The last dance: Writer’s Night ends after 25 years
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RONAN- The atmosphere was a rare one during last week’s final Writer’s Night golf tournament and concert at the Mission Mountain Country Club.
Only so often do emotions like reverence, sadness, happiness and love coincide to create a family-like atmosphere among several hundred people in one small area.
This year’s milestone tournament marked a quarter century of, as Mission Valley resident Tony Incashola put it, “Good times, good eats and good music.” For 25 years, musician Tim Ryan brought his talent, friends and family together in one place for one worthy cause: to raise money for Mission Valley high school students attending college. In the past two-and-a-half decades, the event has raised nearly $150,000 in scholarships and created a $100,000 endowment for students from the valley.
While this year marked the last Writer’s Night golf tournament and concert, Ryan seemed proud at all the event had accomplished, in both monetary and sentimental value. After taking the stage, Ryan thanked his longest-running sponsor and stage donor, Anderson Broadcasting, and gave them a fair amount of credit for keeping the event running as long as it had. Afterward, he strummed his acoustic guitar while addressing and thanking the crowd as a whole.
“How many people can say they went to a charity event where they knew everyone there? I think that’s pretty cool,” he said.
Mission Mountain Country Club Pro shop employee Jim Reeve said and the rest of the golf course staff would be sad to see Ryan and the tournament go, but they retain hope for an encore performance next year.
Reeve also noted that while Ryan is a country music star, you wouldn’t know it by the way he acts.
"He's like the boy next door," Reeve said, “It’s nice that he didn’t forget his roots, he really brought the community together.”
Shortly after, Ryan took the stage and began to show off a bit of his charismatic personality by telling stories and jokes about his friends and family in the audience. After several minutes of shared laughter and good-natured fun between Ryan and his audience, Reeve amended his previous statement.
"He's like the boy next door," Reeve said with a grin, “Until he gets on stage with that guitar and starts playing. Then the stardom comes out.”
The Singing Sons of Beaches, a Polson-based band that plays all over Montana, took the Writer’s Night stage to cheers and applause Friday night. Band member Steve Riddle said they draw from experiences and people in the Lake County area to create their material. This would be their first and last time performing as a group for the charity event.
“For Tim to invite us here was a show of respect for our act,” Riddle said. “Anyone who has performed here in the past ... they’ve been amazing performers.”
While it was a bittersweet evening for many in attendance, Ryan’s smile never wavered as he offered advice and goodwill to anyone within earshot. As the sun began to set and the chatter among reunited friends subsided, his genuflection took the form of stories between songs - bridges from one tune to the next built of soft guitar melodies and powerful stories or ideas.
It was during one such bridge that Ryan managed to sum up the tournament’s history, his life philosophy and maybe the secret to his success.
“I tell my son all the time, ‘Don’t be afraid to swing and miss. Your dad swings and misses about 98 percent of the time, and that’s alright. It’s alright because every once in a while, you get a hit. And that’s what it’s about.’”
