BLSC concerned after essential equipment breaks during their largest annual fundraiser

One of Bigfork’s oldest nonprofits persevered through a potentially disastrous fair week, where they make the majority of the money they give away to the community. The hot, summer heat caused the Bigfork Ladies Service Club’s soft serve machine to finally break down after 20 years.

During the week of the Northwest Montana State Fair the club makes huckleberry milkshakes that sell like hotcakes. Club President Arlene Wilson said it’s up for debate if they are actually milkshakes or not— it’s technically soft serve ice cream. As she sits at a table with her fellow members at her home in Ferndale, they laugh and cut up about the milkshakes and fair week that takes up so much of their time and energy as a club.

“We put in over 808 man hours— just in the booth. That’s starting at 8:30 in the morning with the four ladies that come in and chop onions and blend huckleberries and get stuff ready. Then there's the morning shift, the afternoon shift and the evening shift, and then we start all over again,” BLSC Fair Coordinator Jessica Jochen said.

The Bigfork Ladies Service Club has been aiding organizations and projects around Bigfork and the Flathead Valley for 61 years. The club was created as a response to women not being allowed to join the Lion’s Club in the 60s. They help fund Bigfork school’s unfunded sports teams, the Bigfork Food Bank, and many other organizations. They also offer their manpower when needed, adding that when an event or project in town needs an extra hand, they are among the first group called to help.

Ann Tucker, who has been part of the club for around 20 years, said before they took over the fair booth, they would make around $600 a year. Now, they make thousands. In the last five years the club has given away $90,000.

Club members say people are drawn to their booth for their milkshakes, but they also serve other fair foods like nachos and corndogs. They aim to be an all inclusive stop for families needing to fill hungry bellies at the fair. But all of that, including the money raised from this year’s fair, could be in jeopardy after their soft serve machine called it quits on one of the hottest days of the summer during their most important week.

“Well, it was basically on hospice the past several years. We had repair bills every year and had to baby it because it would freeze up,” Wilson said. “There there had been a lot of

prayers and tears and singing and wishing. We've been concerned, and a year ago, we did start funding for capital improvements because we knew this time was coming,”

Commercial soft serve machines are not cheap, though, said Club Treasurer Debbie Petek. After their loaner machine stopped working too, they got creative and came up with a new recipe to utilize the huckleberries they purchased in advance at $70 a gallon. Member Kim Rose asked if they could make a sort of huckleberry lemonade with Mountain Dew and the berry puree. With some notes from young fair goers, they decided to add something else.

“One of our members who can't have dairy suggested we use some dairy product and make it a cream soda with the ice cream mix … so they blended it and they perfected the blend and we were selling huckleberry cream sodas and it was flying off the shelf,” Wilson said.

After a tough fair week, they went ahead with the purchase of a new machine for next year, which cost $30,000. It comes with bells and whistles that ensures it will turn out huckleberry milkshakes for years to come, but the decision was not made lightly.

“It was down to, ‘do we spend the money that we made this year and buy a new machine and not have any to give away or do we continue to do what we do and ask for the help from the public?” Jochen said.

The club is aiming to raise $50,000 to help replace other necessary equipment for their fair fundraiser, such as their fryers, which are from the 1950s. Club members said even though fair week takes up so much of their time and energy, they enjoy it and look forward to it every year.

“It reminds me of my kids doing 4H where all year long you stress about the fair coming up. It’s fair, fair, fair, fair, fair— and then when you're in it, it's chaotic as heck you're worn out but as soon as it's over, it's like ‘oh, that was so much fun!’ I can't wait for next year … it's so fun, it doesn't matter what fails. We always try to make the best of it like with the huckleberry cream sodas and just power through,” Jochen said.

The BLSC is hoping to continue to sell reasonably priced food and drinks in their famous red booth at the Northwest Montana State Fair for years to come so they can continue giving back to Bigfork. Anyone interested in learning more about the BLSC, can reach out to Arlene Wilson at 406-836-0424. Donations can be sent to BLSC P.O. Box 176, Bigfork, MT.