One of the things we like best about being a community lumberyard is showing up for the things our community cares about. That includes a lot of sports. Here’s a current rundown of what we sponsor — updated as the schedule changes.
Race Cars
Lakeside Lumber sponsors four different race cars across local and regional dirt-track racing. The most visible is the #10, sponsored alongside Bitzan/Ohren Masonry of Alexandria, Arnquist Flooring, Fastenal, and others.
If you see a car at the track running our logo, give a wave.
Prairie River Baseball — Cubs Uniforms
Lakeside sponsors the uniforms for the Prairie River Baseball Association’s Cubs team and contributes to the organization annually. PRBA is the kind of grass-roots youth sports organization that needs steady community support to keep operating year after year.
Free-Admission High School Games
Several times a year, Lakeside sponsors free-admission games at area high schools — most recently the September 30, 2024 volleyball matchup between the Brandon-Evansville Chargers and the Ashby Arrows. Game sponsorship covers admission for all fans, which means more people in the gym, more student-athlete energy, and more community support behind the kids on the floor.
Corporate Booster Sponsors
Lakeside Lumber is also an Ashby and Brandon-Evansville Corporate Booster Sponsor, providing ongoing support to both schools’ athletic programs throughout the year.
Why We Sponsor
Local sports are where families meet each other. They’re where kids learn how to win, how to lose, and how to keep showing up. They’re also a meaningful chunk of why a small town stays a community instead of just a collection of houses. Sponsoring a race car or a youth jersey or a game-day admission isn’t really marketing — it’s being a neighbor.
If you’re involved with a local sports organization that could use a sponsor, stop by the showroom or give us a call.
The Fergus Falls Youth Baseball Association needed somewhere to store equipment. Lakeside Lumber built them a shed and delivered it.
About the Shed
This was a custom build — a storage shed with a steep-pitch roof, double doors on the gable end for easy access, and a side entry door with a window for ventilation and light. Built at our Ashby yard, loaded onto a flatbed, and delivered to Fergus Falls.
Why Fergus Falls Youth Baseball
Youth sports leagues run on volunteer effort and a constant search for storage and infrastructure. A solid shed isn’t glamorous, but it’s the kind of thing that makes a league’s life dramatically easier — somewhere safe and dry to keep bases, bats, helmets, field equipment, and the thousand things that pile up over a season.
Fergus Falls is one of our biggest delivery markets. We work with contractors, homeowners, and lake cabin builders across the area every week — see our Fergus Falls community page for more. Supporting the youth baseball association is one way we stay invested in a community that’s been good to us.
If your local organization could use materials for a project, stop by the showroom or give us a call at 218-747-2215. The answer is often yes.
When Brandon-Evansville High School set out to remodel the concession stand at its athletic facility, Lakeside Lumber was proud to be one of the project’s major sponsors.
The Project
The concession stand project was a true community effort. The thank-you banner at the facility tells the whole story — dozens of local businesses, families, and organizations contributed at every level to make it happen. Lakeside Lumber was among the sponsors who donated materials, time, and labor to the project.
A good concession stand isn’t a small thing. It’s the heart of game-day for the parents, grandparents, and community members who fill the bleachers — and the revenue it generates often goes right back into the athletic programs that need it most.
Brandon-Evansville Connection
Brandon and Evansville sit just south of Ashby and represent a meaningful part of our service area. We deliver to homeowners, contractors, and projects across both communities regularly, and supporting ABE Chargers athletics is one of the ways we stay connected to the families we work with there.
If you’re building or remodeling in the Brandon, Evansville, Garfield, or Holmes City area, we’d love to be your lumberyard. Visit our Brandon & Evansville community page for more on how we serve the area, or stop in at the showroom in Ashby.
Go Chargers.
In October 2024, students from Ashby Public School’s Manufacturing Exploration class spent some afternoons at the baseball field replacing the sheet metal on the dugout roofs. Lakeside Lumber donated the materials. The students brought the labor, the safety supervision, and a lot of energy.
The Project
The dugouts at the Ashby baseball field had served their time — the sheet metal roofing was past its useful life. Replacing it gave the Manufacturing Exploration class a real-world project: lay out the panels, fasten them down properly, work safely on a roof, and finish to a quality the school could be proud of.
Huge shoutout to Scott Kamarath, who oversaw the project on-site. The students did the actual work — Lakeside just supplied what they needed to get it done.
Why We Do This
Programs like Ashby’s Manufacturing Exploration class aren’t just curriculum — they’re how the next generation of skilled workers learns the trades by actually doing them. Donating sheet metal is easy. Watching a group of high schoolers turn that pile of materials into a finished roof on a community field is the part that matters.
This kind of partnership is also what the Ashby FFA chapter recognized when they named Lakeside their Outstanding Business Supporter the following spring. The dugout project was one of several reasons the chapter cited.
Thanks to the Ashby Ag Department, Scott, and every student who showed up. The dugouts look great.
Project documented by the Ashby Ag & FFA chapter (November 7, 2024) and the Ashby Legacy Fund (October 10, 2024) on their respective Facebook pages.
In summer 2023, the Ashby Community & Senior Center got a long-overdue facelift — and Lakeside Lumber was glad to be part of the team that made it happen.
The Project
The before-and-after on this one speaks for itself. The original red-brick storefront with a small awning had served Ashby’s senior community for years, but the building was due for an exterior overhaul that matched its role as the community gathering space.
The renovation re-clad the front of the building, added a new gabled entry feature with decorative trusses, refreshed the porch and benches, and updated the signage to read “Ashby Community & Senior Center” — better reflecting its actual use today.
The Partners
Projects like this don’t happen without a lot of people pulling in the same direction. The renovation was a coalition effort:
- Ashby Legacy Fund — project lead and community fundraising
- Blandin Foundation — primary funding partner, supporting community projects across rural Minnesota
- Stan Balgaard Construction — general contractor
- Driggins Electric — electrical work
- Lakeside Lumber — building materials
Why It Matters
The Senior Center isn’t just a building — it’s where a lot of Ashby’s community life happens. Bringing it up to a standard that matches its importance is exactly the kind of project we want to be part of. We’re grateful to the Ashby Legacy Fund for organizing it, the Blandin Foundation for backing it, and to everyone in town who contributed time and resources.
If you haven’t been by since the renovation, it’s worth a look. The corner looks completely different.