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Rick Kamm Tourism Person of the Year

B&L Bar owner Rick Kamm is the 2025 Tourism Person of the Year. The New Ulm Area Chamber made the official announcement at a surprised presentation Thursday. Kamm is really the perfect choice to receive the award. As owner of the B&L Bar, Kamm is frequently in contact with visitors to New Ulm and is constantly working to promote the community to out of towners. In addition, B&L often takes the lead during city festivals. B&L is usually at the center of community celebration. He is also the man responsible for bringing Spikin’ in the Street to New Ulm. It was an ambitious idea that has paid off. Kamm also helped work out the logistics of placing the upside down Christmas tree at Hermann Heights Park. He has gone above and beyond in finding new ways to show off New Ulm. He absolutely deserves this award.

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Morgan Mathiowetz takes St. Mary’s

second all-time

point score

After crunching the numbers, The Journal Sports Department discovered Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s girls basketball player Morgan Mathiowetz has surpassed the second place all-time career points scored for her team. She achieved this honor on Jan. 17, passing the former second-place record of 1,835. What makes it even more interesting? Mathiowetz is a sophomore. She could make a run at the scoring record before graduating. The scoring record for St. Mary’s is 3,656 points, and it is held by Madison Mathiowetz, Morgan’s older sister.

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Ice fishing tourney on Lake Hanska moves forward

Lake Hanska will be able to host the annual Hanska Fire Department Ice Fishing Contest Saturday. With the unusual warm weather this winter, it was not clear if that would be possible. In a normal year, this would be the start of the ice fishing contest. Hanska goes first, followed by Sleepy Eye next weekend and New Ulm the weekend after that. In 2024 the only site that could hold a traditional ice fishing contest was Lake Hanska. A cold snap occurred just in time to allow people to safely ice fish on Lake Hanska. However, temperatures rose immediately after were forcing Sleepy Eye and New Ulm to hold events on land. It does look like history is repeating itself in 2025. There is plenty of ice on Lake Hanska for Saturday’s tournament. This is great for the Hanska Fire Department for whom this is their biggest fundraiser.