DL Chamber discusses what businesses have accomplished despite the pandemic

This year's Detroit Lakes Economic Summit was all about business resiliency.

DETROIT LAKES, Minn-  The Detroit Lakes Chamber of Commerce hosts its annual Economic Summit virtually to discuss what businesses in the city have been able to accomplish despite COVID-19.

This year’s Detroit Lakes Economic Summit was all about business resiliency.

“It’s just such a great topic because it just shows how you can keep moving forward. There’s always hurdles, but we keep moving forward,” says the President of the  Detroit Lakes Regional Chamber of Commerce Carrie Johnston.

Among the speakers were representatives from Sanford Health, The City of Detroit Lakes, and the Detroit Lakes Community and Cultural Center.

“It was nice to be able to hear some of the challenges, where we can support those businesses? What can we do? How can we support and shop local? And really work together, but also recognize there are some successes and we need to keep cheerleading because they’re doing a really great job,” Johnston says.

Three entrepreneurs also spoke about starting an innovative business in the middle of a pandemic.

One of those businesses is Finish Line, a delivery service based in Detroit Lakes that launched two weeks ago.

“We like to say we’ll deliver anything but humans and hazardous products,” says the Co-owner of Finish Line Beth Pridday.

The idea to start the business had been a thought in Beth Pridday’s mind for years.

But it didn’t come about until the pandemic happened.

‘We had reserved the name, but we never executed, so it just felt right now,” Pridday says.

Because Pridday knows all too well how high the needs are during these times.

Prior to her new venture, she had been working as a volunteer coordinator for the Emergency Management and the police department in Detroit Lakes.

In a span of ten weeks, she took almost 700 calls.

“I took calls from citizens of Detroit Lakes that needed things delivered,” she adds.

Pridday says they deliver to locations that are within an hour radius of Detroit Lakes.

“We’re excited to be hopefully a positive thing that came out of having to be hungered at home for nine to ten weeks,” Pridday says.

The company has already partenered with about 15 businesses in the Detroit Lakes area.