Year In Review...

December 15, 2021

Nancy Magnell retired. She has worked for Red Lake County Cooperative for 27 years. Her retirement party was held on December 3rd at the Oklee Cenex where she has been the manager for most of those years. The new manager at the Oklee Cenex C-Store is Alisa Sandoval.

Clayton Larson formally from Plummer recently celebrated his 100th birthday. He comes several times a week to have coffee & shake dice with the “Coffee Crew” at Red River Ag in Plummer.

On Friday December 12th, 2021 the Varsity girls basketball team of Red Lake County Central lost to Clearbrook/Convick in Oklee, 45-72. Some girls that had a great game were Cari Bachand with 24 points and 8 rebounds, Carlee Whalen with 7 points and 7 rebounds, and Marissa Thomas with 7 points and 8 rebounds.

The gym at the high school in Oklee received a partial facelift during the week of November 15 with the installation of state-of-the-art scoreboards and a videoboard. The units were purchased from Daktronics, the world-leader in scoreboards and videoboard.

Congratulations goes out to Red Lake County Boys' Basketball player, Freshman Owen Chervestad for tying a state record. Owen had a quadruple double in the game against  Climax-Fisher on December 9th. He had 16 points, 12 assists, 10 rebounds, and 10 steals in the game which has only been accomplished 10 other times in Minnesota basketball history.

The weather is changeable to say the least. Last week we reported a snowstorm hit the area, this week we had melting temperatures. Next week we will have very cold temperatures with a snow event in between. Sheesh. What is next?

December 22, 2021

ISD 2906 RLCC started a feature of articles explaining the upcoming RLCC School referendum that the voters of the district will decide on Feb. 8th. They have a new website with all the information on the project.

Mr. Paul Nelson, a Science teacher at RLCC, held his first Annual Big Buck Contest. Carlee Whalen, won first prize. Second place was Paige Olson, and Ethan Lee placed third. Mr. Nelson explained how important it is for hunters to plan for the meat their families will need for the winter as well  as learn about the life cycle of nature including, plants, animals, and humans.

Students of the month for November were Oliver Russillo and Remi Rathsack.

The weather turned cold this week. It looks like we are going to have winter Brrr this week. On Saturday it was so nice, I was watching the rabbits play and forage for food under my big arbor-vitae bush. They are rather fearless as long as we don’t approach them. There are two at least and I think we would find many more if we could see how many are in the bushes. They are cute short eared brown bunnies.

On Sunday, at Immanuel Lutheran Church, there was a dinner of sloppy joes, chips and cupcakes in honor of Clayton Larson's 100th birthday which was December 8th. Those attending with him were his sister Ardell Daly and Karen Gallager, Marie and Mike Seeger and kids and Tanya Waldal. There also was the kids Christmas program and party.

On Tuesday morning, the Challenger first graders came to the Tri-River Museum to tour with their teachers and aides. Tri River members helping were Roger Harmoning, Chuck Simpson, Les Hofstad, Leo Schmitz, Gylencye Eskeli, Alice Jobe, and Jolene Qualley. After touring the kids made butter in baby jars. Then later, put butter on soda crackers to eat.

December 29, 2021

Red Lake County Central's 4th grade students have been busy making blankets with the help of their teachers, Miss  Kozicki and Mrs. Hamrum. These blankets have been donated to VIP (Violence Intervention Project) in Thief River Falls.

On December 23, 2021, Sheriff Bernstein presented Alex Peterson with a $2,000 scholarship from the Minnesota Sheriff’s Association. This award was one of only a handful presented to 2nd year law enforcement students throughout the state. Alex is a 2019 graduate of Red Lake County Central High School and his parents are Brian and Alette Peterson of Oklee. Alex attends Northland College in Thief River Falls and he will graduate with a law enforcement degree this coming spring. He also works full-time as a correctional officer for the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office in Thief River Falls. Congratulations Alex!

On December 22,2021 RLCC  High School raised close to $350 in combined efforts with the Student Senate Candy Cane Gram campaign and their annual Ugly Christmas Sweater contest. Student Senate had students and staff sign up to send Candy Cane Grams to fellow students for $1.00.  Students and Staff also held a ticket raffle to win prizes at the cost of $1 with proceeds to go to the Wichterman/Gullingsrud families to help defray medical and travel expenses for cancer treatments. This year, $200.00 was raised as a result of this effort, to be split and shared equally with Wichterman/Gullingsrud. 

A tough loss on 12-20-21 for the Mustangs against the Fosston Greyhounds 24-63! But a great group of girls showing their support for fellow Greyhound basketball player Brooklyn Ostenna and her mom April who is battling cancer! 

That's all Folks from 2021!