PRINT ADS

Shelly LaPlount and her two children, 4-year-old Brooke and 8-year-old Charlie, found the 2008 Kornfest Medallion last week and plan to spend their winnings at the Kornfest this weekend. They found the medallion on Wednesday after the third of eight clues was posted.

“We saw in the paper we had to go to businesses,” Shelly said. “So I told the kids, ‘we’ll pretend we’re detectives and go as a team.’” They started at the Holmen Meat Locker on Monday, on Tuesday the went to the Blue Cup. Shelly said they thought they had a pretty good idea where it was until Wednesday’s clue came out.

“We thought we had all the ideas but then on Wednesday we had to go to Hardware Hanks with the tall grass clue,” Shelly said. “We started looking for tall grass. We headed north in the car towards Seven Bridges Bank and I just happened to see the Holmen sign in my rear-view mirror.”

After turning around, they pulled off the side of the road at the Holmen sign, in the southbound lane of Highway 35. But the detective team lost a partner. “Brooke wouldn’t get out of the car because of the tall grass and the grasshoppers flying around,” Shelly laughed. “Charlie had a good time chasing grasshoppers while he looked.”

Shelly said she look high like the clue said. Then she looked low. “It was in a plastic baggie attached to the board at the bottom of the sign with a push pin into the wood. We were on the side of the road, I found it. We were jumping up and down screaming. If anyone drove by, they probably wondered if those people were crazy. My son told my husband, ‘you would not believe how excited mom was.’”

For their efforts, the LaPlounts received $100 from the Lioness Club and two tickets to the car show at Kornfest. “I had told the kids if we win, we could use the money for the rides and to have fun at the Kornfest. They were excited when they learned they could win $100.”

Shelly said they had never participated in the medallion hunt before. They’ve lived in the area for eight years and had always wanted to do Oktoberfest, but didn’t feel they knew La Crosse well enough. “Then when I saw in the Courier we could do a hunt in Holmen, we felt more comfortable searching in Holmen,” Shelly said. “We had so much fun, we might try the Oktoberfest one next year.”