Community Notes: Bingo, bricks and a busy activities schedule

By Mark Wicks, Community Development Director

Holy happenings, Batman!

It’s only seven weeks from the kick-off of our summer events through the Charles City Area Chamber of Commerce and Main Street Charles City programs, with the first Party in the Park set for June 10th.

Planning for the PIP series, Whitewater Challenge, Fourth of July Celebration and more are all going on (not to mention a little thing called RAGBRAI). However, this spring has already seen a lot of activities action, with more yet to come before we start talking about another busy summer.

The Chamber hosted its first Bingo Night on March 26th and drew 108 players from as far away as Nora Springs and Traer. We had so much fun that we are going to do it again on Friday, May 13th, at the Columbus Club in Charles City. Doors open at 6 p.m. and Early Bird Bingo will start at 6:30 p.m., with regular Bingo to begin around 7 p.m.

There will be cash prizes, a $300 jackpot for Blackout Bingo, as well as door prizes and a 50/50 Raffle. There will also be snacks, bar service and hopefully a food truck on hand as well again. You must be 18 years of age or older to play and win. Come join us for what promises to be another fun evening!

The Chamber also co-hosted a Legislative Breakfast on March 28th, along with Floyd County Farm Bureau and Butler County REC, which featured updates from our local state legislators.

The day before, 24 community volunteers gave an hour and a half of their time to help with a Main Street Spring Clean-up, sweeping sidewalks and cleaning up post-winter debris downtown.

Main Street Charles City coordinated with the city street sweeper and a professional window washing crew to make our downtown look good ahead of the annual Chickfest community-wide retail promotion on April 2nd, organized by the Chamber and local retailers. A week later, Main Street Charles City provided visits by the Easter Bunny as part of a Hippity Hoppity fundraiser.

Speaking of Chickfest, the Chamber and Main Street CC offices set up an indoor garage sale that day and throughout the next week of past event merchandise such as shirts and glassware. We also re-showcased the commemorative Hart-Parr factory bricks that were sold as a big fundraiser back in the 1990s.

We still have a limited number of those bricks, with faceplate and brochure, which have sparked some renewed interest and continue to be available for purchase at 401 North Main St. So are copies of a Charles City Collage done in 2005, as well as a limited edition prints of the iconic Suspension Bridge by Janiece Bergland.

As I’m writing this I am getting ready to head to Des Moines for the annual Main Street Iowa Awards event, at which Pat Ohlerking will be recognized as Charles City’s Main Street Volunteer of the Year for all of the little behind-the-scenes things he does for our program and our community.

Also honored will be Darci Tracey and Prologue Books & Wine, who was selected over the other 53 Main Street communities as the “Best Business Recruitment” story this past year. A well-deserved congratulations to both Pat and Darci!

Starting in May, Main Street Charles City will begin working with Main Street Iowa staff on a comprehensive market study and strategies training, which will include gathering data through business and consumer surveys. Stay tuned for more on that.

Charles City was one of only five Main Street communities in the state selected for this project. There will be a public presentation in mid-July to share those survey results, then a strategic plan will be put together to move forward on ways to improve or capitalize on those findings.

After that, we’re off and rolling with our summer events, which will include Party in the Park June 10, June 24, July 1 and Aug. 12, as well as the Firecracker 5 races on July 4th which are all put on through Main Street Charles City.

On the Chamber side, we have the Charles City Whitewater Challenge on June 25th, the annual Fourth of July Celebration, and the Chamber BBQ Challenge on July 9th held in conjunction with he Christmas in July retail promotion and Rotary car show downtown.

The Chamber is assisting with the community hosting of RAGBRAI on July 28th, then will host its Annual Chamber Dinner event on August 20th. Also planned will be Chamber Golf Outing and a couple more Bingo Nights before the end of September.

To learn more about any of these events, to get involved in helping plan them, or for more information about either the Chamber or Main Street Charles City programs, please call (641) 228-4234, email info@charlescitychamber.com or stop by the Community Development Offices at 401 North Main St.