to happen, more volunteers are needed.
"We need a lot more community involvement," Lorraine Nyberg said. "You can't go around to every individual and ask for help. It's not the money; it's the help that is needed. We basically have the money to build the building, but we don't have the extra to pay for labor."
Fundraising is difficult
To date, the Boys and Girls Club has raised more than $122,000 from government and private sources, according to club secretary Arlene Reed.
Cass County donated $18,000; Pike Bay Township $5,000; the Mormon Church $10,000; Cass Lake residents $6,000; and $40,000 was donated from an undisclosed government agency.
Reed says it hasn't been an easy task, but the money has been raised since June 1998.
Some of that still will be available for salaries and programming once the building is finished, Reed said. But it will be the job of a soon-to-be hired executive director, with guidance from officials with Boys and Girls Clubs of America, to find sustaining funds for the club.
"With their track record of a 134 years of existence, and they have support from major, major business," Reed said, "it shouldn't be too hard."
Naysayers
The Nybergs and Jones-Ruby say project volunteers have battled naysayers throughout its history.
Teen centers have gotten a bad rap because several have been started in Cass Lake, the volunteers said, but they quickly fizzled.
Those experiences, in addition to the halting nature of a grassroots effort, have made skeptics out of much of the community.
Jones-Ruby said she knows well how they think because she was a skeptic herself before Finn convinced her to attend a club board meeting a couple of months ago.
"There have been articles in the paper for 15 years about getting something like this started, and it never happened," she said. "I have skeptics in my own family. People say, 'When you get it built, come talk to me.'"
Lorraine Nyberg says they're missing the point, however. She said she believes this is the start of something good, arguing that the past teen centers never had full-time employees and the support of the national Boys and Girls Club organization.
"It doesn't look like much, but you have to visualize," she said. "I guess you have to dream a little."
Future
When the building is complete, the club will accept $1 per year memberships from kids ages 6 to 18. But, in order to be sanctioned by the Boys and Girls Club of America, at least 100 members are needed.
Many of the details of what will be available at the club are yet to be determined, and what programming is needed isn't even set. But that can wait for now, the volunteers only are concerned with completing the building.
Most involved also agree the little house on main street probably won't hold the club for long. The hope is to build a new and bigger building nearer the Cass Lake Elementary School, where there is a gymnasium, computer labs and a swimming pool available.
"This is actually a dream I've had for over 50 years," said Lorraine Nyberg, a retired grandmother. "I tried to get a teen center when I was in high school."
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