Fair Board, FFA students prepare for Grand Opening

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO:

Floyd County Youth Enrichment Center Grand Opening, Floyd County Fairgrounds.

5-11 p.m.; park across the street at Floyd County Agriculture. Shuttles will run visitors to the center. Meals available for purchase.

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

After months in plans and in the mind’s eye of Charles City FFA students, the Floyd County Youth Enrichment Center is raised — and ready to welcome visitors at Friday’s open house.

“We’ll have tables and chairs set up so people can just enjoy the night and see what it holds, what our setup is, and what our year-round facility has to offer,” said Any Staudt, a member of the Floyd County Fair Board.

Organizers are hoping to see between 400-600 visitors attend throughout the open house.

Food grilled and provided by the Cattlemen will be available for purchase, and the Dueling Pianos will perform for free throughout the evening. Silent and live auctions and raffles will occur.

Thirty-five FFA students will be available as community members tour through the building, Staudt said. Fifteen Fair Board members and a number of parent volunteers will be working through the evening as well.

Fundraising efforts during the grand opening will go toward finishing the building’s kitchen, parking, sidewalks and landscaping, she said — and the need for those amenities is vocal: the center is already booked for 15 events from April through August.

The kitchen is currently limited to cold-prep only, Staudt said, and it is waiting to have stoves and other appliances fundraised for and installed.

“It’s been a long year-and-a-half process, and it’s been really fun to see it put together,” Staudt said. “People can appreciate it now.”

Since parking lots are unfinished, Friday visitors are asked to park across the street at Floyd County Agriculture. Shuttles will bring visitors across the highway and drop them off in front of the south entrance.

COMING TO LIFE

The parking project will create a front drive-around drop-off ramp, with parking available at the back of the building and overflow parking available at other parts of the fairground.

The interior seating space is 60×100 feet, and a separate serving area off of the kitchen, 17×24 feet, opens up into the seating space. A front lobby that will walk out to the drop-off ramp will have a permanent donor display and FFA historical archives on display.

Charles City FFA Advisor Jim Lundberg’s students are designing the donor wall display during shop class, Staudt said, and are working to collect archival items that can be put on display in that lobby.

The center will be fully operational for the 2017 Floyd County Fair, available to show all non-livestock exhibits for FFA and 4-H student clubs. Big machinery and equipment that students restore can also be shown in the building, thanks to the south end’s overhead door.

Within the month, audio/video equipment including retractable screens and projects will be installed along the south wall of the building. Sound systems will be available for rental use, and wifi service will also be established shortly.

The building’s architect and contractors helped FFA students and the Fair Board plan for these amenities during the visioning process, Staudt said. The final facility design has remained very consistent with what FFA students visioned at the start of the process, she said.

The group approached local businesses throughout the design, asking what building needs would be to host retreats, conferences and other events that could be hosted. It took six to eight months of working through the design process.

“It takes a whole collaborative effort of people to offer suggestions we maybe not had thought of already,” Staudt said. “We’d like it to be utilized for expos and well as business conferences.”

“They said, ‘will your building have this?’ We came back to the drawing board and if we didn’t have it, we tried to add those options,” she said.

FFA students have collected all the auction items that will be available on Friday, and they’re currently selling raffle tickets for the night.

Students have also helped with the “To-Do” list of opening a new center, such as cleanup needs and landscaping, which will continue into the spring.

“Every step of the way they’ve been here with us. We could not have done it without them,” Staudt said.