2026-10-12 · Near the city fishing pier, north side of the VFW, White Bear Lake
One Pontoon, Four Trips a Day — White Bear Lake's Free Boat Crew Just Had a Record Summer
Bear Boating, an all-volunteer White Bear Lake nonprofit, runs free two-hour fishing and sightseeing pontoon trips for seniors, veterans, active-duty military and people with disabilities. With one boat and no paid staff, the crew says 2026 was its biggest season yet: 233 trips, 2,006 passengers, and more than 2,300 fish caught and released.
Every Minnesota family has a pontoon story. Usually it’s about the year the motor quit by the sandbar and Uncle Somebody paddled you home with a cribbage board. Bear Boating’s story is different. Its motor keeps going, and that’s mostly because a lot of people keep showing up.
The deal
Bear Boating is a White Bear Lake nonprofit. It takes seniors 60 and up, veterans, active-duty military and people with disabilities out on the lake for two hours, either to fish or just to look around. It’s free. Not “free with a timeshare talk.” Actually free. Donations cover it, per the White Bear Press.
They’ve been doing it since 2015, on weekdays from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The pontoon holds up to 10 guests plus three crew, and wheelchairs are routine. It leaves from near the city fishing pier, north side of the VFW. That’s a very Minnesota address. It sounds like directions your grandpa gives.
There are no paid staff. The Press counted 135 volunteers. Captains, mates, and the folks on land who wrangle the calendar, which might be the hardest job of all.
The numbers, which are frankly showing off
Bear Boating posted its end-of-season tally after Labor Day. One boat, four trips a weekday, and here’s what they did:
- 233 two-hour trips
- 2,006 passengers
- More than 2,300 fish released on 58 fishing trips. The group says it has the pictures to prove it, which is more proof than I’ve ever brought home.
Guests came from 83 care facilities and 38 community groups. The White Bear Lake Senior Center set up 33 trips. Since 2015, the crew says it has carried over 15,000 riders, none of whom paid a dime.
And they did it in a rough summer. President Dave Ryan told the Press that rain, wind, heat and bad air wiped out about 30 trips. The crew answered by pulling August maintenance up into July, which freed a whole day for four more trips. Ryan said every seat on the schedule was booked.
The gas cans
This is my favorite part, and nobody’s going to make a movie about it.
The group says the boat went through 600 gallons of gas in 15 weeks, about $3,000 worth. A three-person fuel team added 40 gallons a week by hand. With 5-gallon cans. On the dock.
Look, I once had to fill a snowblower in a Fleet Farm parking lot in a cross breeze and I’m still not over it. These folks do eight cans a week so somebody’s grandma can see a loon. The motor is five years old and logged 418 hours this summer alone. Still running.
Who got on board
The Press listed a few highlights. There were free rides during the Classic & Vintage Boat Show at Manitou Days, and outings with Special Olympics. Two outings carried wounded Ukrainian soldiers, plus women and kids, through the Protez Foundation, a nonprofit that gives free prosthetics to people who lost limbs in the war.
The crew’s own weekly notes read like a lake diary. In mid-August they counted 14 to 18 loons around the lake and bald eagles hanging out on dock and boat-lift covers, eating fish. The crew started saying “see you next summer” with two weeks still left in the season.
The part that isn’t a joke
Here’s the thing. White Bear Lake isn’t far from a lot of people, but it can be far from someone who can’t climb into a boat by themselves anymore. A walker doesn’t fit on a dock ladder. A care facility doesn’t keep a pontoon out back. This crew closes that gap two hours at a time, and they do it for free.
The boat is out of the water now. It was winterized and shrink-wrapped within a day of being pulled, a few days after Labor Day. The volunteers had their year-end lunch. After the season, a new local giving group, the Power of 100 Women of White Bear Lake, picked Bear Boating for its first event, and the group says the gift came to $11,700.
So the pontoon is parked for winter, and the gas cans are drying out. Next summer, somebody who hasn’t been on a lake in years will get a two-hour ride on one. The crew says see you in 2027.