Blizzard Bonanza was as predicted, a fun night in Oklee

On Saturday night, February 3rd, the night before the Super Bowl, the Oklee Hall was packed to capacity to enjoy a delicous deep fried walleye meal, participate in numerous raffles of slabs of bacon, hams and pork loins. There were the gun raffles with decks of cards, a silent auction with some awesome items to bid on, a punch out game, wine pull game and other items you bought tickets for and placed in a bowl and the winner was drawn.

For entertainment, Tim Eggebraaten was the emcee and as usual did a great job. And he has been part of Oklee's events for so many years that he knows enough people by name that it is like a big family affair.

Sydney Melby took part as part of the entertainment for the evening and sang a number of songs. She has been singing at many events in the community for years and she is now quite an accomplished entertainer. She played guitar and sang a variety of songs from country to rock and roll.

The Newly Wed game was the game/entertainment asking for members of the audience to participate. Four brave couples volunteered for this event: Richard & Jamie Hendrickson, Kent & Patty Bergerson, Steve & Andrea Eskeli and Bill & Danielle Paradis. The questions were first asked of the women while the men were out of the room. For the second round the women left and the men answered the questions. 

The questions were set up to be very funny and sometimes embarrasing to the participants. Questions ranged from what is your wife's nickname, to what is your favorite part of your wife's body. Kent and Patty Bergerson were the winners of the game.

There were 350 tickets sold for this event and by the looks of the large crowd, most the tickets must have been sold.

The Gonvick Legion was presented with a wooden plaque, made by Deer Park Creations, for their help in this event last year and this for cooking the walleye for the dinner. The Gonvick Legion has a monthly walleye dinner and has become experts at this job which was appreciated by the Firemen and the hungry folks attending.

Another presentation was made by the Gully Sportsman's Club to the Oklee Fire Department for their volunteer work as firemen coming over to the Gully area to help fight wildlife fires over the past few years. The club donated $500 which Chief Kent Bergerson accepted.

At 9 p.m. the Silent auction item winners were announced and the ticketed items were also announced and handed out. All winners of firearms had to complete the paper work for a background check and ownership of the firearm.

10:00 p.m. was the time everyone was waiting for as the Grand Prizes would be announced.

1st prize: Einar & Carol Kvsager won the Louisiana Pellet Grill Package. 

2nd prize: Korydon Chervastad won the Girls Trip.

3rd prize:  Alice Okstad won the D & R $500 Gift Certificate.

4th prize: Joyce Paquin won the Hatfield 12 gauge Over-Under Shotgun, engraved.