Winter in Minot really can be fabulous! Over the past few months the Northern Sentry has had phenomenal success with their first-ever “Wintery Photo Contest”. The contest encouraged the Minot AFB community to share their beautiful, funny, fascinating and down-right freezing pictures with the Northern Sentry for a chance to win a family pack to Bottineau Winter Park. Although it was a slightly unusual winter for the area, we were still blown away with the amount of photos and quality of those submitted.

After the contest closed on Feb 28, there were a total of 70 photos submitted! The photos that came in showed everything from kids playing in the snow, sundogs and glamorous snow-covered landscapes. The Grand Prize, the coveted Family 5 Pack to Bottineau Winter Park including lift tickets and equipment rentals, was chosen at random and awarded to Emily Marsh!

Emily was, as you can imagine, very excited to win. She said her favorite part of Minot in the winter is “…it brings an opportunity for connection and adventure for me and my family. Winter forces us to find ways to connect indoors, find ways to explore outdoors, and we’ve made some really beautiful memories sledding, playing hockey, sipping hot cocoa and snuggling up for a movie, and even shoveling.” She continued to explain Minot saying, “the people have surprised me. I grew up in Minnesota, so I know that it’s ‘different’ up this way but I haven’t been home in some time. We came to Minot from MacDill, so it was a big adjustment. But, I am always pleasantly surprised at how people watch out for one another here, how the kids go all winter without talking or playing much and then spring comes and they’re all best buddies, and how the pace of life is just a little bit slower here.”

In addition to the grand prize winner, the Northern Sentry staff chose our favorite photo to appear on the front cover of the paper. We chose the adorable smiling face of Samantha Oki Ni taken on base in early December 2023, across the street from BX parking lot. Her Dad, Ming, was one of the first photos submitted and we couldn’t stop smiling when we looked at this photo. Ming said, “My favorite part [of winter] is the sunny day after a winter storm, which makes the place like a wonderland. This picture was taken after receiving heavy snowfalls.”

Because of our major success and fantastic photos, we have also chosen one of the photos submitted to appear on the 2024/2025 cover of the Northern Sentry Winter Guide (coming out in December) but which one that is will have to remain a mystery for now. Make sure and take a look at our Wintery Photo Facebook Album to see all the amazing photos for yourself!

A huge thank-you to everyone in the community who took time to submit their photos! We LOVE sharing your Minot AFB Adventure! Keep an eye out for more photo contests from the Northern Sentry soon!