Giving Back

Over the years, Bumbelou has evolved from 100 percent handmade clothing offerings to 10-15 percent. The change is a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed the Bumbelou staff to give back to the community. Odegard closed Bumbelou’s manufacturing facility and used its resources to supply masks to the local communities and communities across the country.

“We realized that we had all the elastic and fabric that people would need to protect themselves with masks,” Odegard said.

Bumbelou staff created a few hundred free mask kits and handed them out in front of their Mankato store during the pandemic. The first instance had 100 cars show up and wrap around the corner of the store for the kits. Seeing the demand, Odegard and her staff asked people to come back the following week after they could make more kits. The second week tripled the number of people.

“It was a huge demand,” she said. “Eventually, people asked if we could sew them for them. I talked with my team, and for nine months, we used all of our production capacity and supplies. We ended up donating more than $20,000 in money and made 150,000 masks that were donated not only locally but to Rochester, Minneapolis and all over the United States. Really, we sent them wherever we could.”

Even though their mask production has ended as the pandemic has slowed and masks have become more readily available, Odegard and Bumbelou have still found a way to give back to the community by donating 10% of profits to support children and families.

“I just know how hard it is to be a new mom and build something, so I just wanted to give back if we were successful,” she said. “Bumbelou didn’t have to succeed. Small businesses constantly fail every day, so I said if we were successful, we needed to give back to the world.”

Each month, Bumbelou gives to Every Mother Counts Compassion International, as well as local organizations, including CADA, My Place, the YMCA and Mankato’s Weekend Backpack Food Program.

“It’s really important for me to support different organizations,” Odegard said. “I just try to keep my ears to the ground with who could use more and be lifted up in our community.” second time in nearly as many months, Odegard said the decision to continue with the business had a lot to do with who she is as a person.

“I’m used to things not going well, and I just try to make sure to continue,” she said. “Our family motto is ‘do the next right thing,’ meaning, anytime something is hard, just do the next right thing. I had a team working with me, and, thankfully, the online business was already established, so we decided to rebuild even though it was really, really hard.”

By a stroke of good fortune, the back of Bumbelou’s flagship store, where production takes place, wasn’t damaged. Odegard used that space as a temporary warehouse to store merchandise and continue manufacturing during renovations.

“Our online customers continued to support us during that time,” Odegard said. “Three months eventually went past, and then we had a second store grand opening date.”

When looking back to when the Riverfront location opened, Odegard said she doesn’t think they’ve had a “normal year” yet.

“We had a broken pipe that flooded the main floor, a pandemic, and then our basement flooded,” she said. “Now this year, because we are a store with mid- to high-range products, we’re seeing a recession.”

Because people’s budgets have been affected by grocery and gas prices, fewer customers have come into Bumbelou, Odegard said.

“It’s OK,” she said. “I’m at terms with that fact. I don’t like normal anyway. As an entrepreneur, by nature, things aren’t normal ever. We’ve had a nice year. I see a recession and the challenges that come with it as a time to learn and see where we can refine. This year has been more of that, but I wouldn’t be at the level we’re at without that history behind me to help me without the bad things at the beginning.”

In 2019, Odegard expanded Bumbelou by opening the business’s second location at 5 North Minnesota Street in New Ulm after the opportunity presented itself through business friends.

“We really have a lot of customers that are located west of our Mankato location and even west of New Ulm,” she said. “People were driving through New Ulm just to come to our Mankato store.”

After witnessing a once more-vibrant downtown New Ulm in her youth dim to bigger box stores over the past decade,

Odegard opened the second location as a way to give back to the community.

“In terms of atmosphere, New Ulm is a very tourist-driven town,” she explained.

“A lot of those people coming to town are shopping, and there wasn’t a big baby and kid market. Similar to when I was analyzing a location for the Mankato store, I thought

What’s In a Name

When Odegard sold her first business, the business name was sold along with it. She knew that when it came to choosing a name for her next company, it needed to be strong and memorable.

“Around the time I was envisioning a name for the company Bumbelou, my oldest daughter was about 18 months old,” Odegard said.

At that time, her daughter Lexi’s favorite game was “Bumble Bee,” in which she would run around buzzing, and Odegard and her husband would chase her around. The game resulted in Lexi giving her mom and dad joyful belly laughs.

“That’s my Lexi Lou,” Odegard said. “She was my bumble bee. That’s how Bumbelou became the store’s name. That’s what it’s about … it’s such a clear memory of her childhood.”

I’d give it a shot.”

Odegard is now three years into the New Ulm store journey and said there is still a lot of room for growth.

“I feel like New Ulm got hit harder during and after the pandemic,” she said. “I see it just with restaurants and other stores in town not being open to capacity. The tourists are still coming here, and we know that because they tell us they’re coming from Iowa, Nebraska and even New York and California. I don’t have store data prior to COVID because we weren’t open, but we’re trying hard to make it successful.”

Odegard and her team prioritize bringing the best attitudes they can to their customers because they want people to have a beautiful experience every time they set foot into one of the stores.

“We want our customers to feel inspired and relaxed when they are in our stores,” she said. “A lot of customers are moms, and we want them to have a peaceful atmosphere while shopping. We also have a lot of people come into the store shopping for gifts, which we think is so special. We want to make sure people find something of nice quality that will last and be a part of the person’s childhood that is receiving the gift.”

The team at Bumbelou has made a name for themselves not only in customer service but also when it comes to gender reveals for expecting couples. Customers provide an unopened card from their doctor in which the sex of their baby is written inside. Bumbelou staff will curate a gift and place it in a gender-neutral white box. The expecting couples will open the box and, for the first time, find out if they are having a boy or a girl based on the contents inside.

“We love when we get these opportunities,” Odegard said. “If there are multiple team members there when the request comes in, there’s always a lot of squeals of delight. We just feel so lucky to be a part of the family’s journey.”

Throughout the tenure of Bumbelou, Odegard said she feels it’s essential to learn as you go and see how things unfold. She said she has a lot of big dreams and goals for the company but nothing in the immediate future.

“I told myself that I needed a year to absorb everything,” she said. “We had so many changes over the past few years. This year I said I was just going to sit tight and really get things under us before we charge forward with any other huge dreams.”

In addition to growing Bumbelou to two stores, Odegard also opened Hazelkin & Co., a gift and lifestyle store, on the same block as her Mankato store.

“That was my sit quiet for a year,” she said with a laugh. “It was to get these three stores really comfortable before we do anything crazy. We’re bringing brands into these communities that people either had to order online or drive to the Cities for. We’re hearing from our customers that they’ve seen these products before, but never in stores. It’s been awesome and really what I’ve been hoping for.”

The Essentials

Bumbelou

405 N Riverfront Dr

Mankato, MN 56001

5 N Minnesota St

New Ulm, MN 56073

Phone: (507) 594-9072

Web: bumbelou.com

Black Frost Distilling

The idea for Black Frost Distilling was born in the middle of a barley field. Co-founders Nate Gieseke and Jace Marti, a 6th genera tion farmer and a 6th generation brew master, respectively, were admiring a field of lush, green, two-row barley Nate had grown on his family farm just a few weeks before harvest.

The barley was the culmination of a dream to bring locally grown barley and the concept of terroir (a French term commonly used in winemaking that refers to how the environment and growing location influence flavor) to the beers brewed at the August Schell Brewing Company. Standing in the midst of the field, the pair realized the crop could be transformed into something even better: unique whiskeys instilled with bold, local flavor.

Black Frost Distilling opened in August 2022 in New Ulm and currently has three full-time and eight part-time employees.

“As a distillery, we are focused on producing a distinct lineup of northern terroir-focused whiskies. My business partner grows all of the grains we use — corn, barley, wheat and rye — at his family farm just outside New Ulm,” Jace Marti said.

In addition to drawing its ingredients from local sources, the distillery also uses area suppliers to malt grains and cooper oak barrels.

“We are currently laying down barrels of whiskey to age, but when we release them in a few years, they will have a unique identity of their own,” Marti said. “Our goal from the onset was to create a lineup of whiskies that would produce exclusively from ingredients that we would grow ourselves or source locally in the Northland.”

The distillery also operates a full-service cocktail room with a complete lineup of regionally sourced spirits.

“We are just getting started, so right now our focus is on ramping up production, fine-tuning our process and laying down as many barrels as we can,” Marti said. “While we patiently wait for our whiskey to mature, we will continue to offer curated cocktails in an inviting space.”

Black Frost Distilling

201 1st St. N

Phone: (507) 233-1805

Web: blackfrostdistilling.com

Facebook: @blackfrostdistilling