Chapter News Update - February 2023

2023 BCPF Banquet & Family Fun Night … Get Your Tickets Now

The 2023 BCPF Annual Banquet is March 18, 2023 and will be held at the Sleepy Eye Event Center. Tickets are going fast. We are less than 4 weeks away from the event.

Additionally, tickets for one of our main raffles to raise money, “The Hunters Dream,” are still available for purchase. We don’t have many of these tickets left, so you may want to reach out now before they are all sold out. Reminder, all dollars raised stay in the chapter and are used locally. More details are in the “Event & Fund-Raising Focus” section below.

Please Buy Your Tickets Early

Tickets for the event can be purchased now online at https://pfqf.myeventscenter.com/event/2023-Brown-County-Pheasants-Forever-Banquet-69434 . We have several ticket packages available. We encourage folks to buy online prior to showing up at the door and waiting in line.

One item we would like to point out is the pre-event special for Rooster Bucks’ For $100 is cash you will get $140 in Rooster Bucks to spend at the event. You will get more for your money buying early. This deal goes away the week prior to the event, so get them early while you can.

Timing of the Banquet: The doors will open at 4:30 pm sharp. Our goal is to have the event completed by 9:30 pm. Dinner will start at approximately 6:30-7:00 pm.

We hope to see you at the Banquet.

Banquet Emcee: This year’s emcee will be Ron Leathers. Ron is Pheasants Forever (PF) and Quail Forever’s (QF) Chief Conservation Officer. In his role, Ron oversees the organization’s mission-delivery partnerships with PF and QF chapters and state and federal agencies. Ron’s team includes the state coordinators, Farm Bill Biologists, Habitat Specialists, Outreach Coordinators, and any other employees directly working to deliver the PF and QF mission.

Originally a Wyoming native, Ron has spent 20 years with the Habitat Organization. He began his PF & QF career in South Dakota as one of the organization’s first Farm Bill Biologists before moving to PF’s home office in White Bear Lake to administer the organization’s grants program. Ron was promoted to Public Finance Director in 2008 and began a career as the organization’s first--ever Chief Conservation Officer in January of 2021.

Ron lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and 2 busy kids. When he is not coaching a hockey or baseball team, he can be found following his golden retriever, Keeva, through the prairies.

Hunter Dream Raffle: Tickets are still available but are going fast. At this point we estimate they will be sold-out in about 2-weeks. This year’s prize is a nice collection of Savage/Stevens guns and a $500 gift card for a safe to hold them. Tickets are $25.00 each and we will select the winner at the 2023 banquet in March. You can’t win if you don’t buy a ticket. These tickets do sell out. Get your tickets early from any board member.

Banquet Games/Raffle: We have several games like Plnko; Shot Shell; General and Women’s Only Game/Raffle. As usual, we will have a separate kids/youth game/raffle. One lucky attendee will win a MN Lifetime Small Game License. We have over 25 guns that will be won by lucky participants. We have a few new twists in game/raffles we hope you enjoy, but we will leave these for you to see when you attend the event.

Auctions: We again will have both a Live/Silent Auction at the event. We have some nice items to be auctioned off. Some of these include: Western MN Pheasant Hunt (Ivanhoe Hunt); PF Print-of-the-Year; Pheasant Print on Canvas; Solo Stove; Automatic Clay Thrower; The Hat Auction; and many more items.

February 18, 2023 - MN Spring Light Goose Season Opens

March 18, 2023 – Brown County PF Banquet

April 12 - May 31, 2023 - MN Spring Turkey Season(s)

April 22, 2023 – Earth Day & Adopt-a-WMA Habitat Day

July 15, 2023 – Youth Day Nicollet County Pheasants Forever (Tentative)

September 1, 2023 – MN Dove Season Opens (Tentative)

September 2-17, 2023 - MN Goose Season

September 2-6, 2023 - MN Teal Season

September 9-10, 2023 - MN Youth Waterfowl Season

September 23, 2023 - MN Waterfowl Season Opens

September 30 - October 29, 2023 - MN Fall Turkey Season

October 14, 2023 – MN Pheasant Opener (Tentative)

October 19-22, 2023 - MN Youth Deer Season

November 4-12, 2023 - MN Deer Firearm Season

November 25, 2023 – MN Muzzleloader Deer Opener

January 1, 2024 – MN Pheasant Season Closes

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 their membership 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 https://www.pheasantsforever.org/Participate/Why-Participate.aspx

andhttps://www.pheasantsforever.org/getdoc/91f8dfad-47ad-46d6-af54-5649db42671f/Membership.aspx help us grow!

BROWN COUNTY PHEASANT’S FOREVER ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
FOUNDED 32 YEARS AGO and SPENT OVER $4 MILLION in Brown County for HABITAT.
OVER 300 HABITAT PROJECTS benefiting OVER 3000 ACRES on PRIVATE land.
PRESERVED OVER 2500 ACRES for PUBLIC ENJOYMENT & HUNTING. Brown County has OVER 28 WMA/WPAs encompassing OVER 4600 ACRES.
PARTICPATED in OVER 2000 ACRES in Brown County land ACQUISITIONS that are now WMA/WPAs.
HOSTS AND PARTICIPATES IN ANNUAL MENTORED YOUTH HUNTS with more than 50 KIDS PARTIPATING
SUPPORT our LOCAL TRAP SHOOTING TEAMS.
PARTICIPATE in MN DNR Adopt-a-WMA program