Continued from page 3 Schell s Border Batch Beginnings-Part 4
It contained an old check register, $13 and some change, a roster of names and some patches and
buttons. I guess I was the new President of the Schell s Border Batch with $13 to run the club. Well
somehow I recruited my Algona buddies into the club arranged a show with Schell s and conducted
our first show that next spring. After this first attempt at a show we decided to add a show in Iowa.
The first two were in Clear Lake. The first one in a
small open shelter on a cold rainy day. The
shelter was small and when we arrived I looked at
my cousin Dale Heidershceidt and said it might
just be us sitting here drinking beer . People
came. Big time support from chapter members
and the North Star chapter. We had lots of fun
that day. The next year we booked a better
shelter at the state park and had an auction.
Again a rainy day but great attendance with lots
of Hawkeye Chapter people making the journey.
Then we moved the show to Algona and
continued the auction. This lasted for a couple of
years. Then we decided to have the fall show in
New Ulm. Smiley s was the venue. It was a fun
show and Vance Donner started the tradition of visiting the graves of August Schell and John
Hauenstein. We would drink a toast to great German brewers of New Ulm. By the late 90 s I had
convinced Jay Martin to become Vice President as the guys in Algona all dropped out and lost
interest. Jay started writing a column and
eventually helped convince me to attend a
CANvention. We were really starting to
build up the club. In the early 2000 s
Vance Donner joined the club as did
Stubie and a number of other New Ulm
people. In 2005 Stubie hosted a party at
Reims Camp with a hayride that became
Reims Camp 2005 Stubiefest in 2006. This event replaced
the Smiley s show and is still going on
today. In 2009 the club celebrated our 30th Anniversary and Steve Miner donated a scene-o-rama to
be raffled off. This put the club in the best financial standing ever and allowed us to start doing more
with our website, newsletter and other things. Thanks to Lori Johnson our next big fundraiser was a
very cool Schell s Border Batch cookbook. This year the club celebrated our 35th anniversary. We
started the celebration off by commissioning a painting of the brewery that we presented to Ted and
Jodi Marti. We had a 35th anniversary commemorative deck of cards made. I am happy to say the
chapter is alive and well after being on brink of extinction over 20 years ago. I look forward to many
more years with all the wonderful friends I have made along they way. What a journey it has been as
we help preserve brewing history. I hope someday when all of us are gone that another generation
will step up and take over. Prosit! Tom Terwilliger #28855
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