Northwest College President Lisa Watson called it serendipitous. 

It really couldn’t have been better timing. 

On Jan. 24, NWC began delivering kitchen equipment it had used throughout the new student center construction period to a small, private North Dakota college that had suffered a fire in the building housing its kitchen and dining facilities. 

“Really it was kind of serendipity,” she said, noting that especially securing the mobile food trailers NWC was able to sell to the University of Jamestown are hard to come by. “Everything fell into place, that was good for everybody.”

In all, NWC sold or gifted much of the equipment that had been used by the college and Sodexo, the same vendor that handles dining for the North Dakota school, during its interim period the last 18 months, when dining facilities were mainly at the Johnson Fitness Center and cooking was done at the Park County Fairgrounds. Watson said the college was close to putting out the unneeded equipment out for bid. 

“We bought a couple pieces of equipment for the project, so we were able to sell those to them,” she said. “All they had to do was plug and play, and we got them to them within the week.”

The college simply gave to the North Dakota university everything from the temporary serving area, as Watson said the equipment was old and unneeded by NWC, but still in good working order. 

In all, two groups of two NWC employees took two trips to Jamestown, over 1,200 miles roundtrip, to deliver the trailers and other equipment. Brad Gambill, Gage Gatlin, Colby Schaefer and Justin Holaday delivered the equipment as fast as possible. Watson said they were welcomed like heroes. 

“They met them, were cheering for them,” she said. “And the weather held off.” 

Dustin Jensen, vice president for student affairs and dean of students at the University of Jamestown, said he felt inspired by Northwest College's selflessness.

"It's just amazing that they would drive thousands of miles to Jamestown, stay on campus for five minutes to unhook, and head back. It's inspiring to see people dive in and do what they can to help," he said in a release. "There have been so many people doing so many good things."

Dan Kucera, University of Jamestown Sodexo general manager, expressed his gratitude, saying the new mobile kitchen equipment will help his staff provide students with a more robust dining experience.

 "This is the biggest smile I've had on my face for the week,” he said. This is going to make our staff happy, which will make the students happy. That's the goal after all."

Watson, a North Dakota native, said her ties to the area and NWC’s recent experience with having to find temporary dining and kitchen facilities made it a rewarding thing to be able to help. 

She said if the shoe were on the other foot, “I’d want someone to help.”

“I felt sorry for them,” she said. “We know what it's like to be displaced, but we planned for it.”