Month: January 2025

The Crookston Pirate Boys’ and Girls’ hockey teams will hold their third annual Crookston Pirate Hockey Fights Cancer games on Friday, January 31, starting at 5:00 p.m. For the past few years, Crookston Pirate Hockey has been raising funds for community members fighting cancer with the help of the Minnesota Hockey Fight Cancer Organization.

Last year, the Pirate Hockey Fights Cancer games raised over $30,000 for Dani Sylvester, who continues to fight Breast Cancer. This year, Mickey Kaiser and Kari Trudeau are the honorees and recipients of ALL funds raised. Boys’ Hockey Coach Josh Hardy explains what Kaiser and Trudeau mean to the hockey community.

“This year, we are honoring Kari Trudeau, who used to be our Crookston Hot Stove Hockey President,” says Hardy. “She’s had kids in the system, Carter graduated last year, and Collin is a Bantam this year, and she has been fighting breast cancer.” Hardy says Trudeau had surgery last month and is starting chemo and radiation. “She has been a huge part of our program for the last couple of years and has helped organize and fundraise the past two years for us for this event,” says Hardy. “So, we are excited to give back to her.”

Different from the past two years, this year, they are honoring two community members. “The other is Mickey Kaiser, who has been a long-time staple of Crookston Pirate Hockey, whether it’s coaching the little kids all the way up to the older Bantams and had a couple of kids come up through the program,” says Hardy. “Brenda, his wife, ran the concession stand for about a zillion years here. Just a long-time Crookston Pirate guy that you associate with Pirate Hockey.” Hardy says that Kaiser is battling Prostate Cancer.

Crookston Pirate Hockey invites everyone to come out Friday night to watch some hockey and donate to an amazing cause.  “We have a 5:00 pm. game against Greenway for the Varsity Boys, and at 7:00 p.m., the girls play Fort Francis.”Coach Hardy says there will also be a JV Boys game against Greenway at 7:00 p.m.  The little ones will be on the ice to show their skills as well. “In between periods of the girl’s game, the mini-mites are going to be playing; I think my little five-year-old is going to be out there cruising around.”

Besides watching hockey, Hardy says other things will happen at the arena Friday night. “We will be doing “Chuck-a-Puck, 50/50; people can just donate however they want,” says Hardy.  I think we are already up to almost $4,500 at this point just with people sending in donations through our website.” There will also be raffle tickets sold for a handmade quilt made out of old Pirate Hockey Jerseys and bracelets for sale that say “ Pirate Hockey Fights Cancer.”

If you can’t make it to the Crookston Sports Center on Friday night, you can still donate to Pirate Hockey Fights Cancer and support Kari Trudeau and Mickey Kaiser in their cancer battles.

To donate, you can scan below –

Or, click on the link below to be directed to the donation site.

https://charity.pledgeit.org/mnhockeyfightscancer/teams/@crookston-high-school

The post Pirate Hockey Fights Cancer to Honor Kari Trudeau and Mickey Kaiser Friday Night first appeared on KROX.

Polk County Sheriff James Tadman gave a Citizen Partnership Award to Joe and Jamie Kresl of Mentor, MN, last week for assisting the Polk County Sheriff’s Office back in August of 2024 with an Internet Crimes Against Children Operation. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office worked alongside many other agencies throughout Polk County and the Minnesota BCA. Sheriff Tadman explained the Polk County Sheriff’s Office is part of the Minnesota BCA’s ICAC (Interstate Crimes Against Children) Initiative.

“They came in and assisted us with an operation that we had been doing investigations for many hours prior to that,” Says Sheriff Tadman. “This was kind of the final where everybody got together and concluded what they came up with, suspects in different states, also including Canada. It resulted in 53 suspects that were investigated throughout the nation and including Canada that were soliciting children for sex or child pornography.”

Sheriff Tadman says that five local men were arrested for solicitation, possession of child pornography, and sexual assault, with two suspects being referred for federal prosecution.  The write-up for the Citizen Partnership Award for the Kresls was done by Investigation Sergeant Nathan Rash, who was the lead on bringing the Operation into Polk County. The overall feeling is that Citizen Partnerships are an extremely important connection in the law enforcement community. “Without people like Joe and Jamie, we need those people to do our job because they are the eyes and ears of our residents,” says Sheriff Tadman. “I was just really overwhelmed to see them step up for us and just say, whatever you need. It was very nice to see that.”

For the Kresl’s, it was a no-brainer.  They were never out for recognition or a pat on the back.  They were asked to help, and that is what they did. “A good friend of mine, who is on the Police Force, he is a detective, asked if we could help them on something they had going on to do with children,” explained Joe. “I talked to Jamie, and we said, absolutely. Children are very important; we have to protect them as much as we can.”  Joe and Jamie are parents themselves and understand what it’s like to want to protect and keep their children safe. “They have to go through enough stuff in their life, having somebody that tries to gain their trust, and they don’t know any better, so if you can save one, I’d do it again.”

The Kresl’s said that helping in any way they could just felt like the right thing to do. “Citizens helping in things like this is very big to get some of these people off the street,” says Joe. “We did this because we knew it was right; we were not expecting anything at all, so it was quite an honor to receive this award.”

The post Joe and Jamie Kresl of Mentor receive Citizen Partnership Award from Polk County Sheriff’s Office first appeared on KROX.

The Crookston American Legion Auxiliary Unit 20 will again sponsor two girls to attend the 78th Annual Minnesota Girls State Session at Bethel University, Arden Hills, from June 15-21, 2025. Girls who are currently high school juniors are eligible to be a candidate to attend. All Fees are paid.

If you are interested or want more information, please contact the Crookston High School Guidance office or the Crookston American Legion Girls State Chairperson Margee Keller at 218-349-4566 or email her at margeekeller@hotmail.com. The deadline to apply is March 10, 2025.

The post Crookston American Legion Auxiliary to sponsor two girls for Girls State first appeared on KROX.