Klemme’s reputation as a “little but lively” community will be on display Wednesday, July 27 when RAGBRAI riders come to the community. Klemme residents are busy organizing a day of fun. Entertainment and vendors are lined up. But more volunteers and donations are still needed to make the event a success. The next planning meeting is 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 12 at Klemme City Hall, 204 E. Main St.
Donations can be mailed to City Hall, with checks made out to “City of Klemme RAGBRAI Fund.” Payments can also be made through PayPal on the Shamrock Nation– Klemme, Iowa RAGBRAI page or https://www.facebook.com/shamrocknation 50449 Anyone wishing for further information on volunteering can check the Facebook page.
Volunteers are needed for a variety of tasks including traffic control, helping to keep the town clean and monitoring portable toilets.
A big need is for more EMTs.
One fun volunteer activity is to run the mouse trap photo op at RAGBRAI. Children and parent teams can take part, as children are needed to dress up as mice. In the 1930s Klemme was the home of the Runway Mouse Trap Company and was called “the mousetrap capital of the world.” Mouse ears and tails are available.
Visitors should also look for roaming shamrocks. Klemme High sports teams were the Shamrocks. The high school graduated its last class in 1990.
Vendors are:
Belmond-Klemme FFA – strawberry smoothies
BK After prom – bottled water, slushiest, fruit cups
Fed By Farmers – sweet corn
Midwest Sips – various mixed drinks, beer
Bogie’s BBQ – pulled pork & sides, smoked chicken & sides
UCC church – pies
Iowa River Players – iced coffee, bananas, Shamrock cookies
NDS Competition – water, Gatorade, frozen grapes, pickles, pickle juice. protein balls
Girls Scouts of Iowa – Girl Scout cookies
Klemme Fire Department- beer
Skykone ice cream – ice cream cones, shakes, root beer floats
Entertainment includes Nicole’s Dance Studio, Jeff Huling Entertainment and Elvis.
