Teams from across region join Cornhole Festival

Troy Graves, a mountain of a bearded man from southern Idaho, summed it up perfectly.

“It’s fun and it’s for a good cause,” he said while practicing before the opening rounds of the 2023 Cornhole Festival tournament Saturday on a scenic chunk of land alongside the Clark Fork River between Plains and Thompson Falls.

The day and night long event attracted 14, two-person teams of corn-hole enthusiasts, formerly known as the bean bag toss, to the waterfront property halfway between Sanders’ County’s two largest towns. Several friends and family members also came to watch the proceedings.

The event, which featured overnight RV parking spots for fans and participants, along with a live music event to wrap up Saturday’s competition, is a major funding source for the Project Ascent charitable organization which provides a variety of resources to help the area’s children learn and grow through summer camps.

“This event is important to us because it typically helps raise one-third of the donated funds we take in each year,” said Project Ascent spokesperson Adrian Chirstensen. “These funds go to a very good cause.”

That sentiment was echoed by several of the tournament participants, who traveled from Washington, Idaho and throughout Northwest Montana to take part in a tournament centered around a player’s ability to toss a bean bag into a hole on a sloped boared, with points awarded for getting the bag through the hole on the board or being closest to the target.

“We get people from all over the region,” said one of the tournament organizers,

Rob Christensen. “We have people here from Kalispell, Spokane and all over this area competing in this tourney.”

Christensen said each team, which paid a $50 entry fee to take part in the event, was guaranteed eight games during the round-robin format. A six game round robin determined who would compete for the championship at the end of the day. Games on scored on a bullseye and closest bag system, with the winner of each game being the team to reach 21 points first.

“It’s a good competition, with folks trying to advance to the finals,” Christensen said. “The winners can take home some pretty good prizes.”

Concessions and sales of food and cornhole gear added to the donations and funds generated by this event, he added.

Following the competition, attendees were treated to a dance on the property.

“This is a really good event for us,” said Adrian Chrisensen, a spokesperson for Project Ascent. “The people who come out and take part in this, either by participating or being a fan, provide Project Ascent with valuable funding to continue the work we try to do for local children via our nature and outdoors camps.”

The public service organization says it strives to use its team of highly qualified outdoors-men in hopes of establishing an awareness among young residents to “be active and healthy in the outdoors.”

Such education, they say, can lead participants to improved self-esteem, leadership and team-work.

All corn hole participants agreed the tourney and the cause it serves create a must-be-there environment.

“This is my first tournament,” said bean tosser Aleesha Graves, who along with husband Troy came to the event from southern Idaho. “its fun and we meet some really good people at these events”.

For throwers like Thompson Falls area residents Michael Beckman and teammate Cody Mosher, the fun side was a deciding factor for them.

“No, we really don’t,” said Beckman with a laugh when asked if he and Mosher had been practicing before the event. “This is my third year here and it’s a good, fun thing to attend.”

“And”, said Mosher, “it is for a really good cause.”