Saints find success at Hinckley...and Bonanza Valley Days is coming

The Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team recorded two wins at the Hinckley Tournament over the weekend. On Friday night, the Saints defeated the Anoka Bucs 2-1. On Saturday, they beat the host Hinckley Knights in another thriller by a 3-2 score.

Buffalo handed Elrosa a 4-1 loss on Sunday afternoon. This puts them at 6-2 for the month of June and 14-5 overall. NEXT: the Saints look to cook at home with four straight games in Elrosa to close out the regular season. This homestand begins with Roscoe visiting on Thursday, July 2 with an 8 p.m. first pitch. It's the lone game of the Fourth of July weekend.

Scores this weekend in SCL play:
Roscoe 21, Farming 9
St. Martin 8, Lake Henry 4
Richmond 18, Meire Grove 2
Spring Hill 9, New Munich 7.

Bonanza Valley Days is coming!
Here's a link to view promotion of the Classic Car and Truck show for Bonanza Valley Days in Brooten on Saturday, July 11 (click on this link): BVD-CarShow-2025.

BVD garage sales! We are currently sitting at 8 or 9 listings for this week's newspaper. Hopefully that number increases. Last year, the list topped out at 15 garage sales! Yikes. That's awesome though, of course.

The BVD Kiddie Parade is on July 11...read all the details here: BVDKiddieParade2026.

Twice, I've gotten "July 12" wrong

For those keeping track...twice I've gotten "July 12" wrong in the Bonanza Valley Voice. In the June 18 issue, I had the date wrong for the Bonanza Valley Days Grand Parade! Yikes. It is on Sunday, July 12 at 1:30 p.m. It was corrected for the June 25 issue.

The Brooten Class of 1976 class reunion is on Sunday, July 12 starting at noon at the KaDe Shack in Brooten.

Now you've got the correct information.

Bonanza Valley Days, State Clay Trap, etc.

ANNOUNCING! The BVD Men's 3-on-3 tournament in Brooten is on Friday, July 10.

Men’s 3-on-3 registration info can be e-mailed back if you request it by contacting Chris Anderson: canderson@bbejaguars.org. Please be signed up by 5 p.m. on Friday, July 10 so the tournament can begin at 6 p.m. that evening. Location: B-B-E elementary gyms, Brooten (they are air-conditioned!)

Other updates to follow here.

At Cenex Glenwood, E-85 fuel is $2.75/gallon! Outrageous. Such raw greed, or ignorance, or both. At Coop's Corner in Belgrade, E-85 fuel is $1.40/gallon.

On Tuesday this week...
The B-B-E Clay Trapshooting team concluded their season at the state meet in Alexandria. B-B-E sophomore Dylan Koob finished the regular season as the individual conference champion. Other coverage of the team was published in this week's newspaper, and more ink comes their way next week.

Youth fastpitch softball has been dominating my week. Eventually I will write about it. 

LOTS of travel and softball is coming Friday and Saturday.  No rest until Sunday!!

Feel-good news! And business news

How's this for some feel-good news? This is awesome! Click: https://shorturl.at/tY1Tc.

For other news, including a reminder note about the Brooten Farmers Market, click: https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com.

Here's a shout out to Earthy Elements of Brooten, one of our newest locally-owned businesses and a new advertiser in the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. Here's Ashley's business website: https://earthyelementsmn.com. She was featured on page 10 in a business article in the July 10 issue.

Bonanza Valley Days grand parade and Babe Ruth baseball heading to state (VIDEOS)

As reported in the July 10 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper, Brooten Electric LLC was the grand marshal of the BVD grand parade on Sunday. Brooten Electric, LLC, is owned by two B-B-E graduates: Adam Imdieke (Class of 2001) and Adam Heinze (Class of 2013).

Here's a rough video on a hand-held camera of the Brooten Electric parade unit:


It was a simply outstanding day that we had to wrap up the BVD "Feeling Alive in 2025" yesterday. Day IV included a pancake feed, Catholic Mass, the grand parade and then the Miss Brooten pageant.

Here's another video from the grand parade in Brooten yesterday:


Unfortunately for me, I took over 1,000 pictures across the four days of Bonanza Valley Days. This will create a challenge to go through and pick the best ones for the printed newspaper! Yikes! You think I would learn?

After tonight, my daughter's fastpitch softball summer season is over. This will free up time for more sports blogging and to focus on the newspaper. We'll see how this week goes and what comes of the July 17 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. Fingers crossed!

In sports news...
The B-B-E Babe Ruth (7th-8th grade) team qualified for their state tournament by winning the region tournament last weekend in Paynesville. This is a first for the program. They open state at Urbank at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday this week with pool play games. The state tournament playoffs run on Saturday. B-B-E's Kaden DeRoo, a 2024 graduate, is their coach.

Bonanza Valley Days is absolutely off the hook! Wall to wall excitement (VIDEO)

Good grief! What a weekend we are having in Brooten! The weather has practically been 100 percent cooperative. This is amazing.

Check out the scene in downtown Brooten tonight for the Saturday night street dance:


No time to sit on a computer!

Sunday updates:
Here's the link to share with others for seeing the BVD Grand Parade lineup: https://shorturl.at/menoq.

Here's a link to view the Miss Brooten coronation on Sunday: https://shorturl.at/E4rho.

Another update:
The Brooten city council meets on Monday night, and the agenda can be found here at the newspaper's editor's blog: https://shorturl.at/2ywwy. Also, the B-B-E school board meets on Monday night at the elementary school. It will be just the 2nd school board meeting in 10 years that I won't be attending. I'll be in Osakis on Monday night with the 11-U Jaguars fastpitch team for their playoff games.

Bonanza Valley Days men's 3-on-3 tournament

Bonanza Valley Days in Brooten is coming in just two weeks!

Related to BVD in Brooten...
The BVD Men's 3-on-3 tournament at the elementary school in Brooten is coming on Friday, July 11. Organizer Chris Anderson highly recommends that teams get their registration mailed in ahead of that week so the games can begin at 6 p.m. sharp that night. If registering on site, he asked that teams arrive by 5 p.m. Registration is $40 for teams pre-registered by July 3 and $50 after that. He can be contacted by email: canderson@bbejaguars.org.

The Brooten Farmers Market will run until 7 p.m. tonight! See more here: https://shorturl.at/1tXaR.

Bonanza Valley Days grand parade lineup! (VIDEO ADDED**)

This link can get you to the full list for the grand parade lineup: https://shorturl.at/mlmTm.

Share widely!

The Miss Brooten coronation was held on Sunday afternoon. Video is uploading. More to come.

**Here's the link to see the end of coronation: https://shorturl.at/qlzv2.

Brooten has much to be proud of. Some of this was based on pure luck, as a severe storm system that could have demolished our Saturday night fun passed by the town near midnight without causing problems beyond a brief period of high winds. The system was unstable, and it made sense to me for law enforcement and others to clear out the street dance and ask that people go indoors. Today, Sunday, the high reached into the upper 80s and made it "hot" for the parade. It felt good to me!

Here's a four-minute video where you can take in views from the Brooten Fire Department chicken BBQ on Friday night:


For the record: on Saturday morning across what was about a five-hour period, the Brooten area received 1 and 4/10ths of an inch of much-needed rain according to rain gauges at both my house in western Brooten and at the golf course in eastern Brooten. The rain hampered multiple activities in the morning, but ultimately, no BVD events were scrubbed. This is remarkable! The B-B-E wresting club was able to pull off their BVD Walk/Run in the rain. The 10-team BVD sand volleyball tournament also took place, and both of those events started on time. The six-team BVD men's softball tournament started about a couple hours late, but that also went off without a hitch. This is all rather incredible and a testament to the resolve of the organizers and those who participated! Bravo!!

I've been getting caught up on some SmugMug photo uploading. Here's the link to show the Summer Sports 2024 folder at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's online photo gallery: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/Summer-Sports-2024.

Monday night update...
I've got the grand parade video posted online...you can watch Sunday's parade by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/tE2Tm. And here's the Belgrade city council meeting agenda: https://lifeinbonanzavalley.blogspot.com/2024/07/belgrade-city-council-meeting-agenda.html.

Bonanza Valley Days "Day III" is going really, really well (VIDEO)

As the rest of the country seems to be spiraling out of control, here in the Land of Rocks and Cows of rural Minnesota, Bonanza Valley specifically, we are enjoying an outstanding "Day III" of celebration in Brooten. We have so much to be proud of here!!

Here's another video from the Car and Tractor and Truck show:


The BVD Bean Bag tournament has 48 teams!!! This is awesome!!!

Just one more day to prepare for BVD 2024!

It's late Tuesday night, and we now have just 24 hours left to prepare for the start of Bonanza Valley Days in Brooten. The four-day celebration begins on Thursday. Tonight, Boyce Fischer is trekking around town in the city's John Deere lawn tractor while spraying for mosquitoes, a task that began a couple nights ago and will continue for a couple more nights.

Fun fact: on June 17, a web article with the BVD poster images was added to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website...and then it was shared to Facebook where it's received over 2,700 user views! Plus 500 user engagements. This is tremendous! Also, another BVD article was posted at the newspaper's website on June 30...that article has over 1,280 user views and around 150 user engagements. A June 13 web article on Bonanza Valley Days at The Voice website currently has over 1,500 views!

Here's a BVD food article posted at the newspaper's website (short link): https://shorturl.at/4g3j4.

I hope you're taking time this week to acclimate yourself to the heat!

In baseball news...the Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team will host a doubleheader this Friday, July 12. The doubleheader features Roscoe at 6 p.m. and then Meire Grove at 8:30 p.m. to conclude the regular season. Yes, town team baseball playoffs are just around the corner!

And some incredible breaking news!
B-B-E's Luke Dingmann has earned the prestigious Hengstler-Ranweiler Award from the West Central Tribune newspaper. He is the 2024 male recipient of this award, which has been given out each year since 1961 (for male athletes). In football, where he rewrote the entire quarterback record book at B-B-E, he passed for a career total of 5,103 yards! Wow!

Been busy, preparation continues for Bonanza Valley Days!

Even thought it's still one week away, we are in what I call "peak time" as the community of Brooten prepares for the annual Bonanza Valley Days celebration. This year's theme is "Redneck Olympics: Back for More in 2024!" We recently printed a final batch of BVD posters, so I need to get them blanketed around the area. Here's the latest web article on Bonanza Valley Days at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://shorturl.at/kWNmw.

Other chunks of my free time has been consumed by the entry of a three-on-three team in the upcoming Hoops by the Lake tournament in Spicer, which is Saturday, July 6. My youngest daughter is joining three older girls (Class of 2031 players) for this prestigious tournament that's ran in part by Joey Dreier, son of legendary head coach Mike Dreier of New London-Spicer. The younger Dreier reported to me last week that they have over 90 teams signed up!! That is crazy! In a good way! Our B-B-E entry with the team name "Bonanza Valley 11s" will tip off at 8 a.m. on courts set up at the parking lot of Zorbas in Spicer.

In other news, here's a video featuring the live auction held last Saturday at the Gary Breitbach Memorial golf tournament in Brooten: https://shorturl.at/m7QmZ.

Don't forget! the Brooten Farmers Market will be held on the Fourth of July. They will operate from 4 to 7 p.m. and probably in the Brooten Pavilion due to the rain.

Bonanza Valley Days is coming! In case you didn't hear

Yes, Bonanza Valley Days is on the horizon. It is finally coming SOON to Brooten! Less than two weeks away.

A web article has been posted at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website with a few bits of BVD information. You can find that by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/P74b9. I hope to get images that feature the official BVD poster added to this web article on Friday afternoon. I'll be tied up in the morning with my radio show in Glenwood.


On page 7 in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice, quite a few notes have been added regarding the BVD weekend. I've added a few of those notes to the website article.

Bonanza Valley Days is coming; school board special meeting

Once again, here's another announcement for Bonanza Valley Days in Brooten! This week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper issue will feature additional information on BVD Youth 3-on-3 basketball registration, the BVD grand parade registration and other events coming on July 11, 12, 13 and 14 in Brooten. Other information, including a glimpse of the BVD poster (the upper half) can be found at the newspaper's website by clicking here: https://t.ly/xp5tZ.

Speaking of BVD...here's a video from Sunday morning of BVD in Brooten last year:


That video features the last part of the Catholic Mass worship held at St. Donatus church. I haven't posted it until tonight. My first clip from Mass that morning was posted in July and received 10 views.

B-B-E school board special meeting announcement: the Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa District No. 2364 school board will meet at 8 a.m. on Thursday, June 20 for a special meeting. The meeting agenda consists of one item, which is ratification of the certified union contract. This meeting will take place via Google meets, and any member of the public can receive a meeting link by contacting B-B-E district office secretary Sarah Hagen at shagen@bbejaguars.org .

The Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's website community calendar has finally been updated after having outdated information on it for the past week. You can find that by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/59kzh. Events on the near horizon are always published on page 2 of the printed newspaper for easy reference by anyone. You've got no reason to not know what's happening locally!

Graduation parties continue, BVD hoops tournament date set, Saints win!

Today we have a big graduation party coming to the Brooten Pavilion. Two Radermacher families are joining forces for an open house graduation party for Class of 2024 graduates Faith Radermacher and Owen Radermacher. The party runs from 1 to 4 p.m. today at the Pavilion.

So far this spring, I've only been able to make it to two graduation parties in the month of May. I hope to get to more in June.

Head coach Austin Rambow has announced that the Bonanza Valley Days 3-on-3 basketball tournament will be held on Thursday, July 11 at the B-B-E elementary school in Brooten. All other details are still being worked out, including whether or not it will have a girls/women division included. For now, please spread the word that this will take place on July 11. I hope we can get a nice response of teams.

In amateur baseball news...
In a Stearns County League North division game today in Elrosa, the Saints enjoyed the return of Payton VanBeck to the lineup after his collegiate career concluded this spring with the St. Cloud State Huskies. VanBeck, a B-B-E Class of 2019 graduate, no-hit New Munich in a stellar 16-strikeout complete game performance. Final score: Elrosa 11, New Munich 0 in seven innings. The Silverstreaks slipped to 3-4 in the SCL-North standings, while Elrosa is 1-5. Next: the Saints (2-5) travel to St. Martin on Friday, June 7 for an 8:30 p.m. game at Ray Weber Stadium.

Gary Fauskee Memorial golf tournament, BVD Walk-Run (VIDEOS)

The fifth annual Gary Fauskee Memorial golf tournament was held on Saturday of the Bonanza Valley Days weekend in Brooten. Additional coverage was published in the July 13 and July 20 issues of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. In the July 20 issue, a picture of the winning team was published.

*Below is a video of Glenn Miller speaking before the tournament got started that morning at Prairie View Community Golf Course:


Gary Fauskee, a 1976 Brooten high school graduate, was a four-sport student-athlete who quarterbacked the Buccaneers football team in his 11th and 12th grade seasons. He was a full-time starter in the fall of 1975 as a senior under head coach Keith Krebsbach.

The Bonanza Valley Days Walk-Run event had a great turnout with 61 participants this year. The B-B-E Wrestling Club organizes this event each summer, and it was held on Saturday, July 8 near St. Donatus Catholic church in Brooten.

Here's a video recorded at the start of the event:


It's time to get back in the garden.

BVD grand parade, bean bag tourney and more from the weekend (VIDEOS)

Haven't had a chance to get through that much video or photos, and I'm still back on Friday mid-day for my Bonanza Valley Days photos...but here's a short clip of the B-B-E wrestling club and a local farm family in the BVD grand parade yesterday.

VIDEO:


*Here's a video before the Gary Fauskee Golf tournament got rolling on Saturday:


Added Tuesday morning...the BVD Bean Bag tournament saw a record turnout on Saturday night, and organizers ended up having to turn teams away after maxing out at 50 teams. It was unbelievable. The tournament itself lasted approximately four hours, and it ran remarkably well with just a couple hiccups.

Here's a video from the Final Four round as sunset approached:


More to come later tonight.

Bonanza Valley Days - Day III !!! (VIDEO)

Here's the Bonanza Valley Days grand parade lineup: https://tinyurl.com/yxvbs3u5.

I don't have a winner written down, but I know that a team out of Osakis played a team led by 2018 graduate Nicole Wesbur in the championship match of the BVD Sand Volleyball tournament.

The Gary Fauskee Memorial golf tournament drew at least 22 teams.

**Here's video from today with just a few remaining snowmobiles on the north side of town:


Everything has gone far and away better than expected on Day III of Bonanza Valley Days 2024. The turnout is strong for Saturday night's street dance. This has been a great day for our small town!

Bonanza Valley Days youth baseball and more (VIDEOS*)

The B-B-E Jaguars 10-U baseball team took second place today at the Bonanza Valley Days youth tournament. They had an outstanding day! In the championship, the Jaguars lost 6-1 to a very good Willmar unit. B-B-E's opener against Minnewaska was a thriller, as they trailed 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth before scoring two runs and winning in walk-off fashion by a 3-2 score! The semifinals resulted in a 9-4 win against New London-Spicer's 9-U team.

Here's a post-game huddle with Coach Jesse Lieser and Coach Josh Eckstein after the Jaguars won in their first game of today's BVD tournament:


*Here's a video with Brooten fire fighters getting set up for the chicken BBQ last night:


Time to head to the Brooten Firemen's chicken BBQ supper!

UPDATE: they served nearly 700 at the chicken BBQ! We are receiving a light rain currently as of 8 p.m., and it appears that it'll be raining for the next hour or so. After that we should see clear skies by 10 p.m. Fingers crossed! We do need this rain.

**The Friday night Street dance will get started at about 9:30 p.m. on main street. By then the rain is supposed to dissipate. Multiple BVD updates are posted at the newspaper's website: https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com.

And at 9:38 p.m., the semi trailer opened up, and DeeJay Sounds fired up the street dance!

  


The BVD Men's basketball tournament had 8 teams play at the elementary gym tonight. Coach Anderson was thrilled by the tournament that lasted right around 3 hours from start to finish. All teams had a great time and competed hard, which is all you can ask for with an adult team!

Remember! Tours of the elementary school will take place at 4 p.m. on Saturday! Read more here: https://tinyurl.com/67fj9zm2.

Final thoughts late Friday night...it was so wonderful to visit with a handful of children of the late Ozzie and Ruth Stepan. Throughout the day, a total of 8 of their 10 children were in Brooten throughout the day. Many of them were in the Brooten Pavilion tonight during the performing of polka music by Nathan's Old-Time Band of Albany. I had such a great time visiting with them!

BVD T-shirts for sale!...and other BVD updates!

With a limited supply, Bonanza Valley Days T-shirts are for sale at the newspaper office...details here! (Click) https://rb.gy/5b2id. The goal is to have them all sold by the end of Friday night! UPDATE on Thursday afternoon: the selection is running low for everything except adult XL, 2Xl and 3XL sizes! **Friday update: if you stop at the office for T-shirts, you will have to call my cell phone.

ALSO! A list of area job openings is listed at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website...you can see that by clicking here: https://rb.gy/a5sxv. Please pass the word!

Here's a link to read about the LifeLink III helicopter visit scheduled for tomorrow in Brooten: https://tinyurl.com/3nrv5uda.

I've got more updates on BVD posted at my editor's blog, which you can find by clicking here: https://tinyurl.com/2p835fbm.

Posted on Friday morning...the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website has a web article just added Friday that outlines all the food offerings across the final three days of BVD 2023. Click: https://tinyurl.com/ynaaehxh.

Bonanza Valley Days is coming! (VIDEO)

We all have to ramp up our promotion of the upcoming Bonanza Valley Days in Brooten...it's coming fast! The dates are July 6, 7, 8 and 9...click here to read about the BVD 3-on-3 youth and men's basketball tournaments (short link): https://tinyurl.com/6ey7c23s.

IMPORTANT! Those who register by June 28 get a discount on the cost!!! So get on that and get your team formed and registered!

ALSO the BVD Sand Volleyball tourmanent is coming on Saturday, July 8 starting at 9 a.m. at the city park sand courts next to the remodeled tennis courts. Registration is set for 8:30 a.m. You can sign up a team by calling the newspaper office at 320-346-2400. Organizers wish to limit this to 8 teams so the tournament will be wrapped up within just a few hours and not last all day.

Here's a short video recorded just before the BVD grand parade last year:


You can read a web article with additional BVD information by clicking here: https://rb.gy/76eka.