Bemidji United Way Hosts Annual ‘Live United Day’ for Campaign Kickoff

On Wednesday, the United Way of Bemidji Area held its annual Campaign for the Community kickoff with Live United Day, where volunteers from all over the region gathered at the Lueken’s Village Foods North warehouse.

“The United Way touches so many different people at different stages of their life,” said 2025 Campaign for the Community co-chair Kayla Winkler. “The partner agencies have a wide variety of services they offer, and I just think to me, the United Way helps everyone.”

“It’s versatile and it’s widespread, and we get to see that firsthand,” added fellow Campaign co-chair Megan Steigauf. “And so it’s just very exciting.”

Bemidji Mayor Jorge Prince has even officially proclaimed the day as Live United Day within the city. And although it’s the kickoff to the year-long campaign, the volunteering doesn’t stop.

“We try to figure out a way to be impactful in that,” said United Way of Bemidji Area Executive Director Denae Alamano. “We had different businesses and community members here packing our Backpack Buddies weekend food packs, helping 600 kids in our community to have food on the weekends.”

For each Campaign for the Community, the United Way holds several different events, such as their trap shoot and movie days, but the fundraising starts long before the actual kickoff. This year, they’re looking to reach a goal of $775,000, which was set after last year’s Campaign for the Community raised $768,000.

“There are six community businesses that are considered the pacesetter businesses for the United Way,” Winkler elaborated. “We have pretty robust employee campaigns that we do. We commit what our money raised will be ahead of time.”

At Wednesday’s event, it was revealed that, thanks to all of their pacesetter businesses and all the donations received ahead of time, $262,301.22 has already been raised—more than 30% of this year’s total.

“So many different people in so many different capacities step up and step in, and you just continually get impressed, inspired, and blown away by who does what, and all for a good cause,” said Steigauf.

“It’s exactly what the title of the day is,” added Alamano. “We’re all living united. We’re all coming together to do good for those who need our help in the community.”

This year’s Campaign for the Community co-chairs also have a slogan of their own: “Together we lead, together we give.”