Tom Rolfstad (Economic Development Director) organized a meeting with City and business leaders to determine how we could reach out to Minot as they fight flood waters.

The result was an excellent public brainstorming session resulting in a commitment for us to help feed 350 people six times located in two shelters. Target Logistics, ATCO Lodge, Halliburton, and The El Rancho committed to getting meals over to Minot. Thank you to these businesses for their swift action which included personnel and financial commitments.

I offered Chamber resources to interface with local Churches to provide one of the meals to be served Saturday night. I want to thank First Baptist (Darci and Vance Grindheim - Pro Care Carpet Cleaning and Dr. Beverly and Leland Tong of Great Plains Womens Health Center and Kelly Ellingson), Liberty Evangelical (Dorine McNary), New Hope Wesleyan (Adam Helmen of Miller Insulation and Quinn Van Renterghem, Youth Pastor).  In addition, a special thank you to First Lutheran (Eleanor Olson) for the use of their large kitchen. We had plenty of "elbow" room.

Walmart (Alisha David, Travis Lee, and Brian Haaland), Economart (Mike Kraft, Dev Zubke, and Heidi Hanson) and The Salvation Army provided everything we needed (9 shopping carts full) to prepare a balanced meal. American State Bank provided refreshments for the food preparers. Dean, owner of the Homesteader restaurant in Minot, reheated the food before we delivered it to the two shelters on Saturday night.

It was a good feeling to hear all the positive feedback from various Red Cross volunteers, such as "Amazing how you North Dakotan's pull together" and "Thank you! We volunteer all over the United States and we're so impressed how much help has come to this city so fast".

Our thoughts and prayers go out to our fellow North Dakotans in Minot, Bismarck and other flooded areas. If you have business, financial or personnel resources you're able to contribute, please contact the Chamber and we'll connect you to organizations seeking help.  Again, THANK YOU to the above mentioned volunteers.

 Williston Herald

Plains Reporter

Talkin' the Bakken

GeoResources, Inc.

FMC Tecnologies, Inc.

American State Bank & Trust, Co.

JC Penney

First National Bank & Trust Co.

Downtown Plaza

Cooks On Main

Eckblad, Inc.

All Seasons Sport About

We would aslo like to thank the following businesses who have supported the Chamber by buying Blast XXII Raffle tickets.