Cool kids: The 2025 Okoboji Winter Games Cheerleaders bundle up to spread some joy despite the frigid temps.
Writer: Hailey Evans
Photos: Rocky Thompson, SplitRock Photography
Okoboji has long been known as one of Iowa’s most popular summer vacation spots, but there’s a lot to love about winters in the lakeside destination, too. The locals knew this when they organized a small broomball tournament on the frozen lake back in 1981. What began as a way to celebrate winter activities and cure cabin fever snowballed into a fun-fueled annual weekend event that today draws more than 40,000 visitors to the region each January. We’re talking, of course, about the University of Okoboji Winter Games.
The Iowa Great Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce plans and manages all aspects of the Winter Games. This includes the sports and activities schedule, plus the live music and entertainment that keep spirits high when temps drop low. The Winter Games Cheerleaders are especially good at that — so good, in fact, they inspired a documentary in 2025.
The cheerleaders started back in 1988 as a way to recognize individuals who were heavily involved with the Iowa Great Lakes through volunteering or otherwise making their community better.
Each year, eight community members are awarded the official title of cheerleader, tasked with bringing the hype to the games. They receive the honor through public nominations and votes.
“There are certain qualifications that go into this, such as you have to be a resident of Dickinson County, have a sincere desire to give your time, talent and energy to enhance the quality of life in the Iowa Great Lakes, and also have a unique enthusiasm for everything the University of Okoboji Campus has to offer,” explained Morgan Strauss, director of marketing and events for the Iowa Great Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce.
During the 45th annual Winter Games, the team behind a local podcast called “The Okoboji Project” set out to capture the stories and spirit of the cheerleaders in a documentary. The resulting film, released in April 2025, gives viewers an up-close look at three of that year’s eight honorees and the passion they pour into the Iowa Great Lakes region.
ACTION INSPIRED BY PASSION
Documentary producer Ryan Marris and director Dawson Ahrenstorff were drawn to the story of people investing so much into their community.
“It’s self-evident that Okoboji is a fun place. You don’t have to convince anybody of that. But peel some of that away, and there’s a super deep-rooted community aspect of people who support each other, who are willing to sacrifice their time or resources for others,” Marris said. “So it was really about letting people see that part of the reason why everyone loves this place so much, and why it’s so fun, is because it’s supported by such a tightly knit population.”
The film focused on Dickinson County residents Bree Blom, Joe Salmon and Nathan Kraft.
Blom is a self-proclaimed Okoboji super-fan who’s attended every Winter Games for the last 25 years. “When people ask, ‘What’s your favorite holiday?’ I say Winter Games,” she said in the documentary.
Salmon loves the outdoors and takes advantage of the region’s great ice fishing opportunities. In 2023, a 17-year-old Salmon rescued an elderly man and his dog from a car that had crashed and was sinking into a frozen lake. Just nine months later, Salmon suffered a gunshot wound to the head after a hunting accident. The community rallied to his support, raising money to help cover his medical and rehabilitation costs.
Kraft is the founder of Krafty’s Meat Market, located at the southern edge of West Okoboji. During Spencer’s devastating flood in 2024, Kraft leveraged his own inventory and connections to provide free hot meals to locals while they recovered.
Kyle Zankowski, a fellow 2025 cheerleader, said in the documentary that he noticed “the folks that were nominated this year are the folks who are constantly involved in volunteer opportunities or just champing at the bit to go help somebody. You really see that in Krafty’s story.”
Marris compared the cheerleader title to a community thank-you note. “The community is saying, ‘Thank you for supporting us year round. Now we want to honor you.’”
HOMETOWN HYPE
The Okoboji Project began in a similar fashion. Marris and co-founder Emma Myhre started the Okoboji Project in 2024 as a podcast to cover everything about the area’s rich history, culture and local lore. There’s even an episode that covers everything from the lake’s glacial origins 15,000 years ago all the way up to its current water quality.
The podcast garnered listeners from all 50 states within its first five months, “which was crazy because we had no marketing budget,” Marris said. “It was all just word of mouth.” As the podcast gained traction, they brought in Ahrenstorff to expand stories with more visual content. When they talked with ia, they were working on another documentary about Okoboji’s spectacular Fourth of July fireworks show.
Marris and Ahrenstorff both grew up in the area, childhood friends who were drawn back to the area after college. Both are now 26.
“Okoboji is a magnet,” Ahrenstorff said. “It has a gravity and a uniqueness to it. We have a lot of good memories on the water.”
“As a young person who has benefited from growing up here and enjoying it my whole life,” Marris added, “one of the main goals [of the Okoboji Project] is to just capture those stories from people who helped make Okoboji what it is.”
COMMUNITY BUILDERS
Ahrenstorff recalled the meeting at a local diner where they were brainstorming documentary subjects. The Winter Games were the obvious choice, as its popularity gave them a wide audience and “thousands of things we could go deeper into,” he said.
The annual Cheerleader Alumni Dinner particularly inspired them. It takes place a week before the games and gives the cheerleaders a chance to “gather, talk about ‘the good ol’ days’ and exchange advice for the upcoming cheerleaders,” Strauss said. “Personally, it is one of my favorite parts of the Winter Games, to have so many outstanding people and role models all in the same room, all from our community, is amazing.”
Ahrenstorff and Marris attended the dinner, and from there, followed the new cheerleaders throughout the Winter Games. As they got to know each one, they identified the storylines that could best illustrate just how much the cheerleaders mean to the community. The whole production took about two months as they dived deeper into the cheerleaders’ lives after the Games.
Marris said the community’s overall response to the documentary was one of gratitude. He said it felt especially humbling to hear praise from the cheerleaders themselves, because of their own accomplishments and dedication to Okoboji and Dickinson County.
“That was our goal all along, to showcase a story of community and how Winter Games brings people together,” Ahrenstorff said. “I think that definitely comes through.”
At their core, the Winter Games, the cheerleaders and the Okoboji Project all exist for the same reason: People love this place. Behind all the bonfires, boating, broomball and beer is a community worth celebrating, even in the dead of winter on a frozen lake.
See the show
“Cheerleaders: The Documentary” is available for free on YouTube.
