A change of pace: Games Lake Park worship service (VIDEO)

This was a nice change of pace from the hectic running involved with spring sports and school year-end activities. The video below was recorded yesterday at Games Lake park at the start of the Norway Lake Lutheran parish's park worship.

VIDEO:


The wind was ferocious. Even though I had my tripod weighed down, the wind still almost took it down twice. During Pastor John Clementson's sermon, the wind grabbed a couple pages of his sermon notes and gave them a ride. Yikes! (They were retrieved and brought back to him mid-sermon.) It was a challenging environment for outdoor worship, but roughly 100 people were in attendance - and it was worth the hassle of fighting the wind!

In the music processional, Joyce Rudningen was one of the adults who created music with the handheld instruments. Joyce is a Brooten high school graduate, and B-B-E's athletic teams have done battle against many of her grandchildren in recent years who play for the K-M-S Fighting Saints. She was Community Education director at B-B-E for many years before retiring in 2007.

On another topic...this came to me earlier this morning and I wanted to share it right away. This organization is seeking donations for a very worthy cause. Click to read about it: https://www.classy.org/fundraiser/5581238. The team raising the funds is led by Tony Hofmann, who was a 1984 Brooten high school graduate. Another team member is Gary Geer, a 1985 BHS graduate and a father of Nate Geer. Nate Geer was a sophomore on this past year's varsity football and track and field teams.

Coming tonight: B-B-E's school board meets
The school board has an ambitious agenda that has a lengthy list of what I'd refer to as smaller items. I predict we just may go past the usual one hour that these meetings usually take. I like the flow of our school board meetings. It is nice for a newspaper owner whose time is measured by the minute! The biggest news I see is the resignation of four full-time licensed teachers, ranging from two elementary classroom teachers plus two specialized teachers. If I can pull off what I hope to pull off, you can read more in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

In another resignation, the elementary is losing one of its janitors. I learned a little more here, and he's been a great asset to the school and has always been pleasant to interact with...Adam Tauber is heading to significantly greener pastures for income in the neighborhood of $30 an hour. I am not sure exactly where janitor pay is at B-B-E, but I know it's not competitive with what local industries are paying for manual skill jobs. I don't say that to criticize the school, but I'm saying it as a matter of fact. For the sake of informing the public, I'll get the figure for starting pay for a custodian position at B-B-E for the newspaper.

Another resignation is from Mike Brower as JV boys' basketball coach. I know it was a tough decision for him, but he has the pull of his own children coming up in the ranks as the driver for stepping down from the No. 2 position in the program. He will be dearly missed!

Throwback to 1953

I have greatly enjoyed digging back in newspaper archives and providing some neat throwback coverage to the 1953 Brooten high school football season. The Brooten Buccaneers won the Crow River Conference title that year in the team's second year as an 8-man football program.

You can see some of what I've dug up from 69 years ago by clicking over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper: https://bit.ly/3Dij0n9.

Also, in case you missed them, I've added a couple videos (one from September and the other from Homecoming night) to the last blog post that outlines the upcoming 2022 football playoffs.

Now it's time to pack up for the short trip to Big Grove Lutheran church for their fall supper and auction! I hope you can make the trip too. Our local churches are a highly valuable and important asset to the Bonanza Valley area. Big Grove Lutheran recently made a donation to the school's Backpack Attack program. Thank you! Now let's return the favor and support their church tonight!

Also! Remember! You can always quickly catch up with local events coming up by looking on page two of each week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper or by visiting the newspaper's website (short link): https://bit.ly/3sfR8d0. Isn't it grand that you can look in one place to see multiple local events taking place?

In other news - Princess Kay of the Milky Way

This is great news to share!

The daughter of a 1986 Brooten high school graduate was crowned the 69th Princess Kay of the Milky Way yesterday on the eve of the Minnesota State Fair.

Rachel Rynda, daughter of Francis and Theresa Rynda of Montgomery, is the 2022-2023 Princess Kay of the Milky Way. The Rynda family are dairy farmers in Le Sueur County, and Rachel will be a sophomore this fall at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Theresa (Schmitz) Rynda was a 1986 Brooten high school graduate. Her father is Martin Schmitz of Brooten, and her mother was the late Esther Schmitz. Esther passed away on January 28, 2011. Martin and Esther's 57-year long marriage was blessed with 13 children, five of whom passed away in infancy.

Martin and Esther's grandson Joe Feldman was killed in an automobile accident on April 22, 2021 in Douglas County. He was a 2020 B-B-E graduate and a member of the 2019-2020 B-B-E wrestling team that won the Central Minnesota Conference title for the first time. (They're on a roll now with three straight CMC titles).

We'll see what else I dig up on this story.

(VIDEO) Blast from the Past: Brooten Centennial

It's not video that I recorded, but the most incredible video was sent to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper office this past winter with highlight reels from July 1986 during the Brooten Centennial celebration.

Here's video of then-Mayor Kay Mohr kicking off the activities with a welcome speech on the west side of Brooten High School by the flag pole.


History is amazing.

And good news! The Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website is back online. Here's a short link to click on and read about the Thursday and Friday activities for the upcoming Bonanza Valley Days celebration in Brooten, which starts on Thursday, July 8. (Link) https://bit.ly/3xd9EUs.

I'm getting more catch-up work done. One task I chew on as often as I can is uploading photos to the Bonanza Valley Voice SmugMug gallery. A few albums are loaded in the Summer 2021 folder, including some amateur baseball action back in May. Here's that link = https://bit.ly/3qOaftq.