100+ Women Who Care Bemidji Raises Record-Breaking Amount for Area Food Shelf

Twice a year, 100+ Women Who Care Bemidji Area comes together to give away thousands of dollars donated from women in the community to a local nonprofit. This past Thursday, the group raised a record-breaking amount to give to a local food shelf.

Well over 100 women who live in the Bemidji area gathered at the South Shore Hotel for the organization’s fourth-ever meeting. The group has raised a total of just over $43,000 in its past three events combined.

“Tonight, we’re hoping that that [43,000] surpasses 60,000,” said 100+ Women Who Care Bemidji Area Chair Kay Mack. “And I’m pretty confident that it will.”

In just one hour, four nonprofits among the many in the selection pool are randomly chosen. Then, officials from those 4 nonprofits give a “sales pitch” of sorts, explaining what their respective organizations do and why they feel they need the donation.

“Every time we have four agencies, I’m bound to learn something about one that I didn’t really know anything about, and maybe more than one,” added Mack. “We love those stories, too, that we’re getting the word out about all the nonprofits.”

After the four are randomly selected and the sales pitches are complete, attendees then get to vote on who they believe should receive their donations of $100 each. The Bemidji Community Food Shelf was voted to receive the thousands of dollars raised this time, making it the biggest donation the food shelf has ever seen.

Kathy Felix, the interim director of the food shelf, couldn’t help but get emotional while being presented with the check.

“Such gratitude, gratitude for everyone in this community, of what they’ve done so far,” she told Lakeland News. “The people here, the women, what an honor to be able to receive this on their behalf and on the behalf of the food shelf. I’m really for our customers and what it means for them. This is just such a gift and it will go a long ways, and I will use it wisely to make sure our shelves are full.”

The donating didn’t stop there. Reyna, a student at Gene Dillon Elementary School in Bemidji, decided to raise money on her own selling hundreds of homemade bracelets in her school. After the event, she donated just over $100 to Village of Hope, an emergency shelter serving families facing homelessness.

“We were in Walmart and I was thinking how other kids don’t have, like, stuff that they need, stuff that they can eat and stay warm and stuff—like, kids my age and older and younger, so they could have stuff that they needed,” explained Reyna.

After the final amount was calculated, $17,500 was presented to the Bemidji Community Food Shelf. The next 100+ Women Who Care event for the Bemidji area will take place on April 30 next year.