Whitefish Winter Carnival crowns Prime Minister, Duchess of Lark

The Whitefish Winter Carnival officially got underway Saturday with the crowning of the first round of royalty, the Duchess of Lark and Prime Minister, at the Merry Maker event.

Regan Peschel was crowned Duchess of Lark and Mike Vrentas was named Prime Minister.  

Peschel was born and raised in Whitefish and graduated from Whitefish High School. Her parents are Herb and Carole Peschel. She is grateful to call herself a fourth-generation Whitefish native and comes from a long line of Whitefish small business owners.  

Peschel attended the University of San Francisco on a golf scholarship before graduating and moving to Ireland for less than a year. After traveling Peschel spent the next nearly 20 years in the tech industry in software sales living and working in Colorado, San Francisco and New York City.  

After a long career in tech Peschel pivoted and attended farm-to-table culinary school in Manhattan to follow a lifelong dream of opening her own food business back home in Montana where she turned her passion for cooking and sourcing local food into a professional business  Her new business launching this year called Taper (the name giving a nod to one of her culinary inspirations – her grandmother Helen Peschel – who owned The Candlewick, a Whitefish cooking and gift store on main street) is a food subscription service where she creates weekly meals with organic local ingredients pulling from local farms, ranches, and purveyors. Currently, Peschel is a consultant for New York City-based education nonprofit, DonorsChoose which aims to make it easy for anyone to help a teacher in need, moving the nation closer to a place where students and teachers in every community have the tools and experiences they need for a great education. 

In her free time, Peschel loves to ski, golf, hike, garden, cook, throw dinner parties, travel, spend time with her family and improve on her newfound love of fly fishing. Peschel is also a certified reiki master and has been practicing reiki for over 20 years and loves all things metaphysical. Her favorite time spent is with her two dogs hiking and exploring the outdoor beauty of Montana. Peschel loves volunteering and giving back to this special community and is a Hugh Rogers WAG Park Park volunteer board member. She is also a regular volunteer at the North Valley Food Bank and also a court appointed special advocate through CASA where she volunteers with abused and neglected youth. Peschel joins her brother in the Realm — John Peschel the 2014 Prime Minister LV. 

Mike Vrentas has lived in Whitefish since 1994 and is originally from Danville, Illinois, where he was born on Nov. 19, 1968 to George and Jane Vrentas, an elementary school teacher and principal, and was their second child, following his sole sibling, Elizabeth. He was captain of his cross country team in high school and went to Illinois State University as a recreational management major with a studio art minor.  

He interned at Disney World for a semester, working at EPCOT Center, and spent time in Flagstaff, Arizona with an internship running a county fair. Following graduation in 1991, Vrentas lived in the Lake View neighborhood in Chicago, where he enjoyed live music and Cubs games. Vrentas also followed around the Grateful Dead for a time, with his college roommate, good friend, and fellow Whitefish local Matt Kennedy. Having visited Estes Park in Colorado as a child and loving it, Vrentas set out to move West and found his way to Whitefish to ski with friends. He worked as a river raft guide and (then called) Big Mountain in various roles, being nominated for the Frabert award two times. Vrentas went on to work for the Forest Service as a backcountry and river ranger.   

Vrentas met Heather Gardner at a Godfather viewing party at some point in 1996 and they married in August of 1999, having twins Thea and Miles in 2001. Vrentas left the Forest Service to spend more time at home and currently works for Summit Beverage (previously Fun Beverage) as a wine salesman and sommelier. He often golfs, mountain bikes, runs, and skis, and loves his two dogs, Wrigley and Charlotte. 

The Whitefish Winter Carnival continues through Feb. 4. Up next is the coronation of King Ullr LX and Queen of the Snows at the O’Shaughnessy Center at 7 p.m. on Jan. 13, followed by the carnival disco party the same evening. For a full slate of events, visit whitefishwintercarnival.com.

    Winter Carnival 2024 Prime Minister Mike Vrentas. (Photo courtesy of Jessie Mazur, Picture Montana)