Chapter News Update - February 2025

Presidents Report

We are getting closer to the 34th Brown County Pheasants Forever Banquet and Family Fun Night. We hope to see you attend the upcoming banquet March 22, 2025, being held again at the Sleepy Eye Event Center.

We will have many past activities and some new ones for all to enjoy. Bring your friends and family and come join us for our annual fundraising event. All the monies we raise at this event, less the membership fee stay in Brown County for us to decide how to use them to provide better outdoors and hunting experiences. The monies we raise get used for some of the following activities:

R3 (Recruit, Retain and Reactivate) folks into hunting and outdoor activities. This includes mentoring; youth events (e.g. Nicollet Conservation Club (NCC) Youth Day); financial support for our high school and 4H trap teams; and more.
Land acquisitions. Brown County has added nearly 250 new acres to the public Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs). Our focus is on land that will be part of an existing WMA and be land that for the most part is not good for farming.
Habitat improvements. Which includes food plots with habitat seed programs on both public and private acres; providing the MN DNR resources to help maintain or improve the current WMAs in Brown County.

Again, mark your calendars for the 2025 BCPF Annual Banquet to be held March 22, 2025, at the Sleepy Eye Event Center. More details on tickets and the event are highlighted below.

The 2025 BCPF banquet will be held on Saturday March 22, 2025, at the Sleepy Eye Event Center.

Tickets this year can be purchased online or at the door only! If you purchase at the door they will be at premium price. Anyone who does not wish to purchase tickets online may reach out to Tim directly for assistance.

Ticket(s) and ticket packages are as follows:

Silver Sponsorship - Individual or Couple's Package

Price: $250.00

Includes event entry, (1) Pheasants Forever (PF) annual membership; (2) meals; (2) PF logo knives; (2) PF Logo wine glasses; ($100) Scheel’s Gift Card; (1) sponsor only raffles tickets and sponsorship name in brochure.

Gold Sponsorship - Family Package

Price: $350.00

Includes event entry, (1) Pheasants Forever (PF) annual membership; (Up to 3) Pheasants Forever (PF) annual ringneck memberships; (2) meals; (3) youth meals; (2) PF logo knives; (4) PF Logo wine glasses; ($100) Scheel’s Gift Card; (1) sponsor only raffles tickets and sponsorship name in brochure.

Platinum Sponsorship - Corporate or Table (8) Package

Price: $1,200.00

Includes event entry, (8) Pheasants Forever (PF) annual membership; (8) meals; (8) PF logo knives; (8) PF Logo wine glasses; ($500) Scheel’s Gift Card; sponsor bonuses and sponsorship name in brochure.

Associate Membership + Meal Ticket

Price: $75.00

Includes event entry; (1) meal ticket and an annual PF membership ($35 value).

Spouse or Life Member Meal "Only" Ticket

Price: $25.00

Includes event entry; (1) meal ticket. "MUST be current Life Member of PF" or spouse with paying Adult Member.

On-site Adult Associate + Meal (In-Person Only, Day of Event)

Price: $100.00

Includes event entry; (1) meal ticket and an annual PF membership ($35 value).

Youth Ages 5-15 (Ringneck) Membership + Meal Ticket

Price: $15.00

Includes event entry: (1) meal ticket and (1) annual "Ringneck" membership ($15 value). Ages 15 years and younger.

Student Ages 16-25 (Student) Membership + Meal Ticket

Price: $50.00

Includes event entry; (1) meal ticket and (1) annual "Student" membership ($25 value). Ages 16-25 years old.

New Life Membership + Meal Ticket + Package

Price: $1,500.00

Includes event entry, (1) Pheasants Forever (PF) life membership; (2) meals; (2) PF logo knives; (2) PF Logo wine glasses; sponsor bonuses, and sponsorship name in brochure. Make a lifetime commitment to "The Habitat Organization!" Become a Life Member of Pheasants Forever and help us elevate our organization-wide mission! Includes: $200 Orvis Gift Card; Framed Life Member Certificate; Recognition in the Pheasants Forever Annual Report; Lifetime Pheasants Forever Journal of Upland Conservation subscription (published 5x/year; PF Life Member Decal & Member Card; Lifetime Delivery of the annual PF Calendar (mailed annually in the fall); Invitations to local chapter banquets and events; Monthly “On-The-Wing” newsletter; Annual Pheasant Hunting Forecast

Your membership matters! It supports PF's unique model that allows chapters to retain 100% of the funds that they raise to deliver mission and allows PF to be the greatest habitat organization! Membership includes: a subscription to five issues of the Pheasants Forever Journal of Upland Conservation, PF decal & member card, Pheasants Forever Hunter’s Calendar (mailed annually in the fall), monthly “On-The-Wing” newsletters, and access to the Annual Pheasant Hunting Forecast!

Note: If you are already signed for “Auto-Renewal” of your Pheasants Forever Membership, you will have your membership fee of $35 deducted from the ticket price. It is already set to auto-renewal on your renewal date. If you want to sign up for Auto-Renewal it will give you this option when purchasing banquet tickets.

Tickets can be purchased now at: Get Tickets Here! or Scan the QR Code below.

Games & Activities

Many games and activities will be like past events, but we are hoping to add some new ones as well. Some of these are:

Shot-shell game
Women's buy-a-shot raffle
Scheel's banner raffle
Ford F-150 truck raffle
Gun board(s) raffle
Live auction
Shot-n-Sizzle live auction
General raffle
Cooler full of pork raffle
Kids raffle
Hunters Dream raffle
... and more

We take pride in having great prizes including many guns. Many of our guns are unique and with Pheasants Forever logos and are true collector items.

This year's Hunters Dream raffle is a bit different. Instead of winner take all, we will be drawing three (3) winners. Each winning ticket (in order of draw) will be allowed to choose one of the three prizes. The first, drawn winner will have the first choice of prize numbers 1 through 3. The second, drawn winner gets next choice and third, drawn winner gets the last prize.

Prize Number 1:

(1) Browning Citron O/U 12 ga. Shotgun

Prize Number 2:

(1) Weatherby Orion O/U 20 ga. Shotgun and

(1) Weatherby Model 307 6.5 CM Meat Eater Addition Rifle

Prize Number 3:

(1) Banks Stump 2 Phantom Deer Blind 

Costs: $20 per ticket and approximately 700 tickets will be sold.  They are going fast. Reach out to any BCPF Board Member for tickets.

The gun prizes will require FFL background checks.

Drawing will be Held: March 22, 2025, 8:30-9:00 PM at the Sleepy Eye Event Center during the 2025 Brown County Annual PF Banquet and is open to the public. See "Events Page" to purchase tickets to the 2025 Banquet & Family Fun Night". 

Note: Brown County PF Chapter reserves the right to change any item for this raffle if it is not available. Any substitutions will be at a similar value and item.

At this year's banquet, we will be making several changes to comply with MN Gambling Commission requirements. Some of these are as follows:

We will not be allowed to have Rooster Bucks in any ticket packages.
No one under 18 can play the raffles or games. We will have a separate set of youth activities and prizes.
Most guns will not be allowed to be taken home the night of the event. The ATF is making it difficult to complete any FFL type transfer at these types of events. Some of the guns we will try and have the FFL transfer completed at the event. This will not be possible from any gun we have purchased from Scheel’s. All guns won will be transferred at the place of the FFL location where we acquired them.
We have had a nearly 95% online ticket sales last year. We will still be mailing out postage announcement for tickets, but all tickets will be required to be purchased through the online system. We will work with anyone who wants to mail a check to us, and we will complete the transaction for them. Tim Kraskey will take the lead on this and help anyone who needs assistance in procuring tickets.

We hope that these changes, which are beyond our control, will not impact your decision to attend our event and support the mission. We want to thank you in advance for everyone’s participation in this event.

The monies we receive through donations, fund raising, and membership are critical to us enhancing or purchasing lands for all the public to enjoy. We encourage everyone to renew their membership to Pheasants Forever or upgrade to a Lifetime membership.

Pheasants Forever is the only national organization with a model of chapters keeping 100% of the funds they raise. While belonging to a larger national organization that has a voice on federal and state conservation policies, chapters are tasked with finding projects for their funds. Minnesota takes full advantage of this model using funds raised for projects locally as well as other areas in the state of Minnesota.

Go to Why Participate? And, Join or Renew your Membership to help us grow!

BROWN COUNTY PHEASANT’S FOREVER ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
FOUNDED 37 YEARS AGO and SPENT OVER $4 MILLION in Brown County for HABITAT.
OVER 500 HABITAT PROJECTS benefiting OVER 5,000 ACRES on PRIVATE land.
PRESERVED OVER 3,000 ACRES for PUBLIC ENJOYMENT & HUNTING. Brown County has NEARLY 40 WMA/WPAs encompassing OVER 5,000 ACRES.
PARTICIPATED in OVER 3,300 ACRES in Brown County land ACQUISITIONS that are now WMA/WPAs.
BROWN COUNTY HAS OVER 24,000 acres in HABITAT.
HOSTS AND PARTICIPATES IN ANNUAL MENTORED YOUTH HUNTS with more than 200 KIDS PARTICIPATING
SUPPORT our LOCAL TRAP SHOOTING TEAMS.
PARTICIPATE in MN DNR Adopt-a-WMA program. Planting food plots, replacing signs, removing trash & barb wire, creating parking areas, and more.