Crookston Ox Cart Days are starting next week with the theme “Lots To Do In ’22!” and true to its name, there are many events to do throughout Crookston from Monday, August 15 to Sunday, August 21. For each day of this week leading up to the Ox Cart Days, we will have the schedule of events that will be held on each day of Ox Cart Days.
To kick off Ox Cart Days, starting at 5:00 p.m. is the Taste of Crookston that will be held at the Crookston Eagles Club and sponsored by United Valley Bank. “Taste of Crookston has kind of become our kick-off event, the grand opening of Ox Cart Days. You come up to the Eagles Club, buy a handful of tickets, and for each ticket, you get a sample-sized bite of food provided by local restaurants, vendors, clubs, and charities,” Ox Cart Days Director Libby Boucher explained. “They come and have a table full of serving sizes that cover the spectrum. It’s everything from sweet to savory, to foreign and domestic. And it’ll fill you up.” Tickets are $1 each and can be traded for a sample of a home-cooked dish. Boucher says the event usually has about 20 to 25 tables full of food dishes for people to try for themselves. And though it’s coming up soon, Ox Cart days is still taking registrations of people that wish to share their dishes with the public. To register for the event, you can contact Sheila Menard at shmother@hotmail.com and tell her what you plan on bringing to the table, along with any other details.
The other main event helping kick off the week of Ox Cart Days is the week-long Kids Lemonade Stand Contest starting at 8:00 a.m. and going until Friday, August 19. “Jess Bengtson came up with that idea, I believe, two years ago, and it was so well received that we brought it back. Kids all over town set up a lemonade stand. They register with Jess and get an official lemon on a stick with a number on it,” Boucher explained. “We’ll have judges go around and vote on things like best décor, best-tasting lemonade, most inventive lemonade, and other things like that.”
Along with giving away lemonade, many of the children treat the contest as a fundraiser for a charity or organization of their choosing to help give back to the community. “A lot of the kids treat it as a fundraiser, so they pick, whether it’s the humane society or whoever they decide, if they want to give their money to a charity,” Boucher said. “So, it’s a really nice way to teach our kids about giving back and volunteerism.” At the end of the week, the judges will decide on a winner for each category and award the winners with trophies and prizes. To sign up for the contest and register your booth, you can contact Jess Bengtson by email at jess.bengtson@gmail.com or call her at 701-610-6454.
Ox Cart Days is less than a week away, with a week full of events and fun, and we will have more about the future events throughout the week. To get a button for Ox Cart Days, they can be picked up at Hugo’s Family Marketplace, Happy Joe’s Pizza & Ice Cream, Crookston City Hall, the Erickson Embroidery, and Crookston True Value. You can also get the pocket schedules for the week at any of these locations. The Ox Cart Days committee is also looking for volunteers to assist with some events throughout the week in two-hour increments. To see the full schedule of Crookston Ox Cart Days, as well as any registration links for events or maps to find some events or sign up to volunteer for an event, you can find them all at www.crookstonoxcartdays.com. You can also click on Bulletin Boards under the Community to see the upcoming schedule of events for each day of Ox Cart Days.
