Firemen’s Blizzard Bonanza

Sunday was predicted to be a windy day moving all the fresh snow around, but Saturday night was calm weather and cold temperatures didn’t stop the dinner/show at all. 

On Saturday, February 23rd, a full house (all 350 tickets sold) filled the Oklee Community Hall with anticipation of a delicious walleye dinner, once again prepared by the Gonvick experts and lots of fun and drawings and games.

All through the evening, there were Oklee firemen selling tickets to meat raffles (bacon, ham, pork chops, and walleye fillets), about 40 meat raffles in all. There were two stretch drawings (where you get to buy as many tickets that reach from one hand to the other hand) for a cooler full of meat and a special raffle for a rifle. Also there were many raffles for a variety of firearms with a deck of 52 cards being sold as the tickets.

Alongside the east wall was a Silent Auction set up and the bidding closed at 9 p.m. There were many great items to bid on. There was a custom baby changing table that was built by Deer Park Creations which was auctioned off. A beautiful piece of furniture. 

The emcee was once again adopted Okleeite, Tim Eggebraaten, who traveled from Detroit Lakes once again to part of this fantastic fundraiser event put on by the Oklee Volunteer Fire Department. Eggebraaten was kept busy most of the night announcing winners of the meat raffles, silent auction, the auction of the Deer Park Creation item and had lots of fun having the gun raffle with the deck of cards calling for all persons holding card to stand, and slowly had the persons sit down by stating different clues on the winning card until the last one standing was the winner. All winners of firearms were required to fill out paperwork on site for the background check.

The main entertainment was a young fellow named Nick Bretz form Park Rapids. Here is his bio from his website: www.imaginick.com. Magical Entertainment At A Reduced Height - As a 6th degree Black Belt in the ancient art of TaeKwonDo, Master Nick's skills enhance his talents as a magician.  Nick brings fun and excitement to the stage and his ability to relate and interact with people puts him above the rest. With respect for the audience, Nick brings the show to life with participation, self- effacing humor, and clean fun.  His approach to EVERY SHOW is that it is the ONLY show leaving the audience feeling that they have been a part of something very unique.  Each and every event is special to Nick and that comes across in his presentation and his approach to deliver what the audience wants to see. Nick has been a student of the Art of Magic since the age of five.  With a natural curiosity and an ongoing quest to "always do better" Nick keeps his show fresh for kids and adults of all ages. While honing his entertainment skills as the featured magician for Lakes Country Dinner Theater, Nick also performs at corporate parties, DARE graduations, civic events, street carnivals, and wedding parties just to name a few. To have a successful event that is fun for everyone, to be proud of your entertainment dollars at work, or simply put, a MAGICAL time, all you have to do is " IMAGINICK " 

Magician Nick did a wonderful job and everyone at the event enjoyed the show immensely. He had them captivated from the beginning and his humor was wonderfully woven into the show. If you were not one of the audience members, you truly missed a good show. There are a couple of clips on Tri-County Canary’s website: tricocanary.com if you want to see an example of his talent.

The Big Prize winners were drawn at 10:00 p.m. and the winners are: 1st Place – Weatherby .243 rifle – Loretta Syrtveit; 2nd Place – Red Lake County Co-op gas card valued at $500 – Lora Johnson; 3rd Place - $150 Cash – Juanita Hepburn; and 4th Place - $100 Visa Gift Card – Doug Schnittgen. Congratulations to all the winners. 

This annual events is a great fund raiser and many people go home with wonderful prizes from all the different raffles and auctions. Keep up the great work, Oklee Volunteer Firemen. You are a valuable part of our community and there to help in times of trouble. The money raised is used for purchasing equipment for the Department to help keep these wonderful volunteers safe while fighting fires in our area, whether it be a grass fire or a house fire or anything type of emergency that requires them.

At the end of the evening, the Firemen were asked to come to the stage to be honored for their hard work and once all were standing there, they asked for their wives to come up also because without their support of this event and the job these men do, we would not have a Volunteer Fire Department.