Welcome
to the Glorious & Extravagant Coon
Lake Beach Meat Raffle©
We are pleased to announce that the Coon Lake Community and Senior Center (CLCSC).& Coon Lake Improvement Association (CLIA)
It's Kind of A Minnesota Thing: Saturday meat raffles...
Star Tribune does a humor
video on meat raffles
Where? Here's the map
(Special Thanks to Steve Olson for the photos!)
Mike Bury & Kathy Stokke Ready to Spin
Ah Fresh Meat, each spin only one dollar
When:
Saturdays at 4:00 PM
Where: Purple
Reign (the establishment formerly known as Hook's and Rambler's)
Who: Volunteers from CLIA and
CLCSC
What: Fresh Meat from Soderquist's
Why: Important fund raising event for
CLIA and CLCSC
In addition to dinner specials, Purple
Reign offers hamburgers
and chicken sandwiches for only $1.00 each on both Wednesdays and Thursdays
from 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM.
Thanks To Michael Stokes for maintaining this website and Steve Olson for CLIA News and photos
Denise, Darla, Dillon Connis and Jon
Setting up the Trays for Numbers
Winners Picking out Their Prize
Jon & Angie, Winners!
Another Winner
Shelter Animals For Adoption
Coon Lake Beach and
Senior Center breathes new life
From an article by Elyse Kaner
Staff
writer
Coon Lake Beach on Coon Lake in Anoka County, Minnesota. Arising from a forest of old growth white pines and an advertisement that sold lakeshore property for a bonus along with the cost of a newspaper subscription in 1925, Coon Lake Beach Community and Senior Center has reinvented itself once again, breathing new life into a struggling landmark that was nearly lost to a lack of interest.
Never mind that the center’s location is brandished with a mishmash of addresses: the city of East Bethel, a Wyoming post office, a St. Paul phone number, and children who attend the Forest Lake School District. Members of the center clearly have one goal in mind – to build community.
The original Coon Lake Beach Clubhouse was built in 1925, where the center now sits. It was the hub of activity for the community. The Minneapolis Star had just bought Coon Lake Beach from landowner Sen. Bob Swanson. The paper then turned around and offered a bonus of 20- by 100-foot lots with the purchase of a six-month subscription. A subscriber could buy no fewer than two lots and not more than 10 for $67.50 apiece, with $10 down and for $2.50 a month, according to a March, 1993 Forest Lake Times article. Buyers jumped at the chance. In the mid 1980s the old clubhouse was torn down to make way for the present building. The outside picnic shelter on the tree-lined lake and playground for kids have served the community well.
Up at the crack of dawn every other Sunday, Beachers, fire up the fixings for the bimonthly pancake breakfast by 5:30 a.m. About 125 people, tempted by pancakes, eggs, sausages, bacon and french toast, turn out for the popular get-together. But that’s only a smidgen of activities offered by the center, which has burgeoned to about 250 members. There’s coffee times, a monthly noon lunch, holiday parties, sign language classes, teen dances and an annual pig roast. In fact, the center’s annual Coon Lake Beach pig roast after 9-11 was so successful that it ran short of food. “I think they (locals) wanted to be with and meet people,” said Paavola Community President, who also serves on East Bethel City Council.
In addition to hosting holiday parties, during Thanksgiving and Christmas, members deliver food baskets to seniors who can’t get out. “I would just cry because these people were so thankful that they were remembered,” Paavola said. “We’re all going to be there one day.”
The center prides itself on participating in civic duties as well. Coon Lake Beach volunteers clean litter from Lexington Avenue to Lincoln Drive to Forest Road. Its Cans for Kids initiative, in which volunteers collect and recycle aluminum cans, has raised funds for children to attend summer events, like trips to Valley Fair.
Last fall, the center started a Coon Lake Beach neighborhood watch, which has resulted in an even closer-knit community. Marlene Collen had such good childhood memories of Coon Lake Beach – costume contests, dunking for apples at the Halloween party, fishing for prizes in the fishing-pond game – that she vowed to become active in the senior center when she retired. Months after her Dec. 31 retirement from an electronic distribution company in Minneapolis, Collen is keeping her promise. She spends hours working on events to keep the center going. I like meeting the people,” she said. “It’s reconnecting with the community again.” Over the years, the center has begun to show wear. It needs repairs. Recently, a new carpet was installed and the walls in the main hall received a fresh coat of paint. But soon it will need a new roof and siding. And the kitchen needs to be painted. “We’re chewing at it a little bit at a time,” Paavola said.
“The members feel like we’re one great
big family,” Paavola said. “Everybody who comes out here
.... They just love it.”
For more information call: (651) 982-4628.
