- Come on.

(upbeat music) (water splashing) (upbeat music) - Prairie Pothole Days has been going on for 42 years.

This is our 42nd annual event.

Just people getting out in the outdoors.

- [Bret] Prairie Pothole Day dates back to the early 1980s, when a group of five avid outdoorsmen from the Willmar area were looking to start an outdoor educational event that would serve as a fundraiser for waterfowl.

- Prairie Pothole Day was started by Roger Strand, Jim Boyer, Dave Lais, Phil Iverslie, and John Lindstrom.

They had started with another waterfowl organization, and they were raising money for waterfowl.

And they had learned that most of the proceeds that they were raising were leaving the state of Minnesota.

And they wanted to do projects that would stay local, stay in Kandiyohi County, and improve the waterfowl habitat for Kandiyohi County and the local surrounding counties.

(light music) So we don't charge an admission.

It's completely free to come.

So, from our concessions, our raffles, our silent auction, and our donations is where we raise all of our funds.

- [Bret] For decades, the event took place on the property of one of the event's founding members, Willmar area physician, Dr.

Roger Strand.

- Roger was instrumental.

He was the driving force.

When you think of a man opening up his 600-acre farm.

And he invited 4,000 of his near and dearest guests to come out and then spend the day on his property.

I don't think you'll ever find another person that would do that again.

And then not charge an admission.

And it was all about the youth and education to get people to learn about the outdoors.

- [Bret] For Dr.

Strand, his personal connection to the outdoors began early in life.

- We spent all our summers, from the time I was not quite one year old, on Green Lake, on the north shore of Green Lake.

My dad was born in New London and my mother in Willmar, so they're Kandiyohi County folks.

But we went to school in Minneapolis.

And my dad made his living there in business.

But as soon as school was out, we'd get in the car.

We'd spend less than a day there.

My folks thought we might, maybe they thought we might get into trouble in the big city, but really what they wanted us to do is grow up in the outdoors.

And both my mother and dad were really interested in the outdoors and loved Northern Kandiyohi County.

- [Bret] In addition to hosting Prairie Pothole Day, Dr.

Strand visited schools to share his knowledge of waterfowl.

It was during one of these visits where he made an impression on Troy Heck, a student at the time.

- He was teaching about wood duck boxes.

And I said, "Well, there's no wood ducks left."

And he's the one that said, "Well, if there's no wood ducks left, you need to start putting up wood duck boxes and raise wood ducks, because they're a homing bird."

And I wanted to shoot more ducks.

I didn't wanna raise ducks, I wanted to shoot ducks.

But I learned if I didn't raise the ducks, I didn't shoot the ducks.

So the more I learned from Roger on ducks, the more I hung out with him.

The student from hanging out with Roger became the teacher.

I actually go to the schools and teach now.

I like to do it because I'm teaching the next generation.

- [Bret] Over the decades, Prairie Pothole Day introduced thousands to the outdoors and conservation and helped restore habitat for waterfowl.

But after thriving for years, the organization faced trying times.

(gentle music) - A couple years ago, Prairie Pothole Day was almost to the point where it wasn't gonna exist anymore.

Unfortunately, Roger passed.

You know, as we all get older, Roger passed.

And we didn't know what was gonna happen to the property.

We were already in motion to have our 40th anniversary.

So they allowed us to have that one.

So then we were scrambling to find a new piece of property.

And Prairie Woods Environmental Learning Center stepped up.

Another great resource in the area.

And then our president, Tom Hanson, unexpectedly passes away.

And we had a lot of committee members that were just in their 70s and late 80s or early 80s.

And we were struggling to find the next generation.

And we put out a radio ad that said, "If you wanna see Prairie Pothole continue on, come to this meeting."

- [Bret] By chance, Lee Wierschem, a longtime conservationist and friend of Roger Strand had his radio on.

- 'Cause I heard it on the radio, that they were gonna maybe be folding.

And I didn't realize that they were getting that close to not having another event.

It was important to me not to see that go away, you know, because it's so good for the community.

And so that's what got me going.

So my wife okayed it.

Then there was one more bigger one.

I just retired two years ago.

And my grandchildren, they knew I was gonna start attending all their games and stuff.

They were both active in sports.

And so when I had to ask them, "Do you mind if I do it?"

And they said, "Okay.

For one more year."

And so I got the okay.

And that's what got me going into this position.

(light music) My main objectives were to have a successful event, keep the program going, find new board members, and put some more gas in the old ones, and find a new president.

And this Charlie Koch that we got now is just a gung ho guy, and he's all for it.

His family's for it.

- Charlie Koch here at Prairie Pothole Day.

We are gonna be at our event here today, taking a look at everything we got going on.

I appreciate everybody coming out and having a great time with us here.

So let's start by walking through and taking a look at what we got.

(upbeat music) Great volunteers helping us out here today.

And we just can't thank them enough for coming out.

(upbeat music) We have kids' archery here.

So any kid, you don't gotta be experienced.

Long as you can pull the bow back, maybe even a little help from a parent or a guardian, you can jump in and give her a shot.

(upbeat music) Okay, well, over here, we have our own little barn, where we have silent auction items set up in.

A lot of these are just Prairie Pothole specialty items.

(upbeat music) So many things here that I just love and enjoy.

And one thing that you're not gonna see a lot of people out here doing is kids on devices.

You're not gonna see cell phones out and about or iPads.

The kids are out here having fun.

They're eating food.

They're climbing the rock walls.

They're playing the games.

You name it.

- [Lee] We have ax throwing, BB gun shoot for the kids.

- [Visitor 1] Perfect.

- We have a 3D archery for the older people to go around out in the woods and hit 3D targets.

That's always an exciting one.

Just a lot of fun and games out there for the kids.

We have a new one this year.

It's the trout pond, where the kids can go in there and catch rainbow trout.

It's catch and release.

I think that's gonna be a big hit this year.

- We're out here at Prairie Pothole Days, putting on a trout pond.

We put on many of these throughout the year.

And we're just happy to be here putting rods in kids' hands and helping them to catch fish.

- [Bret] While the trout pond is a new addition, another event has been a Prairie Pothole Day fixture for years.

It's one that's very close to Lee Wierschem's heart.

- I was a dog trainer for 30 years, and so I always liked the dog events.

We have a dog jump out there, where they see how far they can leap off the dock when they throw a retrieving dummy.

(water splashing) (people cheering) - [Dog Owner] Good boy!

(ears flapping) - [Visitor 2] It's nice of him.

- [Visitor 3] It is.

It is kinda (indistinct).

- [Bret] While many Prairie Pothole Day events have remained constant, Troy Heck has noticed a change in the events attendees over the years.

- I remember being a small child at the very first Prairie Pothole Day.

I was running around, spending my dad's money.

And the reason I say my dad's money, it was father and two sons getting ready for duck hunting season.

Now, I see a lot of moms, I see a lot of girls, I see a lot of families.

I think it's huge that it's that way, because some of the parents are not hunters or not fishermen.

My daughter has a good friend.

She comes from a non-hunting family, doesn't own guns, but she'll come here, grab a pheasant hunting gun and go pheasant hunting with my daughter.

And her parents are okay with it, but they just don't hunt, they don't fish.

So to me, that's the key and the cool part of Prairie Pothole Day is it's getting the people outdoors.

- Myself, I'm an avid sportsman.

And so just being out in the wild has just been fun for me all my life.

And knowing what we're contributing, leaving a legacy on for our children, that's what's important for me.

(light music)