Rick Peterson marveled at the positive energy surrounding 2014's Minnesota Governor's Pheasant Opener in Worthington.
"I remember thinking, 'This has been spectacular,' '' said Peterson, who hosted a group of hunters at the request of local civic leaders.
Peterson is the publishing general manager of the Rock County Star Herald newspaper in Luverne, a community one-third the size of Worthington with less pheasant habitat. Privately, he doubted Luverne could ever host the event. Today he's a believer.
"I challenged the people of Luverne,'' said Peterson, chairman of the local organizing committee. "We think we hit the nail on the head.''
The eighth and final rooster celebration of Mark Dayton's governorship unfolds Friday and Saturday in the extreme southwestern corner of the state. Some 360 attendees will dine Friday night at Luverne's Grand Prairie Events before more than 150 of those visitors don blaze orange Saturday morning to tote shotguns across scattered parcels of prairie grass in search of wild ringnecks.
Organized under a break-even budget of $90,000 to $100,000, Luverne stayed true to the pheasant opener challenges met previously in Worthington, Montevideo, Marshall, Madelia and Mankato. The host communities raise money from sponsors, hold fundraising events, gain hunting cooperation from private landowners and pair groups of invited hunters with volunteer field generals.
Host communities must provide event space big enough to hold the banquet and flexible enough to accommodate muddied hunters, their dogs and bloody birds.
"We are pulling 300 to 400 people into our community, and we want to show them what we've got and encourage them to come back,'' said Ron Prorok, a Pheasants Forever volunteer and employee of the Marshall Convention and Visitors' Bureau, last year's host.
