October Meat Raffles in Emily, Outing & Fifty Lakes: Events & Impact

From 2002 through 2024, the charitable gaming run by the Outing Area Chamber of Commerce produced $1,945,374.10 in donations to the area, plus another $1,480,410.50 in taxes and licenses. That adds up to $3,425,784.60. The money came from meat raffles, bingo, video racing and pull tabs at two bars on Highway 6.

A few miles west, Fifty Lakes skips the nonprofit model. The city owns its own bar. Between the two systems, a Tuesday-night raffle ticket in this corner of lake country does more civic work than most people realize, and October 2026 packs more of these events into four weeks than any other month on the calendar.

The weekly circuit, by night

The Outing Area Chamber runs raffles at Log Cabin Bar, 40012 State Hwy 6 in Emily, and at the Pickled Loon Saloon, 44025 State Hwy 6 in Emily. The City of Fifty Lakes runs its own at 50 Lakes Bar & Bottle Shop, which it promotes with the line "Meet Me at the Muni." Here is the full week as both organizations post it this fall:

• Monday: Meat raffle and horse races at the Muni. Tickets go on sale at 4 p.m. and the drawing is at 5:30 p.m.
• Tuesday: Meat raffle at the Pickled Loon from 4 p.m., with the draw and bingo starting at 5 p.m. At the Muni it's Taco Tuesday, two tacos for $6, with trivia at 6 p.m.
• Wednesday: Meat raffle at Log Cabin Bar from 4 p.m., with the draw and bingo at 5 p.m. At the Muni it's Wing & Whiskey Wednesday, $1 wings and $1 off whiskey, followed by Texas Hold'em at 6 p.m.
• Thursday: Two raffles on the same night. One is at the Pickled Loon, on the same 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. schedule as Tuesday. The other is the Muni's second raffle and horse races of the week, with the drawing at 5:30 p.m.
• Saturday: Log Cabin Bar starts at 5 p.m. and draws at 6 p.m. Saturday is meat raffle and races only, with no bingo.

The Chamber's own flyer adds that paper pull tabs and e-tabs are available any time the bars are open. The Fifty Lakes newsletter makes a point of crediting its raffle workers:

"One of the things that makes our Meat Raffles & Horse Races so special is that they are completely run by volunteers!"

What the Chamber's ledger shows

The Chamber publishes a donation list broken out by recipient, with one column for 2002 through 2022 and separate columns for 2023 and 2024. The table below shows the lines that land closest to daily life here:

Three things in the table stand out.

The biggest single line, by a wide margin, is community events. More than $600,000 over 23 years has gone back into the gatherings that fill the area's calendar. The raffles pay for the fun as well as the fire trucks.

The money moves around from year to year. The Outing Fire Department got nothing from the Chamber in 2023 and $23,000 in 2024. Trail funding went the other way, dropping from $32,324 in 2023 to $12,000 in 2024. The Emily Fire Department's $22,000 total all comes from the 2002–2022 period. In 2023 and 2024, the Emily money in this table went to Emily First Responders.

Taxes take a large share. In 2024, the Chamber's gaming paid $243,645.02 in taxes and licenses and gave away $170,984.72. In 2023 the split was similar: $246,356.16 in taxes and licenses against $166,574.20 in donations. For each of the last two reported years, more raffle-night money went to taxes and licenses than to local causes.

Fifty Lakes keeps it inside City Hall

The Fifty Lakes model works differently because the bar sits in the same building as city government. In January 2026, the Pine and Lakes Echo Journal reported that solar panels had been finished on the south-facing roof of the Fifty Lakes City Hall/Bar and Bottle Shop. The project cost $142,570. Three sources covered nearly all of it:

1. A $49,500 Minnesota Solar on Public Buildings grant
2. A $49,000 Minnesota Pollution Control Agency grant
3. A $42,771 IRS Direct Pay tax credit

That left $1,299, split between the city and the municipal bar. The city's July–September 2026 newsletter puts year-to-date solar savings at $1,167.27. By the time that newsletter came out, the panels had almost paid back the local share in their first partial year. City Clerk Ann Raph told the paper the project had been in the works for about four years.

The same newsletter carries news from Mayor Gary Staples. The city has finalized its purchase of five acres at the former golf course, across from the Fifty Lakes Fire Hall, and has no specific plans for the land yet. The city is also working toward acquiring the former Sportsman's Club property. Because no organization runs that property now, the city is looking at ways to preserve it as a community asset. Fifty Lakes now owns its own bar and is adding land and buildings for future gatherings.

October, date by date

This is the month when both systems get busy at once. The weekly circuit keeps running, and special events stack on top of it.

October 10: Fifty Fest at 50 Lakes Bar & Bottle Shop. The Muni hosts vendors, live music and hay-wagon rides, and runs a meat raffle and races during the event. A Minnesota Parent listing gives the address as 40430 County Road 3 and the hours as 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The city's newsletter says festivities start at 11 a.m. and vendors stay until 4 p.m. The city's own posting is the safer guide for the afternoon, but anyone counting on the later vendors should confirm with the bar's Facebook page, which the newsletter names as the place for updates.

October 17: "The biggest meat raffle in world" at Log Cabin Bar. The Chamber lists it among its yearly events, right after the Lions Corn Feed held at the Pickled Loon in August. The Chamber's posting doesn't name a beneficiary for this specific night. Its gaming as a whole supports the recipients in the table above.

October 21: Meet the Candidate Night. The city's homepage lists it for Wednesday, October 21, at 6 p.m. at the Fifty Lakes Community Center. The general election follows on Tuesday, November 3, with polls open at Fifty Lakes City Hall, 40447 Town Hall Road, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters there will cast ballots in the same building that houses the Muni.

October 28: Last line-dancing Wednesday. Emily City Hall's calendar runs its line-dancing sessions from September 2 through October 28.

October 31: Two events on one day. The Emily Fire Department holds its Halloween Trunk or Treat. The Christmas Shopping Extravaganza & Craft Show runs the same day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Over the Hills Gang's trails page lists the Emily–Outing and Emily Blind Lake trails as open from May 15 to October 31. That page was posted in 2025 and still shows 2025 maps, so riders planning a late-October ride should check this year's season dates and map with the club. Those trails sit in the same funding picture: the Chamber has given $217,503.57 to ATV and snowmobile trails since 2002.

After the raffles, the Lions take November

Once October's events wrap up, the area's other big fundraising group takes over. The Lions Club meets at the Pickled Loon Saloon. Its business meeting is the third Monday of the month at 6:30 p.m., and its general meeting is the fourth Monday. The club's Chamber directory entry lists a Christmas tree lot in November and December as one of its major fundraisers. The same entry lists a Christmas Kids Gift Program in November, fall ditch cleaning, and unloading the Emily Food Shelf truck on the second Tuesday of each month. That directory entry dates to 2020, so check the lot's dates and location closer to Thanksgiving.

In Fifty Lakes, the road crew will spend the same weeks grading roads for winter and clearing brush left by this summer's storms. Questions about that work go to City Hall at 218-763-3113.

The Log Cabin Bar, the Pickled Loon and the Muni are what keep this calendar running. These are the kinds of lake-country hospitality businesses Mike Kennedy Group works with every season, whether an owner is planning a transition or a buyer wants to carry on a well-loved local spot. If you'd like to talk about a bar, resort or restaurant in the Emily, Outing or Fifty Lakes area, we're glad to sit down and talk it through. Start Your Lake Search with us.