MidAmerican Energy presents check for $25,000 to Floyd County Fair Society

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

The Floyd County Fair Society received a welcome surprise from MidAmerican Energy after the Iowa State Fair was over in August. They got another surprise on Thursday.

Through a corporate citizenship program called MidAmerican Energy Cares, the Floyd County Fair won the grand prize donation of $10,000 out of 10 non-profit entries that were randomly selected through daily drawings on each day of the fair.

The daily drawing winners, which included the Floyd County Fair on Aug. 16, each won $1,000. There were just over 3,000 entries submitted by people representing their favorite non-profit organization.

“We put all of the winners from the individual days into a bucket and we randomly drew out a winner. Low and behold, it was the Floyd County Fair, which was super exciting in so many ways,” said Kathryn Kunert, MidAmerican Energy vice president of economic connections and integration.

“We were fully aware of what had happened up here. Obviously we have employees who live and work here. We all came up to help support when that storm came through,” she said.

When it was announced that the county fair had won the total of $11,000, the Fair Board said the money would go toward the rebuilding that is needed after the Memorial Day tornado destroyed several buildings on the property.

“We were fortunate enough to be the winner of that and obviously it came at a time when we really needed it,” said Craig Anderson, Floyd County Fair Board treasurer.

On Thursday, members of the Floyd County Fair Board learned that their prize had more than doubled.

Kunert said, “We thought, $10,000, that is an amazing amount of money. But then we talked to our foundation and we’re actually going to give $25,000.”

Five buildings were demolished or damaged by the tornado. The Floyd County Fair Board plans to hold a vote on Wednesday, Nov. 13, to map out what the construction plans will look like to erect a couple of new buildings on the grounds in advance of the 2020 Floyd County Fair.

The money from MidAmerican will help out with that cause.

“It helps fill in all those gaps,” said Anderson. “With their generosity and some good fortune on our part, it’s providing us with some much needed funding as we continue to work on our fairground rebuild.”

Construction of a livestock building to replace the dairy barn that was demolished and a structure similar to the one that housed the “Little Hands on the Farm” exhibit has been discussed as possibilities among board members.

“First and foremost, we’re a fair. So we’ve got to get everything that was in that dairy barn and we’ve got to have something adequate to replace that so that we don’t have animals out in tents or crammed into buildings or whatever the case may be,” said Anderson.

There could also be a new outdoor patio area that could be an addition to this summer’s upcoming fair if board members choose it.

“We haven’t finalized anything yet, but there’s certainly a chance that we’ll have to do things to get through next year adequately with a bigger rebuild in mind,” said Anderson.

“It’s subject to having good enough numbers to vote on,” said Anderson. “Hopefully we get a spring that cooperates. We’re at the mercy of the weather now until May.”

Anderson said the $25,000 will go directly toward the board’s deductible, as well as replacing building contents that were not covered by insurance.

He said all of the $1,000 winners in the MidAmerican drawing would have been worthy winners and could have easily merited winning the top prize.

“Everybody that entered, if they’re a non-profit, they’re obviously doing really worthy work. We definitely feel like there was someone looking out for us a little bit there as far as us being able to land this,” said Anderson. “Any non-profit you’re dealing with is volunteer driven, just like we are. We would never say we’re more deserving than anybody.”