Lakes Area Parrot Heads celebrate 20 years, donate $14k to Marshmallow Animal Shelter

Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – Members of the Lakes Area Parrot Heads celebrated their 20-year anniversary on Saturday night at Zorbaz in Detroit Lakes and made a more than $14,000 donation to the Marshmallow Animal Shelter.

The donation will support the shelter’s operations funds and include the proceeds from the group’s MaCaws for Paws and Boats and Bars fundraising events over the summer.

Jim Brogren, member of the Lakes Area Parrot Heads, said 20 years is an important milestone for the group since some of the other Parrot Head clubs in the state have folded over the years.

“When we started it, there had been a club in Grand Forks and a club in Duluth and there was one in Minneapolis, but the Duluth one and the Grand Forks one both had folded,” said Brogren. “So we thought we’d try it and Fargo had tried to start one and they weren’t successful, so we joined forces with the Fargo people and 20 years later, here we are, partying with a purpose.”

He also said “partying with a purpose” is something their group believes in wholeheartedly and raising money for amazing community organizations is something that every social group should be doing because it makes the community better.

“That means we like to have fun, but we like to do good for our community,” he said. “We like to raise funds. And we’re a social club with a charity problem … because that’s what we’re always doing.”

The group’s next event will be held in November and will feature an 11-bar pub crawl to support the Patriot Assistance Dogs program. The event will also feature a 1,000 ticket raffle for prizes with the proceeds going to support the veteran-service animal organization.