TRACY – The smell of pork chops grilling could be picked up from three blocks away Saturday as the 12th annual Tracy Sportsmen’s Show kicked off. Bruce Schelhaas, owner of Tracy Food Pride, has been grilling hundreds of pork chops outside the show since its inception.

“We come out here every year and do the pork chops on a stick,” Schelhaas said. “Kind of famous for it. We’ll probably go through 250 today and another 150 tomorrow.”

When asked how he gets it all done, Schelhaas said he has a lot of help from his family.

“My sons-in-law help, my nieces help,”?he said. “My kids are all inside right now helping and a couple of my grandkids are also helping. We make it a family affair, and everybody has fun.”

Inside, Kim Roggatz, Tracy Chamber of Commerce director, was making sure that everything was running smoothly.

“This is the 12th show, and the 8th year for the car show,” Roggatz said. “We sponsor the show and we have a wonderful subcommittee that helps plan the event.”

“This year, we are having the Raptor Center come,” Roggatz added. “They were here two years ago, so we were happy to have them back this year.”

A bald eagle, a great horned owl, and an American kestrel were the three feathered guests that the Raptor Center brought to the show. The Center travels throughout the Midwest to educate people about the birds and to give kids a chance to see the raptors up close. Community members were invited to a presentation about the animals and later, the birds were on display for people to observe. The bald eagle drew a lot of attention as he hopped between perches and even took a dip in a small pool set up for him.

“He’s 18 years old,” Joanne Peterson of the Raptor Center said. “Out in the wild they can live to be around 24 years old and in captivity, they can live up to be 50.”

Beyond the birds, rows of booths occupied by local organizations filled the Veterans’ Memorial Center. Local firearms safety instructors hosted a digital trap shoot that allowed people of all ages to try their hand at shooting various targets projected on a large screen.

“Kids can come in and choose from five different areas and different targets to see how well they can do,” said Tom Palmer, firearms safety instructor from New Ulm, who was on hand to answer questions and sign up students for safety classes.

“We’re trying to recruit some more kids for classes later on this summer,” Palmer said. Signups and registration for ATV and snowmobile training classes were also offered at the booth.

Many vendors were also selling their wares at the show. Across the aisle, two students from Westbrook Walnut Grove High School were promoting their locally-made Prairie Smoke BBQ Sauce.

“It’s part of a class called applied economics where we learn how to run a business,” said WWG student Lane Anderson. “It’s all student run, and we’ve been doing this for 18 years.” Their BBQ sauce is sold at shows and distributed to almost two dozen grocery stores in southwest Minnesota.

When asked how turnout was so far for this year’s show, Roggatz said, “Very steady. We usually over the weekend see a thousand people come through. It’s another great show again this year.”