Second annual Volga Day celebration is July 19

By Kaitlyn Kuehl-Berns | Times-Register

On Saturday, July 19 the second annual Volga Day celebration will be held. The event is organized by the Shaping Volga Endowment Committee and volunteers from the community. Their goal is to support family fun and bring awareness and positivity to the community of Volga as well as to raise funds for the Shaping Volga Endowment. The celebration will include a 5k, tractorcade, library open house, duck float, beer tent, live music and plenty of family fun activities to keep everyone entertained through out the day. Committee member, Deb Deitchler, said, “We are excited for the event to bring people together and for it to remind them what a special place [Volga] is.”

The 5k Run/Walk & Fun Run will be the first event of the day. Registration will begin at 7:30 a.m. with the run to start at 8 a.m. The cost of pre-registration is $15; day of registration is $20. Immediately before the start of the 5K will be a kids 100 meter dash. There is no cost to participate. 

The tractorcade will follow at 9 a.m., with its registration starting at 8 a.m. The tractorcade will cost $20 and be limited to 40 participants. Both events will take place at the Volga U Campground and require completion of a waiver at registration. 

The Volga City Library will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. At 1 p.m., it will celebrate its grand opening following recent remodeling.

The Volga Day parade will start at 2 p.m. Its route will follow Main Street and may include some grass sections. Parade line up will begin an hour prior at Pine Street and Washington Street. Those being recognized as grand marshals of this year’s parade are Lorna and the late Dennis Christeleit. Lorna Christeleit has given over 50 years of service to the community through organizing vacation bible school, working at the library and serving as a member of the Volga Visioning Committee. She shared, “It was rewarding to teach the students about the Bible and get to know all the families in the area.” 

Her husband, Dennis Christeleit, was also involved in the community by being a member of their church council, serving as a trustee for the Hillcrest Cemetery and as a member of the Volga city council. The couple made the Christmas season memorable by organizing Santa Day in the community for 10 years. Lorna Christeleit helped keep memories of the community alive by organizing the All School Volga Reunions. 

Christeleit shared what motivated her to be so involved in her community was, “I wanted it to survive and be there for future generations. Small town living is enjoyable and rewarding. Whenever anyone needs help, neighbors are always there to pitch in.”

Following the parade, will be the second annual duck float. The duck float is a meaningful part of the celebration because it is the same event, with the same ducks, that was held at Volga’s original Turkey Day celebration. The Turkey Day celebration took place for the last time over 30 years ago, but committee member Melissa Fettkether said, “multiple people from the community have shared they remember watching this event in the past and are excited its back.” Ducks can be purchased at The Corner Shop, The Pit Stop or Nading’s. Monetary prizes will be given to the first, second and third place ducks in amounts of $150, $100 and $50. 

Next up on the schedule will be the bean bag and pickle ball tournaments. Throughout the afternoon, there will be water activities including a dunk tank, water ball wars and slip n slides. There will also be bounce houses and corn boxes. The Volga City Fire Department will be organizing the water activities as well as giving fire truck tours. The Volga City EMS will be providing health checks, sharing information about weather safety and getting to know members of the community. 

Deitchler, said, “The people in the community are its biggest asset.” The partnerships within the community, including the city, church, fire department, EMS, library and other organizations, have been huge in making the event a success. Before the inaugural event last year, the fire department along with the city employees organized a community cleaning day where they cleaned up shrubs and sidewalks, trimmed trees and cleaned the waterfall entryway to the town. 

Fettkether added, “I mean, I still kind of gets bumps to think about driving through town that week before and seeing the people out working together or cleaning up their yards in preparation for the event.”

New to this year’s celebrations will be the Volga City Opera House beer tent and live music in the park. The tent will open at 11 a.m. and serve beer, specialty drinks and Bloody Marys. Beau Timmerman will be playing, sponsored by AOK Repair. The committee is hoping these new exciting additions will encourage new people to come visit and enjoy the event.

Food options available throughout the day include Sacred Heart serving breakfast at the Volga U Campground from 8 until 10:30 am. For lunch, the Central Ag in Ireland group will be serving walking tacos. A second lunch option will be the Cavalry Baptist Church serving a pork loin meal. The Hangry Hobo food truck will begin serving at 2 p.m. and continue into the evening.

Funds raised through the Volga Day event will help support the Shaping Volga Endowment and the recent Small-Town Initiative Endowment Challenge Grant the committee was awarded from the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque. The grant is funded by an anonymous donor who grew up in Eastern Iowa. Over the next three years, the committee is tasked with raising $200,000 for the endowment fund. Once the goal is reached, the committee will receive an additional $40,000 grant to support the fund. Following competition, the fund will pay out $12,000 annually to support projects within the Volga community. When certain bench marks are reached throughout the process, the committee will receive additional monetary gifts to support the community. They are less than $30,000 away from reaching the first gift of $8,000. 

Plans for the initial gifts and annual payouts have not yet been decided. Though the committee has a lot of ideas, they would love to have community input in the decision making when the time comes. As part of the challenge grant, the committee members are working to grow the fund by making in-person visits with community members to explain more about the wonderful opportunities the endowment can bring to Volga in the future.

Additional information on the Volga Day celebration or the endowment challenge can be found on the Shaping Volga Endowment Committee’s website, www.shapingvolga.org, or on their Facebook page at ‘Shaping Volga Endowment.’