Bemidji chamber honors storm recovery heroes, Gary Johnson gets lifetime award

The 107 mph gust that hit the Bemidji airport last June did not injure anyone, but it tore down thousands of trees, damaged electric poles and left almost the entire region without power. A year later, the Bemidji Area Chamber of Commerce used its annual Awards of Excellence to put the city’s recovery network on display and to give Gary Johnson the Charlie Naylor Lifetime Achievement Award.

The chamber held its 21st Annual Awards of Excellence on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the South Shore Hotel on Lake Bemidji, 1019 Paul Bunyan Dr. S. The luncheon recognized peer-nominated chamber members in categories that include Business of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, New Business of the Year, Healthy Workplace and Community Impact. The chamber says recipients are honored at a spring luncheon and may not win the same award in consecutive years.

Johnson’s lifetime award fit the chamber’s larger message about service and staying power. The Charlie Naylor honor recognizes lasting contributions to the community and reflects the values, entrepreneurial thinking and regional ambition associated with Charlie Naylor, who helped shape Bemidji’s role as a hub for surrounding communities. Johnson, who was identified by NTCA - The Rural Broadband Association in 2023 as chief executive of Paul Bunyan Communications, has spent decades in telecommunications, beginning his 35-year career there as a computer programmer. Past winners have included John W. Baer of Security Bank USA, Rich Siegert of the Hampton Inn and Suites and DoubleTree hotels, and Dr. Ted Will, a former general surgeon.

The chamber also highlighted the people and businesses that helped Bemidji recover after the June 21, 2025 windstorm. That response went beyond debris cleanup. In the months after the outage, the chamber launched a Chamber Bucks bonus digital gift-card program using $75,000 in contributed funds from local businesses. The effort was designed to generate $1 million in local economic activity and steer spending to participating restaurants and grocery stores that were hardest hit by the storm. The bonus cards had to be used within 90 days.

Together, the awards and the recovery campaign showed how Bemidji’s civic support system works when weather overwhelms normal routines. Utility crews, business owners and chamber leaders all became part of the same recovery chain, with the chamber now using its own honors to mark the people and organizations that helped keep Beltrami County moving after one of the region’s most disruptive storms.