041225_DIS_A01

! FREE WEEKLY ENTERT!INMENT GUIDE FROM IOW! INFORM!TION MEDI! GROUP
From Plate to
Palette
Cooking class for kids takes on hamburgers in April – SEE PAGE 5
West O and Keep Okoboji Blue’s spring cleaning – SEE PAGE 9
DISCOVER! MAGAZINE
APRIL 12, 2025
Keeping
IT CLEAN
BRING ON THE
Pancakes
Spirit Lake Fire Department to host 70th pancake
fundraiser – SEE PAGE 8
Sprint
TO THE FINISH
Spirit Lake Noon Kiwanis hosts annual
Easter Egg Hunt – SEE PAGE 11
Your source for weekend fun in N’West Iowa
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ON TH! ,OV!R11
The Spirit Lake Noon Kiwanis will be hosting an Easter Egg Hunt on April 19.
9
5
Taste:
8
Taste:
9
Event:
10
11
Cooking class for kids
takes on hamburgers in April.
Spirit Lake firefighters to
host 70th pancake fundraiser.
West O and Keep Okoboji
Blue’s spring cleaning.
Screen: New releases for the big
screen and good new rentals.
Event: Spirit Lake Noon Kiwanis
hosts annual Easter Egg Hunt.
It’s a great opportunity for us
to get the word out about their
efforts to keep our lakes clean
and so we like to start by quite
literally cleaning the lakes and
starting a fresh year and enjoy
the release of this beer.
JOE TIEFENTHALER
DISCOVER! | APRIL 12, 2025
Contents | 3
Side Trip:
!ven though there was no popcorn, Tuesday
evening found us at the movies, and it was
a really fun time.
OK, it wasn’t really the movies, and there
wasn’t a concession stand, and there weren’t
any movie star names in
the credits.
What it was, was a
short film festival put
on by Stephens College
of Columbia, MO, and
hosted at the Pearson
Lakes Art Center in
Okoboji.
R u t h A n n B u r k e ,
executive director of
the Okoboji Summer
Theatre, mentioned
last fall that she and her
husband, Michael, were
seeking ways to utilize the OST campus for longer
than the seven or eight weeks of summer
theatre season.
Bringing Stephens College filmmaking
students up to film a class project was one of
the ideas to do just that. Film students Dymin
Hickman and Sophia Quayle served as cinematographers
for the original film they shot
and edited in two and a half days, ready for its
premier Tuesday night at PLAC. Locals Caleb
Lansen and Brooklyn Jackson were the actors.
The series of films included “Tampsen Air,” a
twisted comedy that starred Rob Doyen, along
with a smaller role for Addison Myers. That was
followed by “Gladis,” a personal narrative based
on the true story of a wave runner that exploded
in the Ozarks, injuring the owner. Next up was
“Ethel,” a touching story of an elderly woman
who is gifted a therapy animal – a stuffed cat
– that she becomes attached to. Finally, was
“Sleep Between the Stars,” the film the students
shot in Okoboji and completed the editing process
for just an hour before show time.
Marketing students from Stephens College
also were on site, helping as needed, including
creating traditional marketing materials like a
logo and a playbill.
Bottom line – it was a fun night at the movies,
and we hope to see more of the same in years to
come.
5
MYRNA
WAGN!R
DISCOVER! is your guide to all the special events and activities in the greater
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DISCOVER! | APRIL 12, 2025
Taste | 5
PlateFROM
TO PALETTE
It’s time once again to hit the road.
The Plate to Palette kids cooking
class is continuing on their culinary
journey along Route 66.
They started their journey in September
2024 in Illinois with Chicago-
style deep dish pizza and they will
make it to California in April. The food
for the class on April 17 will be the clas-
sic hamburger.
“The theme for this year was Route
66 and the food from all eight states
that the mother road traveled through,”
said Cathie Critchett, a local chef who
leads classes. “We will end the series
in April in California because Route 66
ended in Santa Monica, CA.”
For Critchett, when it came to Cali-
fornia – the food hand to be the burger.
“The hamburger became the iconic
American fast food along Route 66,”
Critchett said. “The creation of the hand
held hamburger changed everything for
travelers. Someone traveling cross coun-
try could now eat in their vehicle.”
It was a time of change when it came
to food and restaurants on the road.
“We have learned about many
mom and pop cafés and motels
throughout the exploration of
Route 66 and the journey
f ro m s t a t e t o
state,” Critchett said. “Fast food was a
new beginning. Many drive-in eating
establishments became popular along
Route 66 as travelers could eat in their
vehicles. Carhops would bring out
their food to their vehicles.
“Drive-through food evolved from
there. The first McDonalds was
opened on Route 66 in California.
Today there are many varieties of fast
food establishments across America.”
Fast food is not what Route 66 was
originally about.
“I find it interesting that Route 66
started out as a road to take your time
on and enjoy the stops along the way,
and yet it was the beginning of our
faster pace of life as we know it today,”
Critchett said.
The kids also take time to study some
of the art that is found along the ram-
bling highway, and for April the kids
will also be creating a 3D piece based
on roadside art along Route 66.
As this series comes to a close,
Critchett is excited that she chose
Route 66 as a focus.
“I love this series because it’s
American history. It wasn’t
just a road. Those who traveled it took
the time to stop in the small com-
munities. Each state the road crossed
through has its own story. It wasn’t
about getting to point A to B the fastest,
Route 66 was about enjoying the
journey along the way,”
Critchett said. “I
enjoy host-
ing these
classes
f o r
the kids. It’s wonderful to see them
learn to cook, try new foods and, of
course, create unique individual art as
well.” F
At a Glance:
!HAT: From Plate to Palette: Cali-
fornia Classic Hamburgers
!HERE: Pearson Lakes Art Cen-
ter, 2201 Highway 71, Okoboji, IA
!HEN: 4-6 p.m. Thursday, April 17
COST: $30 for members, $40 for
nonmembers
CONTACT: 712-332-7013
ONLINE: www.lakesart.org
Cooking
class for kids
takes on
hamburgers
in April
KATE HARLOW | STAFF WRITER
Okoboji | Iowa

6 | APRIL 12, 2025 | DISCOVER!
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DISCOVER! | APRIL 12, 2025 | 7
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Owners, Dave & Glenda Wurpts

APRIL 12, 2025 | DISCOVER!
8 |
Taste
BRING ON !HE
KATE HARLOW | STAFF WRITER
PANCAKES
0ARK YOUR
CALENDARS!
At a Glance:
WHA!: Spirit Lake Community Fire
Department’s 70th Pancake Day
WHERE: Spirit Lake Community
Fire Station, 2001 Peoria Ave., Spirit
Lake, IA
WHEN: 7 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday,
April 12
COS!: Free will donation
CON!AC!: 712-330-8499
ONLINE: www.spiritlakefd.com
Spirit
Lake Fire
Department
to host 70th
pancake
fundraiser
!he Spirit Lake Fire Community
Department has a few things down
to a science – one of those things is
making pancakes.
They should know what they are
doing – they’ve been perfecting their
technique for 70 years.
The Spirit Lake Community Fire
Department’s 70th Pancake Day will be
held from 7 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, April
12. The event will be held at the fire station
in Spirit Lake and the event is a free
will donation.
It’s a tradition that started all the way
back in 1955.
“I looked back at our minutes and it
was decided in the February meeting
that they would host a pancake supper
on March 4, 1955. They made stands for
the grills and they charged 60 cents for
adults and 30 cents for kids,” said Patrick
Daly, the Spirit Lake Fire Community
Department’s Fire Chief.
They even kept it going during COVID.
“We had a drive-up pancake fundraiser
that year. We all had masks and they
drove up and we walked their pancakes
out to their cars,” Daly said.
The event serves up pancakes, sausage,
coffee and milk for the kids.
It’s a simple menu, but they cook a
mountain of each of those things.
“Right now, we start with three pancakes
on a plate and a lot come back
for seconds. We actually have someone
walking around with a plate stacked
with pancakes to pass out as well,” Daly
said. “We average about 800 people
and we figure we make at least 2,400
pancakes each plus the extras is a total
of 3,400. That means it’s been 238,000
pancakes over 70 years.”
The event is a free will offering and
people are asked to simply put their
donation in a fireman’s boot. Yep. An
actual boot.
“We keep a clean one just for that,”
Daly said with a laugh.
It’s an annual event that helps the allvolunteer
fire department pay for new
and upgraded equipment and other
things that the department needs.
Daly has been the department’s
chief for the last 12 years and has been
a part of the department since he
joined 43 years ago in 1982. He’s
put in his time at the grill. His job
on Pancake Days is to work the
crowd and talk with the people.
T h e S p i r i t L a k e
C o m m u n i t y F i r e
Department was
established in 1890
a n d r e c e n t l y i t
was merged with
the Superior Fire
Department. The
two departments together
have 25 volunteers.
If you want to test out a
pancake recipe that’s
been perfected for 70
years, make sure you
head to the Spirit Lake
Fire Station on Saturday,
April 12. F
Spirit Lake | Iowa

MARK YOUR
CALENDARS!
DISCOVER! | APRIL 12, 2025
Event | 9
Keeping
West O and Okoboji Blue’s spring cleaning
IT CLEAN
RYLAN HO!E | STAFF WRITER
At a Glance:
!HAT: Spring Cleanup with West
O Beer and Keep Okoboji Blue
!HERE: Meeting at the brewery,
503 Terrace Park Blvd., West Okoboji,
IA
!HEN: 9 a.m., Saturday, April 19
COST: Free
CONTACT: 712-332-8090
ONLINE: www.westobeer.com
Spring cleaning comes in many
forms. In the Iowa Great Lakes it
often has a connection to the water.
And that’s why each year West O Beer
and Keep Okoboji Blue team together
for an event that takes volunteers all
over the region for a morning of spring
cleaning.
This year the event, which is free and
open to the public, gets started at 9
a.m. Saturday, April 19, at the brewery
in West Okoboji and coincides with
the seasonal release of Blue Canoe,
an American Wheat Ale which sees
a portion of its sales donated to support
clean water efforts in Okoboji and
throughout the state of Iowa.
While the cleaning sites vary year to
year, the goal remains the same – Keep
Okoboji Blue.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to get
the word out about their efforts to keep
our lakes clean and so we like to start
by quite literally cleaning the lakes
and starting a fresh year and enjoy the
release of this beer,” said Joe Tiefenthaler,
West O’s taproom manager.
And while they may comb the area
beaches for litter, their efforts aren’t
strictly confined to the shorelines.
“We tend to work with people and
try to ask where it’s needed most, so
sometimes the cleanup areas are
places that feed into our waterways,”
Tiefenthaler said. “So we’ll look at the
bike paths and certain roads where the
culverts collect trash. So we get a little
creative and just try to do our part to
start the year clean.”
Volunteers that gather at the brewery
ride to locations on the West O bus
and some choose to go their own route
keeping in touch along the way.
Those who sign up are asked to dress
appropriately for both the weather
and the terrain they may be tromping
around during the cleanup. Keep Okoboji
Blue provides trash bags and trash
grabbing tools.
“You’d maybe be surprised how
much we can collect on the back of
that bus. It’s a fun couple hours,” Tiefenthaler
said. “From the beginning
West O has been all about protecting
the very water they use. It’s a spring
fed lake and we have some of the best
water you can brew with. It’s nutrient
rich because of those natural filters,
so knowing we have this precious
resources we want to be good stewards
and caretakers of that. Water quality
efforts have been core to the mission
here at the brewery since the early
days and has become a really important
piece of how we want to operate as
business.”
And when you can combine those
efforts with a freshly released beer it
makes for a really good day in the Iowa
Great Lakes. F
Okoboji | Iowa

APRIL 12, 2025 | DISCOVER!
10 |
Screen
new
at the
box
office
Limited release movies are not included in “What’s
New.” Only films that receive an average “C” or better
rating by movie critics on both coasts and the
Midwest are included in “Good Stuff.”
Warfare R | 95 min.
Warfare embeds audiences with a platoon of American
Navy SEALs in the home of an Iraqi family, overwatching
the movement of U.S. forces through insurgent territory.
The Amateur PG-13 | 123 min.
Charlie Heller is a brilliant, but deeply introverted decoder
for the CIA working out of a basement office at headquarters
in Langley whose life is turned upside down
when his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack. When
his supervisors refuse to take action, he takes matters
into his own hands.
The Friend R | 120 min.
Iris finds her comfortable New York life thrown into disarray
after her closest friend and mentor leaves her his
beloved 150-pound Great Dane. The regal yet intractable
beast, named Apollo, immediately creates practical
problems for Iris.
good stuff still playing
A Minecraft
Movie
Death of a
Unicorn
Snow White
PG
101 min.
★★★★★
R
103 min.
★★★★★
Welcome to the world of Minecraft, where creativity doesn’t just help you craft, it’s
essential to one’s survival! Four misfits struggling with ordinary problems when
they are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld.
Elliot and his daughter Riley accidentally hit and kill a unicorn while en route to a
weekend work retreat, where Elliot’s billionaire boss seeks to exploit the creature’s
miraculous curative properties.
what you can rent or stream
Companion R
97 min.
A weekend getaway at a remote cabin turns to chaos when it’s revealed that one
A Complete
Unknown
Dog Man
PG-13
117 min.
★★★★★
★★★★★
R
141 min
★★★★★
A live-action musical reimagining of the classic 1937 film. The magical music
adventure journeys back to the timeless story with beloved characters Bashful,
Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy.
of the guests – a subservient android built for human companionship – has gone
haywire.
Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and
the top of the charts culminating in his groundbreaking electric rock ‘n’ roll performance
at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.
PG When a faithful police dog and his human police officer owner are injured together
89 min. on the job, a harebrained but lifesaving surgery fuses the two of them together
★★★★★ and Dog Man is born.
The Brutalist R
216 min
Escaping postwar Europe, visionary architect László Toth arrives in America to
★★★★★
Memoir of a Snail R 94 min.
★★★★★
rebuild his life, his work, and his marriage to his wife Erzsébet after being forced
apart during wartime by shifting borders and regimes.
From Academy Award winning animator Adam Elliot comes this bittersweet memoir
of a melancholic woman called Grace Pudel – a hoarder of snails, romance
novels, and guinea-pigs.
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DISCOVER! | APRIL 12, 2025
Event | 11
SPRINT
to the finish
R!LAN HOWE | STAFF WRITER
Arrive early and ready to run.
It’s time for the Spirit Lake Noon
Kiwanis Easter Egg Hunt and if you
blink you just might miss all the action.
“Within the club we call it the Easter Egg
Sprint just because it goes really fast. It
might be 20 seconds worth of action and
it’s all taken care of, but it’s a lot of fun for
our club and all the kids,” said Kiwanis
member John Hight. “And there are a lot of
exciting things going on that day. The eggs
are stuffed with different kinds of things like
candies and toys and then we’ll do grand
prizes for the age groups as well, so there
will be some hidden eggs with those for kids
to redeem at the end, then, of course, the
Easter Bunny will make an appearance.”
The event gets underway at 10 a.m. sharp
at the Bedell Family YMCA in Spirit Lake.
If the weather is nice the hunt occurs
on the soccer fields outside, and if not,
the action heads indoors to the basketball
courts.
More than 7,000 eggs are divided among
three age groups to spread things out.
Afterward families can take photos with
the Easter Bunny while they count their
haul of eggs.
“It’s a really fun event and one we’re able
At a Glance:
WHAT: Spirit Lake Noon Kiwanis Easter
Egg Hunt
WHERE: Bedell Family YMCA, 1900
41st St., Spirit Lake, IA
WHEN: 10 a.m. Saturday, April 19
COST: Free
CONTACT: 712-336-9622
ONLINE: www.okobojiymca.com and
find the Kiwanis Club on Facebook
to do because we fundraise all year for different
children’s events,” Hight said. “I’ve
been a Kiwanian for 15 years and we’ve
been doing it all those years and I’m sure
prior to that. My kids have been part of it for
the last 10 years or so – it’s a lot of fun and its
really fits right in with our mission because
it’s something for the kids.”
It’s also the start of a busy spring for the
Kiwanis Club, which includes more than
100 members and always encourages
people to join the fun.
Just don’t be late to the Easter Egg Hunt,
the fun flies by in the blink of an eye. F
Spirit Lake
Noon Kiwanis
hosts annual
Easter Egg
Hunt
Spirit Lake | Iowa

12 | APRIL 12, 2025 | DISCOVER!