Iowans are invited to enjoy great food, wine, music, and scenery at an annual fundraiser to support the IowaWatch newsroom of Investigate Midwest. Get tickets here.
Sunset on the Farm will take place Sunday, Sept. 10, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Walker Homestead just outside of Iowa City.
This event offers a menu of pizza and salad, s’mores for dessert, access to a cash bar, a silent auction, and live music from the Mission Bluegrass Band. Tickets are $40 for adults and $20 for children over 5.
“We’re excited to host this event, and as always, grateful to the Walker Homestead for providing the venue,” said Erin Orr, Investigate Midwest’s executive director.
Investigate Midwest is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that provides Midwestern news outlets with investigative reporting on agribusiness and industrial agricultural corporations. Its stories are available to other news outlets for free. IowaWatch.org was acquired as a part of Investigate Midwest in March 2022.
In attendance will be the IowaWatch newsroom staff, including data journalist Mónica Cordero, a Report for America corps member in Des Moines; Suzanne Behnke, digital editor in Urbandale and originally from Bremer County; and Mary Ungs-Sogaard, donor relations manager of Dyersville. Orr, who lives in Northwest Indiana, also will be on hand.
Tickets and other donations at Sunset on the Farm support investigative journalism and help train college students. This year the student assistant is Tatum Hussey, a University of Iowa fourth-year marketing student from Dunlap, Illinois. Other students will help on the day of the event through UI’s event management program.
The first fall IowaWatch fundraiser was in 2015 with a year break in 2020 due to the pandemic. The event began when Lyle Muller served as IowaWatch’s executive director. He now sits on the Investigate Midwest board of directors, along with Cedar Rapids Gazette investigative reporter Erin Jordan.
“The annual Sunset on the Farm not only gives us a chance to raise necessary funds for nonprofit, investigative journalism, it gives us the opportunity to meet with those who support us, and to thank them personally,” Muller said. “Plus, it’s a good time and fabulous location.”
The evening will also feature a silent auction.
The presenting sponsor is The Gazette. Event sponsors include The Iowa Freedom of Information Council and Alan and Elizabeth Swanson.
Investigate Midwest, also known as the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, was created in 2009 in Kansas City before moving to Champaign, Illinois, in 2012. It has won national and regional awards for its data-driven, investigative reporting.
Please contact Ungs-Sogaard at mary.ungs-sogaard@investigatemidwest.org with questions.
Where: Walker Homestead Farm and Winery is located 3867 James Ave. SW, outside Iowa City.
