Plaid Clad Group Heads Down To Saint Paul For Annual “Bemidji Day At The Capitol”

More than 50 proud Bemidji community members put on their best buffalo plaid today and headed down to Saint Paul to advocate for funding and programs that affect the region.

The Bemidji Day At The Capitol bus was filled this morning with local business and civil leaders, as well as government officials, Bemidji Area Schools staff, and both Bemidji State University and Bemidji High School students. A few of the big topics the group advocated for included higher education appropriation, local government aide, reimbursements for out-of-home placements and transportation.

Deb Pfaff, the Bemidji Area Chamber Of Commerce President,says, “What we’re going to be talking about is the transportation sparsity and what that means is the lack of funding students who are bus riders. The way it works for reimbursement is based on the entire student population, not necessarily the amount of miles that a school district puts on their buses or the percentage of bus riders.”

According to the Bemidji Area Chamber Of Commerce, past trips down to the capitol have been extremely successful. They hope to see similar results from this year’s visit.

Pfaff says, “Following last year’s event where we requested funding for the veteran’s home and funding for the replacement of Hagg-Sauer Hall at BSU, funding was allocated for both of those projects which, for, in our mind was a huge, a huge win.”

This was the 14th annual Bemidji Day At The Capitol. The group also brought along gifts for legislatures as a thank you for their past support.