Hinton honored

The Waseca Archery Club held a Celebration of Life for George Hinton, raising support and funds for the Hinton family at the club’s location on the county fairgrounds Sunday, March 6. George Hinton, 49, was hospitalized on Christmas Eve, 2022 and quickly transferred to Rochester. He was discharged on New Year's Day, having been diagnosed with a rare, aggressive cancer which affects only about 1,000 children and even fewer adults each year; it had already spread throughout his body. He was given a terminal diagnosis on January 6; he contacted his friend  and fellow archery club member Rick Rugroden to tell him. Within a day, George's wife Rachel recalled, Rugroden was putting together the event for the weekend before George's 50th birthday. It was originally planned as a birthday party, but Hinton's cancer was aggressive and he died January 27, 2023. Rachel says she told Rugroden the celebration wasn't necessary upon George's passing, to which she remembers him adamantly responding that it very much was. “It's all very appreciated,” said Rachel, looking around at a room full of people who remembered George.

Rachel and George Hinton raised four children together, Austin, Cody, Kimberly, and Kenny Hinton. The older two were Rachel's before she met George, but she says he was just as much a father to them as for his biological children. An “avid archer,” George was a member of the Waseca Archery Club, Minnesota State Archery Association, the Minnesota Archers Association, and the National Field Archery Association. George also loved to barbecue. “We have three pull-behind smokers in our backyard,” Rachel elaborated. “If you smelled smoke in the summer it was probably coming from our house.” George catered his smoked and barbecued meats through Spanky's Double B BBQ, and was famous for his pulled pork at archery events.

The Celebration of Life consisted of a Vegas 450 shoot, open to all ages, a bow raffle, and a silent auction. Rugroden organized it together with his wife, Sharon Becker. Becker knew George through archery, and Rachel through her daycare which she said all the grandchildren attended. HyVee, where George's mother worked for many years, donated a cake which was served with lemonade and bars. The bow for the raffle, a 2023 Bowtech Reckoning Gen 2 39, was donated by Dennis Weber, Lyle Eidon, and Oak Ridge Archery. Tanya Slack was the winner. “I asked a couple of people about silent auction items, I thought it would be good if we got about ten things,” Rugroden said about the silent auction. Donations poured in without being requested, even the day of the event; in the end, over 30 items were available on the silent auction.

“We didn't really advertise much,” Rugroden said about the event with over 100 attendees. It was announced on Facebook, and at local archery events. Rugroden says there was an archery competition not far from Waseca the day before their event and he knew several archers found hotel rooms that night to attend rather than go home. More than 35 people participated in the shoot, and a similarly sized group took numbers for the silent auction. “It's a huge turnout – just like we expected from the archery community. We rally when we need to.” Rachel also identified several of her daycare families among the crowd. Rugroden added that the attendance numbers showed how known and loved George was. “Some of these people hadn't seen George in years,” he said, and yet they came to support the Hintons and share memories with all those who knew him.