Ely Winter Festival Grand Marshal Ryan Stewart
- laceysquier
- Feb 2
- 3 min read
Let’s kick off the Ely Winter Festival in style and with a bit of playful pomp and circumstance at the bandshell Whiteside Park at 6:30pm on Friday, February 6! Dress in your winter finest (or winteriest) for a brief performance by the Bois Forte Singers drum circle, followed by a procession to the official Ely Winter Festival fire bowl for a ritual lighting-of-the-fire by our Grand Marshall Ryan Stewart, assisted by the Ely Nordic Wolves cross country ski team.
The Ely Winter Festival has a long and dynamic history. The festival as we know it evolved from a cross country ski race that was initiated in 1984, a program which expanded to include a snow sculpting symposium and ten-day celebration in 1993. Now in its 33rd year, the Ely Winter Festival is a staple of our beloved northeastern Minnesota winters.
The tradition of an Ely Winter Festival kickoff has deep roots, as well, though the program has evolved from a formal two hour gathering in Washington Auditorium to a quick and casual opportunity for some pomp and circumstance in Whiteside Park. Back in the day, the Ely Winter Festival (or perhaps more accurately the Voyageur Winter Festival) Grand Marshall served as the Master of Ceremonies for the kickoff.
The Grand Marshall program was revived in 2022 as part of the casual Whiteside Park fire-bowl-lighting program developed by Peta Barrett. This is an opportunity to honor and celebrate community members who actively strive to make a positive impact on our neighbors, whether through their day-to-day work or extra-curricular commitments. Previous grand marshals include Cindy Smyka, Mayor Heidi Omerza, myself (Lacey Squier), and Lucy Soderstrom.
This year Ryan Stewart is being honored as our Ely Winter Festival Kickoff Grand Marshall. Ryan serves as the Family Resource Facilitator for Ely Community Resource. Ely Community Resource (ECR) has been serving Ely-area youth and their families since 1978; we are fortunate to benefit from the dedication of the staff of ECR! Ryan supports ECR’s mission to foster positive youth development through activities designed to increase self esteem, build a sense of community, and provide positive adult relationships that allow for effective interventions with youth and their families. You can learn more about Ryan’s work by reading this blog post that he wrote a while back.
Beyond his dedication to his work, Ryan leads in quiet and unassuming ways. Ryan is an incredibly thoughtful person who brings nuanced and constructively critical thinking to community conversations, book clubs, and more. He is a strong proponent of the power of playfulness, which can be seen via live action role playing (larping) trips into the Wilderness with area youth, as well as the silly and fun social events he often hosts in his own home.
You may recognize Ryan from his smooth dance moves that were on display during the 2024 Dancing with the Ely Stars, during which he and Lucy Soderstrom performed a dance to a medley of Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You and Soulja Boy’s Crank That. Or, perhaps you’ll recognize his voice, without being quite sure how or when you’ve heard it before…. Ryan made a splash on the What’s Up Ely Podcast when he impersonated an Irishman who relocated to Ely, Minnesota. Ryan’s character, Teague, intrigued listeners when he introduced himself as a poet who “writes mostly of shrimp.” You can listen to that episode here.
Ryan is a member of the unique collaborative of area professionals who formed an LLC to purchase the Huckleberry Housing association on White Iron Lake, through which he and others offer a range of rental opportunities to people seeking to make Ely their home.
We are incredibly blessed to call Ryan Stewart our friend and neighbor, and honored to be able to bestow upon him the shimmering snowflake crown and custom-built flaming torch of the Ely Winter Festival Grand Marshall.