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It takes a village to put together Straight River Days
Straight River Days, from the parade to the street dance, is the one weekend a year where the streets of Medford truly come alive. Everyone in the small community participates, including Mayor Lois Nelson. (People’s Press le photo)
By ANNIE GRANLUND agranlund@owatonna.com
MEDFORD — A person may be surprised to learn that one of the best events of the year takes place in a town of less than 1,300 residents, but those in Steele County know it all too well.
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The Medford Fire Department 5K run/walk takes place on the Saturday morning of Straight River Days, always drawing a large crowd of both runners and walkers. Funds raised through the registration are used to give back to the community and to purchase new gear and equipment. (People’s Press le photo)
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town, always celebrated in June to help kick off the summer.
The event was rst celebrated in 1971, and due to its abundant resource was almost called “Gravel Days.” The rst Straight River Days event served as the celebration of the opening of the new wastewater treatment facility and included a parade, a carnival, canoe derby, street dance, and the Miss Medford Beauty Pageant.
Historically, the local civic club and women’s group spearheaded Straight River Days. Over the years the landscape of this celebrated weekend changed due to several factors, including club membership decline, decrease in sponsorships, and the added complexity of successful implementation of such an event. Eventually it nally dwindled down to feature only the parade. Come the weekend of the event, the streets of Medford ll and over ow with residents and visitors. The entire three days is packed with events from bean bag tournaments, medallion hunts, garage sales, live music, car shows, bingo, volleyball, and more. Straight River Days is always kicked off by the parade and is concluded with the Muni Street Dance.
Well-oiled machine
Though thousands of people, including visitors from surrounding communities, take part and enjoy Straight River Days, few are aware of the practically year-round effort it takes to make the weekend a success. On a cold winter night in February, members of the Civic Club gathered in the corner of the Medford Muni, running an assembly line of stuf ng envelopes to seek out donations, sponsorships, and parade entries.
In 2015, a small group exhibiting nostalgia for the “good ol’ days” decided to take action and joined the existing Civic Club to see how they could help regain the glory of Medford Straight River Days. With some trial and error, along with some extraordinary support from the community, Straight River Days now spans over the weekend and consists of more than 20 events appealing to all ages. The Civic Club has grown from just a handful of people to 20-plus full-time members and even more part-time supporters. “It is always on our minds,” said Erin Sammon, the president of the Civic Club. “We are constantly trying to think of where we go next, how we can change it and what we can do new.”
Pat Merritt, a former Medford mayor and Medford Civic Club member, rides on a kiddy tractor during a Mayor Challenge in the 1990s. The event is no longer part of Straight River Days in Medford - for now. (People’s Press le photo)
“It’s a well-oiled machine at this point,” she added.
“It’s not really stressful at all anymore,” laughed Tonya Miller, the club’s vice president.
The Civic Club currently has 21 members that put together all the events, including the Easter egg hunt, a chili feed, and a special Santa event over the winter holidays, but it is all hands on deck when it comes to Straight River Days. Sammon stated that most of the members don’t actually live in Medford, but have ties back to the community. Because they try to keep their events free — or as free as possible — the Civic Club depends entirely on donations. According to club members, though, that hasn’t been much of a problem as the community of Medford is in full support of the events they host. “Getting people to sign up for events is probably the most stressful part,” Sammon stated. “We put in a lot of time, so it makes it kind of a personal bummer when there isn’t any participation.” “I don’t think people realize the amount of time that is spent volunteering, soliciting donations, picking up prizes,” she continued. “Another hindrance is that we don’t have an inside location for large events, so if it’s storming, it’s cancelled. It’s just hard when you spend months of life on this and it doesn’t happen.”
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Because Straight River Days is the big weekend that everyone in Medford looks forward to each year, Sammon said that they try to shake things up and try new things. Sometimes those things op — like the year they tried a kickball tournament or the time they tried to do pool olympics — but other times they have found great success, such as the Medallion Hunt.
“It was meant to be this explore Medford, scavenger and sel e hunt,” Sammon explained. “It was very successful. We could do more things like that if we had more help. We are spread pretty thin.”
The Miss Medford Pageant also appears to be a success in the community, but Miller states that it can be hard to pull off a pageant in a small town because the ages tend to be a bit uneven. Some years they are only able to feature a couple of the age groups, such as Little Miss or Tiny Miss, depending on the participation, but the pageant itself always draws a crowd.
The Miss Medford Pageant is going on it’s seventh consecutive year in 2020 - though technically it will be the eighth pageant. The rst Miss Medford Pageant took place in 1972, where Marie Gallagher was crowned. In 2014 the pageant was brought back, crowning Jessi Deering as Miss Medford and Bailey DuChene as Junior Miss Medford.
“Six years ago the only thing that happened was the parade,” Sammon said. “So we started small on deciding what to do and what to bring back. We started the car show, brought back the bean bag tournament and volleyball, and brought back Miss Medford.”
One of the most exciting new elements for the Civic Club this year — though most people will never notice or think twice about it — is that the 2020 Straight River Days will be the rst big event the club can write off as a tax expense. In September 2019, the club of cially became a 501(3)c non-pro t organization, a process that has taken them more than six years to achieve. The Miss Medford Pageant took a 42-year hiatus after crowning Marie Gallagher in 1972, but the current organizers of Straight River Days resurrected the event in 2014. Since then, it has been up and down in terms of participation numbers, but the 2019 pageant was able to crown a winner in every category. (People’s Press le photo)
River Days a success, Sammon said that they rely heavily on volunteers. She joked that as most of the club members are women, they usually can reel in a couple husbands for some “literal man power.”
“Honestly, the closer we get the more we need volunteers and know what we need volunteers for,” said club member Andrea Jones.
Though it takes hours, days, weeks, months, and basically the entire year to plan this one quick weekend in Medford, Sammon and the rest of the Civic Club enveloping-stuf ng crew all agreed that they wouldn’t have it any other way, simply because they believe in the purpose of Straight River Days.
Royalty from the Miss Medford contest wave to the crowd during the 2019 Straight River Days Parade in Medford. The parade is the longest standing tradition for the town’s annual celebration, being the only event that took place for a number of years. “A lot of places won’t donate to you unless you are a non-pro t,” Sammon explained. “This makes a huge impact when it comes to getting candy from Walmart or getting a professional sports team to donate to an auction.” Community involvement While the members of the Civic Club do a lot of the grunt work year-round to make Straight “I have a 5-year-old daughter,” Sammon said. “I want her to have the same summer experiences I had in the ‘80s and ‘90s in Medford.” “I didn’t want to see it just be done,” Miller added. Not all the Civic Club members grew up in Medford, however. When Grace Bartlett, a member of the Medford City Council, moved to town with her husband a few years back,
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The Duck Pluck is one of the now-longstanding traditions of Straight River Days. In it’s height, 500 rubber duckies were dumped into the Straight River and people could “pluck a duck” for $5 a piece. Prizes were written on the bottom of the ducks, ranging anywhere from $20 to $300. The Duck Pluck now takes place in the Medford Pool due to a variety of reasons, including safety. (People’s Press le photo)
she joined the group as a way to connect to others in her new environment.
“It was a way to meet people at rst,” Bartlett admits. “Now it continues to be a way for me to participate in community involvement.”
Royalty from the Miss Medford contest wave to the crowd during the 2019 Straight River Days Parade Jones echoed Bartlett on the community involvement piece, stating that she wanted to set a positive example for her children. “I want to give back to my community and have both my daughters see volunteering as a good thing,” she explained. “And they can see that you can have fun doing it.”
The 49th annual Straight River Days in Medford is scheduled for June 17-20, 2020. ©2019 CliftonLarsonAllen LLP | 05-0311
