Clockwise from left: With spoons poised and eyes fixated on their 32-ounce Dairy Queen Blizard, Sammy Sietsema, Luke Johnson, Dominick Wilson and Molly Sietsema get ready to compete in the blizzard eating contest.
In a food-eating contest it isn’t always the biggest appetite, but who has the quickest chopsticks.
Faux Chinese proverb
Or in the case of the inaugural Grand Marais Dairy Queen Blizzard Eating Contest, which team of four people had the four quickest red plastic spoons.
All told, there were 10 teams who trained diligently, fasted deliberately, and prayed deliciously to the ice cream gods for strength and endurance and expanded stomachs to see who could take home the vaunted crown of World’s Fastest 32-ounce Blizzard Eater.
In the end the fastest last lick belonged to Bethany Bautch of the Bautch team. The foursome of Stan Jr., daughters Bethany, Natalie and friend Lorin Bautch, won 20 $5 Dairy Queen gift certificates totaling $100 for their superhuman eating effort.
A distant second was the prestigious prodigious Pogatchniks: Sarah, Paula, Hunter and Kevin Pogatchniks somehow managed to out-eat the third-place team of Richie Furlong, Brandon Curtis, Frankie Miller and Justin Goldstein—four strapping young athletes who came with their game face on but lacked choreography. They often crisscrossed their spoons instead of making clean swooping scoops. If they work on their “spoonology” over the next few months they should be tough to beat next year.
With Head Judge Lynn Schulte urging them on, the Bautch team wolfed down the last couple of bites of their Cookie Dough Blizzard to win the ice cream eating contest and take home the team title of World’s Fastest 32-ounce Blizzard Eaters.
Second-place received 10 $5 DQ gift certificates and third-place team members were awarded a $5 DQ gift certificates for their efforts.
Judging the event were former and current owners of the Grand Marais Dairy Queen, Stuart and Sharon Jackson, Doug Anderson, Craig and Lynn Schulte and current owners Gloria and Rick Plaisted.
When asked if this event will be repeated at next year’s Fisherman’s Picnic current manager Rob Hackett said, “Absolutely. We were very pleased with the turnout. Spectators and participants all seemed to have a great time and that’s what it was all about. Fun for everyone.”
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