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Over the past two years, I have been the State Fair booth coordinator along with the help of Jeanette Hildebrand, who coordinates all the volunteers that help man the booth over the course of the fair.
The booth has changed a bit from a retail booth to one more focused on promoting county attractions like the Flour Mill, Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, local museums, businesses and events that aim to attract tourists, and tourist dollars to the county.
“I didn’t realize you had so much going on in Stafford County.” was a common comment from visitors last year.
That is the kind of response we need from our State Fair booth. The ultimate goal needs to be bringing people to the county to spend their money here.
This year we have scaled the booth back some with the elimination of all the individual flyers and combining most of the county’s information, events, and businesses into the Stafford County Visitors’ Guide.
The 64-page full color booklet will be passed out at the fair along with the reusable cloth Stafford County shopping bags designed and manufactured locally by Brent Walters, Hudson.
One thing the fair booth is lacking though are volunteers. With the start of the fair only three days away, the list of people to work at the booth is less than 40 percent full.
Jeannette told me they have been moving this month and due to a mix up with AT&T their phone was not moved to the new location as originally promised so folks interested in volunteering need to call her cell at 620-546-3763 or via email at kssodbuster@gmail.com.
Working at the booth can be a fun time with a chance to visit with a wide array of people about the county we call home.
Stafford County does have a lot of interesting things to do and places to visit. It would be a shame if we showed such a lack of interest in our own communities that our representation to the state, and many others that come to the fair is an unmanned booth with some nice looking bags and visitors’ guides.
Terry Spradley is the editor of the St. John News. His e-mail address is sjnewseditor@embarqmail.com
Over the past two years, I have been the State Fair booth coordinator along with the help of Jeanette Hildebrand, who coordinates all the volunteers that help man the booth over the course of the fair.
The booth has changed a bit from a retail booth to one more focused on promoting county attractions like the Flour Mill, Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, local museums, businesses and events that aim to attract tourists, and tourist dollars to the county.
“I didn’t realize you had so much going on in Stafford County.” was a common comment from visitors last year.
That is the kind of response we need from our State Fair booth. The ultimate goal needs to be bringing people to the county to spend their money here.
This year we have scaled the booth back some with the elimination of all the individual flyers and combining most of the county’s information, events, and businesses into the Stafford County Visitors’ Guide.
The 64-page full color booklet will be passed out at the fair along with the reusable cloth Stafford County shopping bags designed and manufactured locally by Brent Walters, Hudson.
One thing the fair booth is lacking though are volunteers. With the start of the fair only three days away, the list of people to work at the booth is less than 40 percent full.
Jeannette told me they have been moving this month and due to a mix up with AT&T their phone was not moved to the new location as originally promised so folks interested in volunteering need to call her cell at 620-546-3763 or via email at kssodbuster@gmail.com.
Working at the booth can be a fun time with a chance to visit with a wide array of people about the county we call home.
Stafford County does have a lot of interesting things to do and places to visit. It would be a shame if we showed such a lack of interest in our own communities that our representation to the state, and many others that come to the fair is an unmanned booth with some nice looking bags and visitors’ guides.
Terry Spradley is the editor of the St. John News. His e-mail address is sjnewseditor@embarqmail.com
