On behalf of the Iowa Great Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, we would like to thank you so much for making our 46th Annual University of Okoboji Winter Games another success for our business community.
Events of this scale are not possible without an army of volunteers and the continual support from our entire community. It truly takes a village to make something like this happen and we would like to take a second to thank some key leaders for this year’s event.
Thank you to our sponsors for making so much of this possible. Our Presenting Sponsor WestO Beer. A huge shout out to our Platinum Level Sponsors City of Arnolds Park, Smart Powersports of Okoboji, Atlantic Bottling Co./Monster, WalMart Spirit Lake, and BLINK Marketing. Gold level sponsors include Hy-Vee, Pure Fishing, Rosenboom, and Dr. McGillicuddy’s, and our Silver sponsors include Alliant Energy, Invenergy, Boji Powersports, and Black Hills Energy.
Thank you to our individual event sponsors Okoboji Motor Company for the Polar Plunge, Tony Thelen with The River Coaching and Consulting for the Food Truck Festival, Bank Midwest for the Burning of the Greens, Consumers Lumber for the Fireworks, Snappers Turtle Bay Cafe for the Bean Bag Toss Tournament, The Ritz for Snowball Softball, Ingvall Real Estate Team for the Chocolate Classic, Hinn Real Estate for the Chili Cook-off, Kozy Heat for the 5K Fun Run, West O Beer for the Stump Tournament, Fareway for Cribbage, MHR Insurance for the Broomball Tournament, and Parks Marina for Flag Football. We also would like to thank Emerald Hills and Mullets Okoboji for sponsoring our new event this year, the Hard Water Open, and O’Ferrall Sisters and No Streaking for Human Foosball.
We would also like to thank Regional Transit Authority for providing transportation for our cheerleaders and media, ShoreStation for providing a trailer stage for Burning of the Greens and Diamond Concrete for providing the storage containers for the collection of trees.
We appreciate the leadership of this year’s Chair Mickey Harrington, Co-chair Jordan Butler, and our 9 wonderful Winter Games Cheerleaders. A huge thank you to Rocky Thompson Photography for providing us with amazing footage of the games all weekend long. Thank you to our hundreds of volunteers, event chairs, Arnolds Park Amusement Park’s hard-working staff, KUOO, the Dickinson County News, the Lakes News Shopper, MC22, and all other news outlets for their non-stop coverage.
Thank you to County and City governments for working with us, the courageous Law enforcement of the Lakes Region, the Iowa DNR, Arnolds Park/Okoboji Fire & Rescue for keeping us safe, and all of the Chamber businesses that hosted events that lead to a memorable weekend for our tens of thousands of visitors. Each and every business and their hardworking staff deserves a round of applause for welcoming individuals from near and far and making this weekend happen each and every year. It takes a very special community to unite & support an event that brings joy to our locals and visitors alike with an economic boost for our Chamber Members. Thank you to each and every one of you.
Blain Andera — CEO/President
Morgan Strauss — Director of Marketing and Events
Michaela Arneson – Marketing and Communications Coordinator
Iowa Great Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce
