Immigrant Development Center Holds First-Ever Fundraiser

The organization has plans to launch a "cultural mall" in Moorhead sometime in the next few years.

FARGO, N.D. – Fowzia Adde started the Immigrant Development Center, or IDC, in 2003.

And after two decades at the helm, she’s doing the exact opposite of slowing down.

“We want to make our area a destination,” she explained. “Rather than driving four hours to Minneapolis to see something good, we will see it here.”

That destination she has in mind is a cultural mall in Moorhead, somewhat similar in nature to the International Marketplace Plaza the IDC created in Fargo.

To that end – the organization had its first-ever fundraiser at Microsoft Commons, entitled “Hope for New Horizons.”

It featured a silent auction, an array of food, and speakers like Moorhead Mayor Shelly Carlson, who spoke glowingly of her relationship with Fowzia.

“When she presented to the Moorhead City Council,” Carlson related, “there was a group of students from Concordia College that were in attendance that waited the entire council meeting afterwards to talk to her because they were so excited.”

Carlson echoes the sentiment that she wants the city of Moorhead to be a hospitable place for entrepreneurs of every background.