Mud will fly at Cereal’s first ever Mud Bog
By Joan Janzen
Mud will be flying at Cereal, Alberta’s 2022 mud bog on Saturday, August 6th, at the Cereal sports grounds. It’s a new event for the folks at Cereal, and it all began when Tim Kolkman from Oyen approached the community about hosting a mud bog.
“This is new to Cereal,” Tim said. “There hasn’t been a mud bog since the 1990s in Acadia Valley. I’ve been trying to get one in the area for quite a while, so I thought I’d give the Cereal & District Athletic Association a try, and they welcomed the idea with open arms.” Proceeds from the event will go towards supporting the association.
Tompkins Earthworks and CAA, along with 21 additional local businesses, stepped in as sponsors. The Cereal Athletic Association is providing volunteers for the concession, family dance and beer gardens, all of which helped enable Tim’s idea to become a full-blown event. It’s an amazing undertaking for a village with a population of one hundred souls.
There are seven classes of races, including stock, super stock, pro stock, modified, super modified, open, and X class. Anything goes in the X class, with no limits on horsepower, suspension or tire size. “Basically, whatever you dream up, is what you bring,” Tim explained. “I’ve been talking to some of the guys I race with, and it sounds like I have 30 trucks coming so far.” Those trucks are coming from Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, a few from Saskatchewan, and one from Peace River.
Not only is Tim organizing the event, but he and his wife, Christie, and son Chase Flaht have been participating in the races for the past six years. “We’ve raced in mud bogs at Provost, Medicine Hat, Taber, Coaldale and Hilda,” he said.
Tim and his family ensure plenty of fun for the kids, including face painting and a sand dig with toys and toonies. Best of all, the kids get to race through the mud - on foot!
“We’ll let kids come into the mud pits, and we’ll hold a hundred dollar bill at the end of the mud pit; the first one through gets it,” Tim explained. “Then we take them over to the fire hose, rinse them off, and send them back to their parents.” Sounds like fun, right?
There will be 50-50 tickets sold from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., but Tim is also hoping to have enough volunteers to sell additional 50-50 tickets for a dollar a piece. The prize will be a chauffeured ride through the mud in one of the trucks. “I know four guys who will take people for rides in their trucks, and I have enough people to run the event,” Tim said.
The Cereal Athletic Association hopes that both their serviced and unserviced camping spots will be filled with spectators for the mud bog. But there’s also free overflow parking available if needed. “I’ve had people from Edmonton inquiring about camping and wanting to come and watch,” Tim said. “We’re hoping to draw a big crowd. If you put on a good event, you’ll get people from everywhere the next year.”
It looks like it will be the first of many mud bogs to come. So come on out, and remember to bring cash for this cash-only event.
Tim Kolkman (organizer of the Cereal Mud Bog), and his wife Christie Kolkman and son Chase Flaht, from Oyen. Submitted Photo.
