Floyd County Fair wins MidAmerican Energy CARES $10,000 grand prize

To The Press

The Floyd County Fair has received $11,000 from a MidAmerican Energy program at the Iowa State Fair.

The fairgrounds, which sustained heavy damage in a Memorial Day tornado that struck Charles City, won $10,000 Sunday in a random drawing through the company’s corporate citizenship program called MidAmerican Energy CARES.

The Floyd County Fair had been one of 10 nonprofit organizations that won $1,000 during daily drawings at the State Fair, based on entries submitted to MidAmerican Energy in person at the fair and online. The daily winners were eligible for the $10,000 grand prize drawing.

“We’re excited to donate $11,000 to the Floyd County Fair,” said Kathryn Kunert, MidAmerican Energy vice president of economic connections and integration.

“We know the Floyd County Fair is still trying to recover from the tornado, which makes this gift even more special,” she said.
Craig Anderson, the Floyd County Fair Society treasurer, said the organization was “thrilled” to learn of the gift.

“Having endured extensive damage to our fairgrounds as a result of the Memorial Day tornado, we are in the planning stages of how we will rebuild a number of buildings,” Anderson said.

“This funding will go directly toward our deductible, as well as replacing building contents that were not covered by our insurance,” he said. “This gift literally could not have come at a better time and we are extremely grateful to MidAmerican Energy for their generosity.”

On May 27, the EF-1 tornado, with 100 mile-per-hour winds, destroyed five buildings at the Floyd County Fairgrounds and damaged others. The county fair went on as scheduled in July without the buildings, and the fair board is working on long-term rebuilding plans.

“MidAmerican Energy CARES is our enhanced program to showcase our corporate citizenship and our company’s five areas of giving,” Kunert said. CARES stands for community enhancement, arts and culture, environmental respect, education/stem, and safety.

“It’s really special that fairgoers took time at the fair to nominate their favorite local nonprofits, which made it a very interactive and engaging way for us to give back to organizations that do so much great work in our communities,” Kunert said.

The 10 nonprofits selected for random $1,000 daily drawings were:

• Altoona Kids Cafe/SWERVE Outreach.
• Animal Rescue League of Iowa.
• Davenport Junior Theatre.
• Floyd County Fair.
• Freedom Foundation of Cedar Rapids.
• Mentor Iowa.
• New Sharon Public Library.
• Puppy Jake Foundation.
• Vincent Fire Department.
• Waterloo Center for the Arts.