The 2025-26 Litchfield Watercade Royalty has one more week to reign before crowning a new group to represent the community. The 70th annual Litchfield Watercade celebration will conclude on Sunday with the coronation at 3 p.m. in the Bernie Aaker Auditorium.
2025-26 Miss Litchfield Brooke Caron is sponsored by the Lehr Agency and has been attending the College of St. Benedict where she is majoring in strategic communication. She says she and princesses Raigan Miller and Katelyn Guggemos have attended numerous parades and coronations in other communities throughout the past year, have attended some special sporting events in the Twin Cities and hosted a daddy/daughter fundraising event. Caron says one of the favorite activities was being in the Anoka Halloween parade where each of them dressed up on the Litchfield Watercade float as a different character from “The Wizard of Oz.” She says her advice to this year’s Miss Litchfield candidates is to just take it all in.
Caron says she will be attending the Minneapolis Aquatennial later this month and competing in the Queen of the Lakes pageant. The reigning Queen of the Lakes – 2024-25 Miss Litchfield Addie Lundin – will present a special invitation to Brooke Caron during the Watercade coronation on Sunday afternoon.
Princess Raigan Miller is sponsored by Miller Automotive and she will be continuing her military training later this summer. Princess Katelyn Guggemos is sponsored by Towmaster and she will be attending Northwestern University in St. Paul to major in elementary education. Guggemos says her advice to this year’s candidates is to be genuine.
Junior princess Brooks Nelson is sponsored by 201 Building Supply. She will be going into the 5th grade. Brooks says her advice to the junior royalty candidates is to smile and have fun. She says it was very shocking for her when she was crowned last year.
Nelson says she will definitely run for Miss Litchfield in a few years. Junior princess Hazel Menken, who is sponsored by Litchfield Licensing, says she would consider running for Miss Litchfield someday, if she is still living in Litchfield. The 5th grader says when it was announced that she was a junior princess last summer, she felt confused as to what was happening.
Menken says the junior royalty candidates have to keep in mind that not everyone is going to win. The junior coronation will be on Sunday at 12:30 in the Bernie Aaker Auditorium. For more Watercade information, go to watercade.com.
A blood drive will be held at Ecumen of Litchfield on Tuesday, July 7th, from 10-to-4. To make appointments, call 1-800-RED-CROSS or go to RedCrossBlood.org.
Ecumen Life Enrichment Specialist Mandy Stocker says you can make a splash and save a life by donating blood. She says there were still some time slots available as of late last week.
Stocker says a single unit of blood can save a life. She says you should be drinking lots of water if you are going to be giving blood, and bring a friend with you.
With America’s 250th birthday being observed this year, a special event is scheduled in Litchfield’s Central Park on Wednesday at 5 p.m. The event coincides with a nationwide reading of the Declaration of Independence, and it will be followed by a potluck supper.
G.A.R. Hall and Meeker County Museum Executive Director Danelle Erickson says people should bring their lawn chairs and a dish to pass to Central Park this Wednesday at 5 p.m. She says July 8th was chosen because that was the date in 1776 that the Declaration of Independence was read to the public for the first time.
Erickson says if the weather does not cooperate, Wednesday evening’s event will move from Central Park to the Litchfield Opera House. She says the next day, July 9th, she will be speaking during the Civil War Roundtable meeting at the Litchfield Opera House at 1:30 p.m. about the “boredom of war” – what soldiers did while they were between battles.
The G.A.R. Hall and Meeker County Museum is open Tuesday through Friday from 10-to-4 and Saturdays from noon-to-4, but Erickson says the museum is open until 6 p.m. on Thursdays this summer and they will open earlier this Saturday – around 10 a.m. – to coincide with the Watercade activities going on in Central Park. The museum is at 308 North Marshall Avenue and you can find more information on social media and at meekercomuseum.org.
On July 3rd at 5:28 a.m., the Meeker County Sheriff’s Office took a report of a one-vehicle crash near the intersection of County-State-Aid-Highway 32 and 248th Street in Acton Township. The driver of the vehicle, 50-year-old Amber Ray of Litchfield, reported that she hit a deer, lost control of her vehicle and went into the ditch.
Ray also reported she was losing consciousness. When the Deputy arrived, they found Ray unconscious in the vehicle and forced their way into the vehicle. Ray was transported to Meeker Memorial Hospital by Atwater Ambulance, with non-life threatening injuries. Grove City Rescue and Litchfield Police Department also assisted on scene.