Oh Lutefisk!

IOLA – When 200 sat down to eat the traditional lutefisk dinner at Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Iola, volunteers broke out in singing, “Oh Lutefisk,” a local tradition. The buffet-style dinner was such an overwhelming success; lutefisk will be on the menu next year. Megan Melum, the head organizer of the Iola Winter Carnival, said she hopes to add a third seating area to accommodate more guests.
The Iola Winter Carnival celebrated 63 years of the event this past weekend, with the return of the lutefisk dinner and the crowning of a snow queen.
The day started with the ice carving contest, with teams taking any implement they could to carve sculptures out of blocks of ice.
The winners for the contest were Adam and Sara Griena with their carving of penguins.
Second place was Josh and Kristy Stacey with a chicken and third place went to Bryce Mead with an ice castle and draw bridge.

“Every team displayed remarkable creativity and skill, making the contest a true highlight of the weekend,” said Melum.
The chili walk was also happening with local bars and restaurants competing for the best chili recipe, the participating bars and restaurants were Mark McCoy’s Flat Tracker Tap, 10-LA Corner Bar, Crystal Café, Thirsty Perch and Iola Mills.
The winner for the 2025 Chili cook off was Crystal Café with their Mexican street corn white chicken chili.
Melum said that 139 ballots were turned in, which was a big increase from the previous year, this was the second year of the chili walk.
The snow queen title went to McKenzie Bonikowski.
“Her grace, love for winter activities and enthusiasm truly embodied the spirit of the Iola Winter Carnival,” said Melum.
The participants in the snow queen contest had to not only sell raffle tickets for the carnival, they also had to turn in an application and write an essay along with submitting three videos for social media.
The videos were an introduction video, their favorite winter activities and what it would mean to them to be crowned the snow queen.
Roaming around town was also a trolley, which was donated by Kolbe and Kolbe in Manawa.
The trolley had designated stops at each of the activities, one of which was the vendor fair at the Machine Shed at the Iola Historical Society.
The 30 vendors sold crafts, baked goods and there were also members of the Iola Rosemaling Group that were on hand to demonstrate their skill at the Norwegian art form.
The kid’s ice fishing contest had record attendance with 150 kids competing.
There were five categories of fish, with Vanessa Demski winning with a 13-inch crappie, Jace Wihschke winning with a 19.25-inch bass, Sawyer Mrozek and Spencer Buelow entered an
8.75-inch bluegill, Michael Ott won with a 9.5-inch perch and Dawson Zajackoski won with a 26.75-inch northern pike.