Poetry on the ranch

Chickasaw couple organizes eleventh year of fundraiser

 By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

When it began ten years ago, Gerry and Marilee Mishak knew that a cowboy poetry event wouldn’t be so familiar to Iowa audiences.

“It’s kind of weird how it got started,” Gerry concedes.

Today, there’s no question about it: with almost 400 visitors over two performances each year, the Mishak’s Cowboy Poetry and Western Music, at the Starlite Ballroom in Lawler Jan. 22 and 23, is a big hit among northeast Iowans. Every year, three artists travel to Iowa, singing songs and reciting poetry about life on a working ranch. This year the event hosts Marci Broyhill of Dakota City, Neb. and Greg Hager of Valley City, N.D., along with veteran emcee Marty Blocker.

“These are real ranchers and cowboys…these folks live these lives,” Gerry said.

The Mishaks met rancher and poet Blocker after their son, who was 13 at the time, moved out to Nebraska for a summer, working as a ranch hand. Blocker is originally from New Hampton and has spent the last 40 or so years in Cody, Neb. working for a cattle operation. He was also the Mishaks’ first introduction to western poetry –– covering a wide range of themes, Marilee said.

“All kinds of serious, sad, there’s patriotic, some religious (themes). The majority of them have very strong faith,” Marilee said. “It’s always very clean cut, it’s family oriented.”

That’s when the couple got a so-called crazy idea. It started as a small fundraiser for the Twin Ponds Nature Center in Chickasaw County that was only supposed to last three or four years. After five years, the Mishaks, to the day the only full-time organizers of the event, searched for a new cause that funds could go towards.

“We started going for different charities. Our county was building a veterans memorial here in New Hampton, right by the courthouse. We raised money for them. Last year (it was for) Docs for Hope, a group of doctors based out of New Hampton” that does missionary work, Gerry said.

Over the years, the annual Cowboy Poetry and Western Music event has raised about $69,000 for nonprofits ranging from the Chickasaw County Veterans Memorial, Docs for Hope and this year’s designee, the Chickasaw County Rescue Squad and First Responders. Preparation begins every year in October, when Marilee sends out postcards to past participants from over nine different counties and into states like Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas.

Local businesses take up sponsorships of $100 to $400, which greatly helps the event keep ticket prices down to $25 a night, Marilee said. The Starlite Ballroom, which took the event in after the audience grew too large for New Hampton venues, doesn’t take any profits from the event, instead keeping income from the night’s open bar. After expenses, this year’s fundraising goal is to make about $6,500.

“I think we’re going to be pretty close or even a little over that,” Marilee said. “It’s just amazing how big an area people will travel.”

“We’re getting old, and it’s getting to be a job, but it’s a fun job,” Gerry joked. “I take the credit, but she does the work.”

At least eight volunteers from the benefiting cause help the Mishaks serve the Friday and Saturday night meals. Last year, about 190 audience members snapped up Friday night tickets, with 200 members the following night. It’s created many memories for the couple, who will continue organizing the event until they raise a total of $100,000 or grow too old to continue the workload, Gerry said.

“I got very emotional watching them (for the Veterans Memorial fundraiser),” Gerry recalled. “We had WWII vets pouring coffee and bussing tables, at 80 years old. We had a couple women who were nurses. Pouring coffee and having a ball.”