Tonight is Bingo night in Sunburg

The annual fall ham and turkey bingo fundraiser is coming to Sunburg tonight. This is hosted by the Sunburg Fire and Rescue squad. It also features a gun raffle. All the fun begins at 7 p.m. at the fire hall/community center.

On Friday and Saturday this weekend, 15 junior high students from the Lutheran parishes of Trinity/West Lake Johanna churches and Big Grove-Crow River-Grace churches attended the ELCA Southwest Minnesota Synod youth gathering in Willmar.

Here's a video recorded last night at the last mass worship gathering of the night:


Dave Scherer, known by his stage name of Agape, is an American rapper and musician from Minnesota. His official music website is https://www.hiphopoutreach.com. In the early 2000s, Agape performed a concert at the B-B-E elementary school. How cool is that!

And now it's Monday morning...
TODAY is our last day of fall. Winter arrives tomorrow. Yikes! Much time is being devoted to the yard and garden.

For your calendar: Grace Lutheran Church in Belgrade invites everyone to their early Christmas Concert, which is on Sunday, December 7 at 2 p.m. in the church sanctuary. Music will be provided by The Porch Players. Come enjoy their music and stay for a light lunch afterwards! Everyone welcome, no cover charge. The Porch Players includes the dearly beloved Maggie Harp, who taught music and directed choir at Belgrade school District No. 736 and then B-B-E schools District No. 2364. She retired in 2007 to conclude a 37-year career in education in our local schools. 

Heading back to the Twin Cities

It feels like I was just in the Twin Cities, and that's probably because I was...a little less than 2 weeks ago. It was 13 days ago at this time (late afternoon) that I was driving home from the state volleyball tournament in Saint Paul.

Right now, I'm gearing up for a jaunt down I-94 and Highway 169 to Minnetonka. Here's why: FarmBureauAwardStory. More on this and the Farm Bureau convention will be reported next week.

In other news...
The Brooten city council meets in regular session next Monday. The agenda summary is posted at my editor's blog: BrootenCouncilAgenda.

'Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon' drew in the students

For numerous members of B-B-E's theater this fall, the fall two-act play was their first official high school activity. This took place with 28 cast members and 7 crew members. We should all be proud that numerous kids got to experience comeraderie and teamwork that's found in an organized school activity.

Here's a clip featuring part of Scene I from Act II in the final show on Sunday:


More to come. Today is press day. I have to make good progress and brace myself for the possibility that utility workers could knock out my power - or Internet. Everything in our alley is marked behind the office...but I'm paranoid.

And now it's Tuesday night...
OH! For the love of God...that note I wrote mid-morning on this blog about being paranoid about what was taking place in the alley behind my office rang true...at about 1:40 p.m., the Brooten Fire Department responded to a call that a natural gas line had been severed. It was a 2-inch line that ended up spewing natural gas into the air for just over 50 minutes. By 2:25 p.m., Dooley's Natural Gas workers had repaired the line. They didn't cause the damage, but they had to fix it. Thank goodness they did so in a timely fashion!

We just had one of the greatest weekends I can remember (VIDEOS)

A remarkable, incredible achievement took place this weekend...or rather, a string of achievements, with the B-B-E high school theater pulling off three outstanding performances of the fall two-act play Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon at the Olson Auditorium stage.

Here's a video of the cast and crew soaking up the love from fans after opening night on Friday:


Exact turnout figures will be tallied this week. The estimate is around 700! That is the most for three nights of a fall theater performance at B-B-E since the 2013 fall musical featured Tarzan. In 2013, the musical production of Tarzan featured 22 cast members and 3 crew members. It was directed by Julie Lloyd and Lucy Lloyd.

The families and the staff members involved in B-B-E's theater have worked incredibly hard to build and build and build! The hard work paid off this fall with 35 students taking part in the fall two-act play.

A quick glance over all of my cameras shows at least 1,400 pictures from all three shows. When the dust settles, I hope to get 40 to 50 of them printed in the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper in the November 20 and November 27 issues.

And now it's Monday night...

Here's a video featuring the end of game one in the third-place match at state...


We're a little more than one week past the state volleyball tournament. I'm still finishing up volleyball coverage for the newspaper, and I will need quite a few days to get through all of my fall two-act play pictures from The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon.

Olson Auditorium and the fall play draws FULL house on Friday night! (iMovie added)

That was incredible!

Here's a highlight reel just produced on Saturday afternoon:


Click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website for additional coverage from last night: OPENINGnightCoverage. Included in that web coverage is a picture of the crowd taken just a few minutes before the show opened.

As the cast and crew were preparing themselves in the band room, just before 7 p.m., additional chairs were brought over from the gymnasium to give everyone a place to sit. The 278 permanent chairs had filled by that point. The estimated crowd numbered about 290, which is a record crowd since Tarzan was performed at B-B-E high school in 2013.

Cast interviews, come see the show! Opening night is tonight! (VIDEOS)

The opening show for B-B-E's fall two-act play "The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon" starts at 7 p.m. tomorrow, Friday, November 14 at B-B-E high school's Olson Auditorium. Additional coverage is found at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://shorturl.at/4t2QK. The second night is at 7 p.m. on Saturday, and the matinee finale is at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

After last night's final dress rehearsal, I put a couple of the younger members of the cast on the spot with brief interviews. They are part of 35 students in the cast and crew!

Here's Morgan Theis and Henry Bromenshenkel...


Doors open at 6:30 p.m. tonight at Olson Auditorium. You can see a few photos from the final night of dress rehearsals by clicking here: FinalDressRehearsal.

Created Friday morning...
Here's an iMovie reel lasting about 1 1/2 minutes...

With footage from fall rehearsals, including last night...


Don't miss out! Three shows...pick one! Or more than one!

Friday night update...opening night was SOLD OUT! It was a FULL HOUSE at Olson Auditorium! More to come. I took 293 pictures tonight just on my cell phone. I'm pretty sure I went over 500 pictures from opening night.

A "YouTube Shorts" video can be viewed from Act II tonight; click here to see that: https://youtube.com/shorts/1qDa1GTFXpk?si=PDrGA_8HOdAOOjn7.

Just one more day! (VIDEOS! and an iMovie*)

In just over 24 hours from when I'm typing this, the opening night will be underway for B-B-E's fall two-act play The Brother's Grimm Spectaculathon.

Created Friday morning...
Here's an iMovie reel lasting about 1 1/2 minutes...

With footage from fall rehearsals, including last night...


Which show are you coming to?

Here's part of a scene from rehearsal tonight during Act I:


And here's a video clip from early in Act II tonight at rehearsal:


The theater students pulled off two complete run-throughs tonight. They are a group of rock stars at the Olson Auditorium stage!

The opening show starts at 7 p.m. tomorrow, Friday, November 14 at B-B-E high school's Olson Auditorium. Additional coverage is found at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://shorturl.at/4t2QK. The second night is at 7 p.m. on Saturday, and the matinee finale is at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Here's a video recorded during the prematch drills last Friday during the state semifinals at Grand Casino Arena:


In other news...
The AT and T cellular tower on the west side of Brooten has been restored. Since before 6 a.m. today and into the evening hours, cell service from AT and T was non-existent unless you could grab some of the signal off of Belgrade's AT and T tower. Once I got home from the play dress rehearsal, I noticed that the AT and T 5G network had been fully restored.

It was a LONG day without cell service in town.

I was reading University of Minnesota-Morris news, and I see Kaden Pieper is on the UMM Cougars men's basketball roster. He is a junior at UMM and a 2023 graduate of B-B-E high school. As a junior at B-B-E, he had a key role in the boys' basketball team's playoff run to the state finals in March of 2022. Through the first two games of the current season, Pieper has scored 25 points while collecting 18 rebounds.

On Friday...
Today, I've learned that the U.S. Post Office has lost numerous bundles of newspapers this week. From what I can tell, Glenwood and Elrosa newspapers are missing. The list may grow as the day goes on. It is currently my belief that the U.S. Post Office is trying to kill my business.

On a brighter note, a new (refurbished) videocamera is on its way to our news operation! It was ordered earlier this week. As of this afternoon, it arrived in a FedEx Chicago distributing center. It may arrive in time to record the Saturday night show of the fall play.