Bonanza Valley Days is underway in Brooten!

Bonanza Valley Days is coming on July 11, 12, 13 and 14 to Brooten. Please pass the word! Scheduling updates will follow, including more information on events happening in Brooten across those four days. The activities begin with a Thursday night (July 11), back-to-back, Worship in the Park and Concert in the Park starting at 7 p.m. at the city park in Brooten. This is located south of Highway 55 from the curve headed out of town on Brooten's west side.

Bonanza Valley Days "Fields of Dreams" tee-shirts are on sale the week of BVD. Adult-sized shirts are $15 each, and children-sized shirts are $10. An assortment of colors is available.

Subscribers to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper will have additional information to read in the coming weeks. It is certainly important and helpful that people subscribe to the newspaper!

The BVD Kiddie Parade is on Saturday, July 13, so please pass this along to families who can enter their children in the parade. 'Fields of Dreams' - salute to agriculture! is the theme for this year's Bonanza Valley Days. This year's Bonanza Valley Days Kiddie Parade will be on Saturday, July 13 at 10 a.m. - same route along Hatton, from Main Street to the Pavilion. Participants register and line up 9:45 a.m. in Trinity's parking lot (south of Brooten Auto Value). Six prizes will be awarded at the end, with treats and books for all the kids.

$15 CASH Prizes for:

• Fresh from the Field - Best on Theme

• Dreamiest - Most unique/cute

• Driving my Dreams - Best on Wheels

$5 CASH Awards for:

• Best smile/friendliest

• Oldest

• Youngest

Kiddie parade participants are encouraged and welcome to join the BVD kiddie parade float in the Grand Day parade on Sunday, July 14 at 1:30 p.m. We hold the seventh position up near the front of the parade.

The BVD Kiddie Parade committee said, "Thank you again to the Brooten Fire Department for safeguarding our route, the 2018-2019 Little Miss Brooten Royalty for joining us, our judges, Alice Schumann and Deb Brown, the Bonanza Valley Voice for publicity and to our returning sponsor, Bollig Engineering." With any questions, please call Gloria Trustheim at 320-295-8005.

Bonanza Valley Days will again have a 3-on-3 basketball tournament (Friday/Saturday) plus the wrestling club's Walk/Run event (Saturday morning)...stay tuned for registration information on those events.

For parade registration (BVD Grand Parade is at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday) please e-mail Jennifer Murphey at Murphey's Printing at jennim@tds.net.

Just for fun! Click on the following link to view the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's photo gallery from Saturday of BVD 2018: https://bit.ly/2LdIKHE.

Friday, July 12 activities

Day two of Bonanza Valley Days 2019 brings a full day of activities starting with city-wide garage sales at 7 a.m. and then the BVD baseball tournament starting at 9 a.m. Remember that the full list of garage sales is published in the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. In the July 4 issue, the garage sales (15 total!) are listed on page six.

The BVD baseball tournament will be held at all three diamonds in Brooten with third and fourth grade teams: at the city park, at Quisberg Park and at the elementary school. The BVD baseball tournament will host fifth and sixth grade teams in Belgrade at the B-B-E high school diamonds. The 5th/6th grade teams include the New London-Spicer 11-U and NL-S 12-U teams, Avon, Cold Spring, Elrosa, B-B-E, Minnewaska and Sauk Centre. The 3rd/4th grade teams include the NL-S 9-U and NL-S 10-U teams, Avon, Rocori, Minnewaska 9-U and 10-U teams, B-B-E and Sauk Centre.

Two events begin at 4 p.m. on Friday: the craft and vendor show at the city park (ends at 8 p.m.) and then the three-on-three basketball tournament at the elementary gymnasiums.

Make sure you bring your appetite when you visit Brooten on Friday night, as the Brooten Fire Department will hold their Fireman's Chicken BBQ supper at the city park from 5 to 8 p.m .; cost is $9.50 for a half-chicken meal, and $8 for a quarter-chicken meal. Music will be provided by the Nite Owls band from Sauk Centre.

Couple's golf takes place starting at 6 p.m. at the Prairie View Golf Course.

After you've had your fill of chicken at the city park, you can take in one or both dances taking place on Friday night: the Brooten Pavilion will feature the live music of Gig Noonan from 7 to 11 p.m., and on main street, the free street dance starting at 8:30 p.m. will feature music provided by Dee Jay Sounds of Belgrade.

Click here (short link) to view the photo album of Bonanza Valley Voice pictures taken on Friday of BVD 2018 (July 13): https://bit.ly/2LAS9IB.

Saturday, July 13 activities

Day three of Bonanza Valley Days 2019 brings the best out of the town with non-stop action from sunrise to sunset. Roughly 20 minutes after the sun comes up, the Ka-De Shack will be serving a delicious hot breakfast buffet for the masses. They will serve from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m., and the price is just $8 for adults.

The city-wide garage and yard sales get rolling at 7 a.m. for the second day in a row. The ever-popular BVD Car and Tractor Show starts at 8 a.m. and runs through 1 p.m. In addition to the terrific display of classic machines, CM Rock DJ of St. Cloud will be playing your favorite classic rock and rock and roll tunes on Main Street for car/tractor-show goers to enjoy

At 8:30 a.m., the B-B-E wrestling club's Walk/Run starts at the old high school lot. Call Sara DeRoo at 320-293-0919 to enter.

At 9 a.m., the Men's Slow-Pitch tournament gets going at the city park. To register, call Matt Schmitz at 320-291-5576. Their bracket is growing, so get a hold of him right away before they have to cut teams off!

Also starting at 9 a.m. is the co-ed sand volleyball tournament at the Pavilion sand volleyball courts. To enter, call Boyce Fischer at 320-295-1127.

The nine-hole Gary Fauskee Scholarship Cup tournaments begin at 9 a.m. at Prairie View Golf Course. The first tournament starts at 9 a.m., and the second tournament starts at 12 p.m.

Also at 9 a.m., the B-B-E Knights of Columbus will be selling root beer floats on main street near the Brooten Bakery.

The B-B-E boys' basketball 3-on-3 elementary tournament starts at 9 a.m.

For a full SIX hours of Saturday, kids will certainly want to stop by the inflatables section that have grown year by year at Bonanza Valley Days. And best of all, these inflatables are free! Yes, free for all six hours. This year, for the first time ever, Bonanza Valley Days will have TWO water slides. One will be the large slide that BVD has had the last couple of years. A second slide will be a smaller slide for younger children (generally-speaking, ages three to eight)...parents are asked to use their discretion as to which water slide to direct their children to. Oh, but that's not all for inflatables! Also included is a mechanical bull, a boxing ring, a rock-climbing wall (set up and supervised by Prairie Woods Environmental Center staff) and other inflatables. This group of activities for children runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Stearns County Dairy Princesses will be serving free milk and cookies on main street from 9:30 to 11 a.m. near the Brooten Bakery.

The third annual Vintage Snowmobile Show runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the old high school lot. Contact Mark Kirckof at 320-250-4600 to enter.

At 10 a.m., the BVD Kiddie Parade takes place. It will start at the Trinity Lutheran church parking lot and run west down Hatton Street towards the Pavilion.

From 10 a.m. to noon, Miss Brooten and Little Miss Brooten royalty and 2019-2020 candidates will hold a car wash fundraiser at the Bonanza Valley State Bank parking lot.

Starting at 10 a.m. is Minnow Shooting at Marcia's Bar in downtown Brooten.

The kids' waterball fight and fire department waterball fight will be held on Main Street South starting at 1 p.m. This year, area fire departments will also participate.

Pony Rides at the city park, with a cost of $5 per ride, will start at 1 p.m. Also at the city park, a petting zoo will be available for children to enjoy from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Bar Bingo at the Ka-De Shack starts promptly at 1:30 p.m. This year, Bar Bingo is hosted and sponsored by the Brooten Fire Department (gambling license No. 30599-011).

At 4 p.m., one of the most popular BVD events in recent years will be held on Main Street in front of the KaDe Shack with the kids' tractor pedal pull contest. As it has been in 2016, 2017 and 2018, this event will be held in honor of the late Rick Thonvold (RIP: 1969-2016).

The B-B-E Area Jaycees Bean Bag tournament will be held on Main Street at 5:30 p.m. Registration is at 5 p.m., and the cost is $10 per person with a 50 teams cap.

The Miss Brooten and Little Miss Brooten pageant will be held at 6 p.m. at the Brooten Pavilion. Please note the time change from past years.

The main event for entertainment on BVD weekend will be the Saturday night street dance that starts at 8:30 p.m. This year, the live entertainment will be provided by Dana and the Bottle Rockets.

Food options for the BVD weekend will be added in a separate web article.

Sunday, July 14

The two big events for Sunday, which conclude the four-day Bonanza Valley Days weekend in Brooten, begins with the Dad's Belgian Waffles breakfast at the city park. This fundraiser is hosted by and supports the B-B-E Boy Scouts Troop No. 667. It will be held from 8 a.m. to noon. Let's try to beat 430 customers this year! That's approximately the most they've held for this event at BVD in Brooten. Come one, come all! Spread the word and leave the breakfast cooking to the staff of Dad's Belgian Waffles!

The Bonanza Valley Days Grand Day Parade starts at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. It will be followed by an ice cream social at the Brooten Pavilion, hosted and sponsored as always by the Bonanza Valley State Bank. Also, the Central Minnesota Credit Union has donated bottled water that will be given out by members of the Brooten Fire Department at the end of the parade route to float participants.

For parade registration, please e-mail jennim@tds.net if you have any last-minute questions or still need to register your business or group.