(Arnolds Park)– This past weekend’s University of Okoboji Winter Games is being described as another huge success. Iowa Great Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Blain Andera says other than being cold, the weather played a huge role in that…
“Mother Nature was really good to us with the amount of snow. She was a little bit mean to us with the temperatures, but overall it was a lot better than we were anticipating. Kind of neat to see all of the kites out there, and we had a record number of kites. All of the events that we hosted were completely full. Of course we did have, you know, a few no shows with the cold weather that happened, but overall, Steve, everything was fantastic.”
Andera says it likely will go down as one for the record books on several fronts…
“You know judging the apparel sales and all of the things that the Chamber hosts with this, if the businesses had the same results as the Chamber did it was a fantastic weekend for everybody, so. Really wanted to make sure that we thank GrapeTree Medical Staffing for being the presenting sponsor again and all of our other sponsors. We invite people to go to our website, uofowintergames.com, and if they click on the news tab, actually, there’s results of everything already posted online, so.”
Andera adds the weekend also had a huge impact on the local economy…
“All the ATV’s and the side-by-sides and the snowmobiles. And, you know, all of the hotels that are Chamber members that we reached out to were full all weekend. Drive by the gas stations and they were lined up to purchase gas. Again, the restaurants and bars and everybody was just jam packed. There’s a lot of businesses where this is as big or bigger than the Fourth of July for them, so. Definitely something that we’re already putting our thinking hats on and planning for next year how we can improve and making it bigger and better yet.”
Andera thanks his fellow employees at the Chamber, along with the those who were in charge of the various events as well with those who worked behind the scene to make Winter Games Weekend another huge success.
