Colfax FFA Alumni meet fundraising goal for livestock barn

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX  —  Members of the Colfax FFA Alumni have met their fundraising goal for improvements to the livestock barn at the Colfax Fairgrounds.

“We were just going to do the south side, but then the donations started rolling in, so now we can do the whole thing, the sides and the back,” said Steve Ackerlund, president of the Colfax FFA Alumni.

Ackerlund noted that the entire project will cost about $26,000.

Employees at Bremer Bank presented Ackerlund with another donation toward the project in the form of a check for $315 as part of their Jeans for a Cause program April 29.

Employees at Bremer Bank in Colfax pay $5 to wear jeans on Fridays. The money is then donated to a worthy cause every quarter.

This time around, the employees chose the Colfax FFA Alumni’s livestock barn at the fairgrounds.

Members of the Colfax FFA Alumni presented the proposal to the Colfax Village Board in March for remodeling the barn and putting new tin on the roof.

At that time, the Colfax FFA Alumni only had enough money to do the south side of the building.

The estimate to put new steel on the north side was nearly $9,000, along with an additional $1,845 for replacing the steel on the gable ends on both sides of the livestock barn.

Ackerlund told the village board that completing the entire project was out of reach for the Colfax FFA Alumni.

Last year, the Colfax FFA Alumni replaced the steel on the arts and crafts building. The village paid a portion of the cost and loaned the rest of the money to the FFA Alumni.

The alumni group is paying the village back in annual installments of $1,700 for the arts and crafts building.

Another annual payment of $1,700 to the village for the livestock barn would not be possible, Ackerlund said.

Dairy show

The livestock barn project also includes a permanent structure on the south side to house dairy cattle during the Dunn County Dairy Open Show.

The Wisconsin Holstein Association has agreed to donate money for a permanent roof on the lean-to to accommodate the open dairy show held on the Saturday of the Colfax Free Fair.

The permanent structure for the dairy show will make a nice addition to the fairgrounds, Ackerlund said.

The Colfax FFA Alumni are remodeling the food stand at the fairgrounds as well.

Donations

Trustees on the Colfax Village Board suggested that the Colfax FFA Alumni do some additional fund raising for the livestock barn.

Ackerlund told the village board that the members of the FFA Alumni already do fundraisers in the form of the Farm Toy Show in February and the food stand at the fair and that he would be reluctant to ask community members for even more donations.

As it turned out, Don and Nola Schley of Elk Mound were not at all opposed to making a donation.

The Schleys offered a $5,000 matching grant, so that if the Colfax FFA Alumni raised $5,000, the group would get $10,000 all together.

“Don Schley called me on Tuesday. Then when it came out in that first Messenger, Priscilla Suvada called and said she would match it, in memory of David Suvada,” Ackerlund said.

The Colfax FFA Alumni published an advertisement about the matching grant in the Colfax Messenger for three weeks, beginning with the March 30 edition.

After the donation in memory of David Suvada, “then Carol Gerner called. And I suppose five or six other ones. We managed to get $13,000 or $13,500. Between the sides and the front of the (livestock barn) it was about $12,500 that we needed,” Ackerlund said.

“Right off the bat, we got donations. Anywhere from $25 up to $1,000 … you just don’t know when you start what the final outcome will be,” he said.

Dr. Bruce Buckley and the Colfax Animal Hospital also made a generous donation to the project, Ackerlund noted.

“I was really surprised. I didn’t think we’d get so many donations. I thought we would get Donald Schley’s contribution, and we would move on,” he said.

Leanne Clark of Bremer Bank encouraged the Colfax FFA Alumni and other non-profit groups to let Bremer Bank in Colfax know about projects that need funding.

“It’s such a small community but we’re able to do such good things,” Clark said.

Swine barn

The Colfax FFA Alumni is still accepting donations for fairgrounds projects, Ackerlund said.

“The swine barn next to (the livestock barn) is in rough shape, too, and is actually worse than the dairy barn. That one might need new poles. We are thinking that’s our next project. The Legion building is done. The Holden Church (food stand). The FFA food stand. Now the other ones look a little rough,” Ackerlund said.

The other building at the fairgrounds that has not had any attention is what is known as “the commercial building.”

The Colfax FFA Alumni have already completed much of the work on the interior of the FFA food stand.

“We redid the whole inside. The FFA made it a project. It’s all practically brand new inside with new walls and new ceiling. We thought it was more important than the outside right now. New tables. New sink,” Ackerlund said.

Heavy snow

The refurbishing of buildings at the fairgrounds actually started in the winter of 2014 when a heavy, wet snow at the end of February caused the roof of the refreshment stand (beer tent/shed/building) to collapse, bringing most of the rest of the building down with it.

The village’s insurance covered what is popularly known as the beer tent, and when it was completed, the new siding highlighted how rundown the other buildings looked in comparison.

The village also had the roof replaced on the beer garden and put a matching roof on the restrooms.

Then the FFA Alumni decided to do the arts and crafts building, and after that, members of the Holden Church voted to move forward with building a new food stand at the fairgrounds. The Holden food stand’s siding matches the arts and crafts building and the refreshment stand.

“I don’t think anything would have gotten going if it hadn’t been for that heavy snowfall,” Ackerlund said.

Other contributors

Cedar County Cooperative has a partnership with CoBank and with Land-o-Lakes, Ackerlund said.

“They came up with some money to do the south side of the dairy barn, and we went from there,” he said.

The tin has been ordered for the livestock barn, “so it’s going to happen in May,” he said.

“We are fortunate because we’ve got two fundraisers. For the Toy Show, once again, we had a thousand people show up. The vendors are very happy. FFA takes the food stand. That was excellent for them last year. And the last couple of years, we’ve had good turnouts at the fair. But we’ve got to make sure we cover the scholarships first,” Ackerlund said, noting that the FFA Alumni help sponsor other activities for FFA members as well.

“I was more than happy with the fundraising for the dairy barn,” he said.

“When (village board members) first brought it up about asking for donations, I thought, ‘oh boy, so many people get asked all the time, nobody is going to want to donate money for some tin.’ But I was surprised,” Ackerlund said.

This year will be the 97th Colfax Free Fair.

The fair will run June 23 through June 26.

“There’s already talk about what we’re going to do for the 100th anniversary of the fair,” said Ackerlund, who also serves on the Colfax Fair Board.