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Wednesday, June 8, dawned blustry and cool, but that did not dampen spirits at the first Turtle Race of Longville's 2011 season. Undeterred, 125 racers competed for the titles of Grand Champion and Grand Slowpoke. Despite a chilly wind and intermittent rain showers, the turtles raced their best, to the delight of everyone in attendance.

Race day started with the Resort Turtle Race, which was won by Connor Stockman, age 4, of St. Cloud, Minnesota. Connor represented Thunder Lake Lodge. At the end of the day, Nolan Dodds, age 8, of West Fargo, North Dakota, earned Grand Champion honors, and Elyse Mikota, age 4, of Maple Grove, Minnesota, won the title of Grand Slowpoke.

Racers and non-racers alike had fun during the pre-race activities, which included hula-hoop contests, the Chicken Dance, the YMCA dance sponsored by Camp Olson YMCA, the Macarena, and the Hokey-Pokey.

Many volunteers assisted with the races, games and contests.[[In-content Ad]]Lead Judge Pat Boen was ably assisted by Sean McDonald of Gallery of Homes, Mackenzie and Michaela MacFarlane. Rose Franta, Dodee Colberg and Stan Johnson registered racers, while Marilyn Jass and Sue Meyer sold tickets and souvenirs. Pat Bothast and Charlene Olson managed the prize table. Game operators were Judy Blue, Sara Felton, Elsie Hagen, Mary Ann Straley, Lisa Garbe of Northlakes Marine and Auto, Judy Blundell of Ron's Hardware, Kathy Sweeney of Woodland Insurance and Chloe Wolske, representing the Boondocks. Charles Colberg, running Turtle Hoops, invited grandson Ian McBrayer and his friend Brinkly Werkman to run the neighboring Turtle Touchdown game, to the delight of all who wanted to toss a football for fun.

Gordon Atzen made and sold fresh popcorn, raising funds for Relay for Life, and Aubrey Watson, from Northland Area Family Service Center, supervised the hand-washing station. Setup and tear down were accomplished by Jake Woodworth and his team from Camp Olson YMCA, along with Don Shurtleff, Dennis Zaske, and Tom Kutschied from VFW Post 772. The street managers were Dave Wodrich and Stan Johnson.

Kam Kammueller of Longville Inn made his debut as Turtle Race Announcer, assisted in the announcing booth by Gerry Broshar, Steve Shallbetter and Tom Lund.

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