(Editor’s Note: The following article was submitted by BELIA.)

Lori Andreen, secretary for the Big Eagle Lake Improvement Association (BELIA), said, “Thank you to everyone who came out to our BELIA Wine and Beer Tasting and Silent Auction Event this past October 1st at ‘The Buff’. We had a wonderful time and especially thank those who donated wine, spirits, items to the Silent Auction, those who invited their friends, neighbors, and co-workers. With this fundraising event we were able to profit $11,970. This is amazing! Thank you to everyone involved who helped to make our event fun and a complete success.”

Some of the winners from the event included:

• Door Prize, FirstPlace/$200 – Colleen Cooper;

• Door Prize Second Place/$100 – Lolli Krueger;

• 50/50 Raffle – Shelly Ferris;

• Vikings Tickets – Scott Fountain;

• Sunset Ridge Airbnb – Katie Huffman;

Minnow Race First Place – Sam Ryan;

Minnow Race Runner-Up – Nick Matthies.

BELIA wished to give special thanks to:

• Sandy McClurq, Kim DeVries, and Lori Neisess who worked tirelessly pulling this event together. From contacting local liquor suppliers, searching for individual wine sample glasses for a a quality evening, organizing donations for the Silent Auction baskets, and more. Job well done;

• Sand Dune Spirits of Orrock who organized vendors for sampling: Bernick’s, C&L Distributing, Lupulin Brewing, Rustech Brewing, Dahlheimer Beverage, Nordic Brewing. Also serving were Isanti Spirits and Headflyer Brewing. 

“Please take time to thank these businesses for their time and offerings for our event,” requested Andreen;

• George and Raquel Wallin for their donation of Vikings Raffle Tickets;

• Bill and Kim DeVries for donating one week at their Sunset Ridge Airbnb right here on Big Eagle Lake;

• Adam Kretsch for personally selling over $1000 worth of Viking Raffle Tickets;

• Multiple BELIA members who also donated wine, spirits, silent auction items, including the Myers, Juarez, and Jones families, Steve and Wanda Hourscht, Leonard and Ann Witucki and many others. Without whom BELIA could not have had such a successful event;

• Rick Olson for creating and donating multiple cedar bluebird houses for habitat;

• George Wallin and members of the Events Team who pounded pavements asking area businesses for donations to BELIA events.;

• Marcie Swanson who created the Minnow Race décor (ended up being goldfish). So creative! And to Bill DeVries and Kevin McClurq for creating the race runways;

• Brian Florip of ‘Florip Workshop’ for donating his fabulous PLINKO game;

• The BELIA Events Team for their work putting on the finishing touches such as the Silent Auction baskets and so many other things! Special thanks to Kristen and Mike Vigoren for running the PLINKO game and Sam and Dwight Buehler for staffing the Wine and Spirits Wall for the entire evening;

• Marie Johnson who carefully records the donations as they come in. This is a huge job and she keeps everyone on track;

• Jeff Johnson and Paul Ellinger who oversaw all things money. Things can get crazy, sometimes, it is so good to have people to count on (pun intended);

• The Board who tirelessly supports the efforts of your Big Eagle Lake Improvement Association. 

“It is true that it takes a village to care for our lake and we thank you all for your support,” Andreen concluded.