KABETOGAMA - Three years ago Explore Minnesota Tourism director John Edman took his family for a summer vacation at Lake Kabetogama and stayed at the Northern Lights Resort. One evening during the week he was sitting on the dock with resort managers Harlan and Heidi Schauer and said "this would be a great place for the Governor's Fishing Opener."
Heidi, who was born and grew up in New Ulm as the daughter of Mike and Joan Rubischko, took the bait and in the fall of 2008 the Kabetogama and Ash River communities put in a bid for the 62nd annual fishing opener with the tourism department.
Heidi and Harlan had agreed to be the co-chairs of the planning committee if they were awarded the bid. It was two weeks before the opener in 2009 that the call came that the bid had been awarded to Kabetogama and they should attend the opener in White Bear Lake to observe.
That phone call began a 54-week planning process for Heidi and Harlan in what is among the smallest communities to ever host a Governor's Fishing Opener. Since there is no tax money for this event, all activities are volunteers, sponsors or donations for a weekend of about 325 media guests and a community picnic on the Friday evening open to anyone. The media are invited to the event to kick-off the summer tourism season in Minnesota and showcase a community as a tourism destination.
The Schauers organized a planning committee of 20 people from the area with many coming from the 20 resorts at Kabetogama and six at Ash River. At the end 17 of the resorts were used to house the 311 registered guests.
This area contains two of the gateways to Voyageurs National Park, but there are no Chamber of Commerce, no banquet halls, no headquarters hotel and none of the other amenities needed to host over 300 people for a weekend.
The planning committee enlisted another 80 volunteers to work on all the logistics for the weekend including raising all the money and donations necessary to pull off the event. They also found 100 fishing guides to donate their time, boats and fishing gear to take the guests on the lake Saturday morning.
But when it came time to produce the weekend, the Schauers enlisted their families to work behind the scenes. The Rubischkos took off from New Ulm in a borrowed D&A Truck Lines semi-trailer and Lloyd Braun Trucking of Sleepy Eye tractor. They left New Ulm a week before the event.
Their first stop was the August Schell Brewery, which as a sponsor had donated Schell's Beer for the fishing guides' Thursday dinner and the celebration dinner Saturday night for the invited guests.
Next stop for the refrigerated truck was food vendors in the Twin Cities that had donated baked beans and potato salad to serve the nearly 1,000 people at the Friday community picnic.
The final stop was Midway Party Rental in St. Paul to pick up three frame tents, including a 30x90-foot main tent. Crews from Midway spent four days setting up the tents complete with floors and sides, but money was saved by not having to pay for the transportation of the actual tents. This week the tents will be taken down and transported back to St. Paul.
Heidi's brother and sister-in-law, Brian and Sharon Rubischko of Stacey, were also on hand to help with any tasks.
Harlan's parents, Norman and Wayne Schauer of Arlington, along with brother Dave and sister Emily Kuphal of Gaylord as well as Jason and Amanda Magers of Gaylord were all helping throughout the weekend.
The tourism department touts fishing as a family event making memories. The Schauers made the Governor's Fishing Opener a family event along with 100 Kabetogama and Ash River volunteers.
They also have memories.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty and first lady Mary stayed at the Northern Lights. The Schauers were also guests on the governor's WCCO Radio show Friday and were guests on many other radio and television broadcasts promoting the Kabetogama and Ash River gateways to Voyageurs National Park.
In September 2004 Heidi and Harlan took a vacation and stayed at the Northern Lights Resort. They were living in New Prague where Harlan worked, and Heidi commuted to Richfield to the Best Buy corporate headquarters daily. By April 2005 both had quit their jobs and were working as the general managers of the resort.
From the first metro opener at White Bear Lake in 2009 to one of Minnesota's most remote spots this year was quite a culture change, but the media guests raved about Minnesota's only national park where most of the land is and all of the water is within the park. There are four lakes within the park - the last being Rainy which flows into the Rainy River north to International Falls.
Grand Rapids was awarded the bid for 2011.
