10/14/2026
Baudette Community Foundation PRESS RELEASE:
New decorations will “Deck the Downtown” for the holiday/winter seasons
About the time that the Baudette Community Foundation took on and resurrected the Frost Fest event, which is held each November to kick off the holiday season and was originally coordinated by the Chamber of Commerce, the City of Baudette was forced to discard the lighted garlands that adorned the light poles along Main Avenue during the holiday season in downtown Baudette as they had become rotted and unusable.
“With the ever-growing and successful Frost Fest parade, I was really starting to notice that something was missing,” said Mike Hovde, Baudette Community Foundation President. “People come up to me after the parade each year and say they feel like they are in a version of a Hallmark Christmas movie. That got me thinking we need the street decorations back to give Main Avenue an even more festive feeling for the parade and throughout the season.”
Hovde contacted the City of Baudette to see if there were plans to purchase new decorations anytime soon but was told there was no budget for that. That led Hovde to speak to the Foundation Board and proposed that the Foundation take on a fundraising effort to find sponsors for each of the twenty-five 13-foot, double lamp poles along four blocks of Main Avenue from Sacred Heart Church, north to Dodds Lumber. The Board approved the idea and then presented it to the City Council, which gave its blessing to the Foundation to move forward.
In June of this year, the “Deck the Downtown” fundraiser was launched with those contacted given the opportunity to sponsor one to four poles. Within just two weeks, a total of $18,750 was raised and each of the twenty-five poles were spoken for.
“It (the fundraising effort) launched and was wrapped up so fast, but it didn’t surprise me because, from experience, I know that our area businesses, organizations and residents really step up when there is a need,” Hovde said.
In early July, the Foundation ordered the new decorations. Each pole will be wrapped with lighted artificial evergreen garland and a lighted 2-1/2 foot lighted snowflake will hang from street side of the pole. The decorations have arrived and were given to the City of Baudette, as was the original agreement. The City Maintenance Department will take responsibility to store the new decorations and getting them hung each year. They will all be hung in time for Frost Fest which is Saturday, November 21 this year, and plans are to keep the decorations up into the early winter months, much like the City already does with the snowflake decorations along Highway 11 giving the town some much needed light during the long, dark winter days and nights.
Deck the Downtown sponsors, and the number of poles sponsored by each are:
ANI Pharmaceuticals and Hugo’s Family Marketplace (4 each)
Border Bank, The Grand Theater and LakeWood Regional Healthcare Foundation (2 each)
Sean Advent (In Memory of LaRae Devault), Air Systems, American Legion Club, American Legion Post 217, Ballard’s Resort, CHI LakeWood Health, City of Baudette, Fitness on Main, Hometown Hardware, Lake of the Woods Industrial Development Corporation, and Lake of the Woods Women of Today (1 each).
“On behalf of the Foundation, I extend a huge thank you to all the sponsors whose generosity made this project possible, Hovde said.
He added, “A special thank you is also extended to Greg Johnson and his crew with the City of Baudette Maintenance Department. Be sure to say thank you when you see them out hanging the decorations!”
