The Lengby Improvement Club Brings the Community Together

The L.I.C. members come together to help put on the 2nd Make It to the Lake.

The Lengby Improvement Club (L.I.C) started in 1915 with the purpose of maintaining Spring Lake Park and the memories that have been made. Starting with only two members, the group has now grown to almost forty people representing a town of only ninety-one people.

Every day someone from the L.I.C. goes to clean and rake the beach at Spring Lake (Lengby Lake). They also clean up garbage, mow, water the plants, and open the historical changing building.

The L.I.C. President, Jake Radtke, is helping to fix the docks down at Spring Lake.

The L.I.C. President, Jake Radtke, joined “To get the city of Lengby to improve more stuff around town.” Other than beach maintenance, the L.I.C. has been able to make improvements with help from different organizations. Some of the changes made in the past year were the installation of new grills (Fosston/Lengby KnightRiders Snowmobile Club), new buoys (Fosston’s Sportsman’s Club), and a basketball hoop (Thrivent Action Dollars). With collaboration from the city of Lengby, a new curb was also poured around the beach area and additional sand added.

While the L.I.C. has made many changes to the park and lake, they also provide exciting events for all ages. A new event that was introduced last summer was Make It to the Lake. This event was hosted at Spring Lake by the FCLAA on behalf of the L.I.C. It consisted of family-friendly arts and crafts, a free will supper, many outdoor games, and swimming at the lake. The concession stand, which hasn’t been used in years, was painted, cleaned and updated to code so it could be opened to sell nostalgic snacks. The L.I.C also sold “I love Lengby Lake” t-shirts, as a fundraiser for the club

Make It to the Lake this summer was similar to last year, but the L.I.C. received additional support from the Fosston-Lengby Lions (dinner) and Thrivent Actions dollars (arts and crafts). Augusta Maurska, who was in charge of the event this year, said, “We had a tremendous turnout for our event. There were at least 200 people who came together to enjoy a beautiful night at the lake. These activities are such a fun, family-friendly opportunity to bring our community together and to showcase our historic Spring Lake Recreation Park.”

Another new event sponsored by the Fosston-Lengby Lions was the 2024 Easter Egg Hunt which some L.I.C. members helped volunteer at. The Easter Egg Hunt was introduced to Lengby by Kayla Heller so that “Families in the area could have more options on the events to attend.” Kayla remembers hearing all the different events down at Spring Lake and wanted to start a family-friendly Easter event that people could talk about for years. The event had an amazing turnout with over 150 kids and adults in attendance.

The last event is the Memorial Day Picnic. This event has been around for years and is a huge fundraiser for the L.I.C. It typically includes the Presentation of Colors, the Memorial Day program, and finally a L.I.C. picnic. Even though the weather this year was cold and rainy, 270 meals were served. The money raised goes into the L.I.C. account, and members vote on how the money gets spent.

The community events and improvements the Lengby Improvement Club has done in the past 100 years have brought the community closer. People from surrounding areas come to these events to reminisce about past memories made at Spring Lake. Traci Ohren, a past Lengby Improvement President and Treasurer, said, “Sometimes there's down and outs, but we all come together. That wonderful sense of coming together that makes me feel good to be part of it.”