Phone: 218-222-2880 Email: info@mrveteransoutdoors.com Website: mrveteransoutdoors.com
FALL NEWSLETTER 2022
Hunting season is finally here in northern Minnesota. We just completed our Veterans Deer Hunt. We had a very successful hunt with 9 hunters and they all shot a deer. Our hunters this year were from all over the state: Chisholm, St. Louis Park, Clear Lake Crookston and Audubon to name a few.
We also had a good mix of Veterans from different branches of service and a good variety of ages. We were pleased with 8 adult deer and 1 fawn, including a very nice 8-point buck.
Our Summer Fishing at Ballard’s Resort on Lake of the Woods was sponsored by Humana. There were 26 Veterans who had 2 days of chartered fishing. Besides the fishing, the visiting was the highlight. So many stories.
Our group included the whole state also, Albert Lea all the way up the state. We had beautiful weather, not 100 degrees like last year. Everyone went home with their limit of fish and new friends.
There was a small group of youth for their goose hunt, but they all got plenty of shooting. We had to cancel our Disabled Veteran’s Goose hunt. This year our landowners were still harvesting the fields we use. And at the time, it seemed that the northern flight wasn’t down to our area yet.
Combat Veteran’s Motorcycle Association stopped by again. We went for a nice ride with the American Legion Riders,,in the rain. CVMA presented us a very nice donation. We want to thank our American Legion Auxiliary Post 444 for all the fine meals they have cooked for our events.
We have attended the County Veteran’s Service Officer conference this year to promote our group. Plus, we were at the Camp Ripley Military Retirement Seminar.
Nice to meet so many interesting Veterans and their families.
Our next event will be ice fishing on Lake of the Woods in January. Hard to believe how all that water can freeze! Applications are available on our website. Or drop us an email and we will send one to you.
It has been a wonderful year serving the Veterans. We want to thank all our sponsors: Humana, Border Bank, MR Sportsman Club, Red Lake Electric “Operation Roundup”, MN DAV Chapter 7 and MN DAV Chapter 41 and TRFs Hardware Hank.
Our mission is to provide the opportunities for Veterans to participate in outdoor activities with the main emphasis on hunting, fishing and other shooting sports, with priority given to Veterans who are disabled or otherwise normally unable to participate in these types of activities. Remember that our phone and email has changed. They are listed above. Thank you to all who have served.
Sincerely,
Mike Brazier
B.O.D. Chairman
Spring 2022 Newsletter
Please take notice of our new phone number and Email address, the phone number has a menu to connect to key members of MRVO and these two upgrades will make things more efficient for us and the veterans we serve.
We are always proud to say that we had another great year with our Veterans. A total of 126 veterans/family members were served. Our events went very well, ladies ice fishing was a bit tough because it was 30 below zero that day. The summer fishing seems to be our most popular event in that we had 57 applications for 24 spots. Two of the participants caught trophy walleyes and everyone had a full limit to take home.
The youth waterfowl hunt and disabled veterans goose hunt both were very successful with everyone getting some shooting and a good number of birds were harvested. The annual veteran’s deer hunt was scheduled to coincide with heavy rains and very muddy field conditions, but the hunt went very well and all hunters had venison to take home. Due to stiff government lockdowns our “Norskies” hockey game did get scheduled until late fall with 30 veterans/family members attending.
In January, 2021 we received a donation of a new Tracked Chair from Altru medical/ Yorhom in Grand Forks, ND. VFW 9th District Commander Booge designated the MRVO as his “Commanders Project.”
We had a visit in October from the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Assn. They also indicated that we are one of their priority non-profits to support. Our annual raffle and big buck contest sponsored and conducted by Hardware Hank Store was another great success.
We have been to the Mn County Service Officer Conference, visited at the DAV ND Chapter 2 meeting, and invited to attend the “Veterans Benefit Fair in Crookston.
Plus, we are in the process of receiving another Track Chair donated by MN DAV Outdoors. We will build one more deer stand for the track chairs with one more in the future.
This year we have installed 5 new members to our board: Trevor Berg, Randy Larson, Steve Stone, Russ Sparby and Lisa Sparby. At our annual meeting in January we also elected Mike Brazier as chairman and Trevor Berg as Vice Chairman.
We want to extend a very heartful appreciation to who have donated to make this such a successful organization. We have many volunteers who help us out with each event. Plus a thank you to our sponsors: Humana: Summer fishing trip, DAV Chapter #7: Disabled Vetersan’s Goose Hunt, DAV Chapter #41: Veteran’s Deer Hunt, Border Bank, Middle River Sportman’s Club and Red Lake Electric “Operation Roundup”: Youth Waterfoul Hunt, Norskids Foundation: Norskies game for veterans and their families.
Check out the “EVENTS SCHEDULE” page for upcoming adventures, you can find a link to print an application at the bottom of our events page. Don’t hesitate to call or e-mail with any questions you may have.
