Tuned In

Today, we're going to take time, visit with Andy Bartlett, one of the chairs for Reg Brigh, coming to Boone. Andy, thanks for coming in. Morning, Jim. Thanks for having me. Well, we've got, what, five weeks? We're getting close. Something like that. Yep. And I know that you've done some meetings in the last community meeting, rather small attendance, but a lot of people had found out a lot of things they wanted to do. And there's very, I mean, you know, there's only so many things you could do. Now we're getting to the point where you need to start having your information available to let it. So writers will know as they're coming to town. A lot of it's been a lot of community prep up to this point in time, but is that pretty well where we're at? It is, yeah. And you know, hopefully the small attendance at the community meeting is a sign that we're doing a good job of getting all the communication that we need to get out to our community members on what's going to happen and what's going on. But we're at a point now where we have the route. We know what's coming and we know where it's going and where we're going to be staging with a lot of our stuff. So community impact was a big strong focal point initially for our messaging. And now what we want to do is we want to ramp up what we have available to our cyclists and support drivers and all of the throng of people that will be coming in on July 21st as to what's available when they come to Boone for Reg Bray. I know last visit we had last month with Chief Weibald. He talked, wanted to talk mostly about the Reg Bray route and the plan for that, but he also emphasized that they'll go where they want. I mean, they'll be all over. Yeah. Yeah. We know the rides coming from Ogden on old Highway 30. It'll come in past the courthouse on Mamie Eisenhower and then turn south on Story Street. And all those crossover streets will have barricades on them starting, actually, I think starting Monday evening. But a lot of them are going to be manned with volunteers. So there will be some crossover sections for residents to get out to the grocery store to work, to appointments, whatever they need to get to. And that map information will be available really shortly because we are wrapping up maps. If not today, right away, first thing tomorrow morning. And I know the one thing you guys had encouraged in the beginning was if you want riders to know where you're at, what you've got, get on the map. Yep. And that one's going because that's got to be, you got to have that printed. They need to have that available. Yeah. Raghbri prints this awesome double-sided map with all of our amenities and attractions and food vendors and things in the town. And that's like the holy grail for the riders as they come from town to town. There's tens of thousands of copies printed off. They give them out the day before in Guthrie Center and then they'll get them on their way. So they know where they're going, what to find as they plan for their arrival in Boone. But the time to finish up maps is tomorrow. So we're looking at finalizing those today so we can send that off to Raghbri so they can print all of our maps for us and start to get those distributed. So one of the challenges and I know that the beginning of June was one of those you wanted people to sign up if they were willing to be hosts. And some did. Others had contacts with people that are in Raghbri and they just called and said, can you house me? Yep. It's amazing just to hear, you know, at the ballpark or wherever you're at in the community, people talking about, well, I had my friends contact me about hosts or staying at my place. And I know there's a lot of those personal connections that have been made, but we still have hundreds of riders that have signed up looking for places to stay in Boone on the night, Tuesday night, July 21st. So if anybody listening has yard space or a basement or a garage or an extra bedroom or two or shed or whatever it might be, and you're comfortable opening that up to these riders, you know, we ask them when they request housing to list their Raghbri registration number, how many people in their party, their preferences, and we know we can't meet all their preferences. But if you've got a space for them where they can just stay the night, you know, a lot of people create meaningful connections when they stay at residence houses along this ride. You know, Raghbri officials have told us that all along. And the testimonials we heard from our overnight communities from last year, when Danny Hammond and I went down to the overnight committee meeting back in February. So, I mean, it's, it's a really cool side of Raghbri where the visitors get to see, you know, the community spirit and aspect things from our residents. And then our residents get to host some people for the night just in a, in a unique way. So if you're, if you're willing to do that and have space to offer, the sign up form is still on our visit booncounty.com website under the Raghbri tab. And we'd be more than happy to, to have you sign up and start making those matches. And again, that's one of those things. If you're willing to, again, a lot of times it's not very much shower, bathroom, place to camp. Yep. And no deadline on that. We're looking, we're looking for people to sign up, you know, the sooner the better. So we can start matching these riders who are looking for a place to stay. One of the things I throw in there is because it is July and Iowa and you know what happens with the weather. So you want to make sure you might have a space where people could come in. Yeah. Yeah. Should Mother Nature decide to not be nice with us. We have emergency shelters identified along the route and at our festival area, but another kind of cool aspect to Raghbri is even if you're not hosting a rider, but you know that you're close to the ride or the events or campground. One of the things they recommend is that residents in the event of severe weather flip on their porch lights or their exterior yard lights. And that's kind of just a unsung symbol for Raghbri riders to say, hey, these people might have a space for us to come inside out of the weather, whether it's their garage or shed or whatever it is. But you know, keep that in mind too, that that's kind of a way for riders to identify where they can seek shelter. Well, one of the things, and I know first of all, I'm just going to hit on because I'm sure you got an update from Danny Hammond about sponsorships. Sounds like it's been going pretty good. It has been going well. You know, we're always welcome new and additional sponsors at any level. That sponsorship stuff is also on visitboomcounty.com. But you know, our sponsorships are what's going to help make this happen from the entertainment, to the services we can provide, to our shuttles and everything in between. You know, these sponsorships really go a long way in helping our community show how good of a job we can do hosting this event. So one who deals with a tourism side of things for you, putting on a pretty good face like this, having a lot of opportunities, does tend to draw people back, doesn't it? It does. It does. You know, there, if we can make a memorable impact on people, whether it's a great place to stay, good entertainment, just the overall setting, you know, the hospitality side of things as we come into town, that's really kind of makes a lasting impact on people and wants to draw them back if they see that there's more to do than just stay one night on the ground in McCos Park. So, you know, our hospitality team led by Trevor Jensen has come up with a really cool concept called Coolest Yard in Boon. It's a contest for our residents, especially those living along Mamie and Story as the writers come in. You know, you can find information again on our VisitBoomCounty.com website on this contest. You can sign up, enter your yard, decorated in the cool down in Boon theme, spray in water, having inflatable snowman, whatever it might be, and you'll get a yard stake with a number and the writers as they come in to our information booths will have the opportunity to vote on the coolest yard in Boon and you'd win prizes and stuff sponsored by our committee. So, you know, that's kind of a neat aspect to it and one of those things like you said that ties in community spirit and memorable experiences for the writers. Well, it's going to be fun. Let's talk volunteers because that is the category that they said Andy will take care of volunteers. Okay. So, I know in the beginning and a lot of the information I get, you know, rag people that I need to understand, rag rise quite an organization. I mean, the registered, the group that actually puts this together every year, they've got a lot of information about this and they pretty well tell you, you know, all right, as you get a little closer, your volunteers will start stepping up and you'll start filling things. So, how has it been going? I know you probably had some groups early on that said, hey, I like do the visitors booth or information booth and things. So, on paper with our sign up forms, I think we have over 100 volunteers already interested in helping out that day and I've got commitments from other groups in and around town and even some over in Story County that want to come over and help for the day. But the possibilities to help are endless and the roles are diverse and we would take people right up until the day of the ride to help us with certain things. So, we're going to look for people probably well in advance to help us set up the day before. Also, the day after for a little bit of cleanup, we'll sweep back through our campgrounds and make sure those are cleaned up well. Staging the day before but then the day of the ride, you know, in addition to the information booth type stuff which will be actually kind of a small part of what we need volunteers for. There's roles in sanitation with helping to change out garbage liners. There is people that we need for stage hands, for hairball and the other entertainment as we set up stages that morning and get the entertainment venue all set up. Campground helpers monitoring McCose Park, middle school, the areas where we're going to have our campers. People sell an ice out of golf carts. We need support vehicle check in help out at the Speedway. There is a number of ways in which you can help and go into VisitBoomCounty.com. There's again a sign up for volunteers interested in helping. You can check some boxes on certain areas of the event you want to help with and then we'll reach back out and possibly match you with maybe the role you want or hopefully get you involved in a meaningful way otherwise that'll help us welcome these riders and provide a good experience for them. So again a lot of it is just the a couple of days where you know I we say right reg rise is going to just overnight here so it's the one day but for our community we got to get ready got to get set up and then we got to get down and like you said do clean up afterwards and handle all that. Yeah our team of a dozen or 20 people that are working on our committee could never do this by ourselves without the help of our subcommittee members and the volunteers that that we hope will come out from this community to put on a good show for these riders. All right let's talk again about the volunteer parts so again you mentioned just some of them can you get into some of the other detailed things. Yeah I would say I'm probably a week away from really reaching out to some groups that have already signed up or individuals and saying hey this might be a really good fit for your business because there's a couple businesses that are going to be closed that day but their employees want to volunteer and help out so so placing people in some of those key roles like support vehicle check-in or help and set the stage up for hairball are going to be really important for us to find good people to be there and committed to it but otherwise you know these other ones though will put out a blanket sign up for you know signing up for different roles and stuff and people can kind of pick and choose time slots and what they want to do so I would think that in about a week we're going to be really close to pushing some some bigger volunteer opportunities out and people can sign up for what they want okay so that's again check keep checking I'm guessing online uh this is a boom county right that's right all right good well that'll take care of that yeah we we hosted the riders last week oh I was gonna say yeah we had the pre the they made the trip through yep so the director staff you know about 20 30 of them ride the whole route during the week first week in June so Tuesday night we've hosted them here in boon they came into town about four o'clock and stopped at the freedom rock for a couple pictures they got cleaned up and then we met later at the little league fields the the direct the staff there on the board of the little league uh um place they did a fantastic job of partnering with us to help promote what the little league is to give a cool experience to the director staff for reg bri they got to uh just say the little league pledge they got to throw out first pitches on all seven of the ball diamonds that night because the whole complex was packed with kids playing ball um uh chief Adams brought a big fire engine out and took some of them up in the bucket truck way up high above so they could get some pictures of the complex and things so it was a really cool night and then they ate at sts avenue cafe and had a good time hanging out in boon before they went on their their journey towards marshall town the next day okay and that's it I knew they were coming through and that's one of those rides where basically they check the route see how everything is coming together and uh and I know they continue to meet and keep updated with you and now that they're done they come in final touches any other issues and things going on so yeah otherwise uh most everything seems to be coming together I think we're in a really good spot as far as as a whole for our committee planning this effort we're in a really good place and prepared well for for the stages that are coming as we get closer to the ride and one of the things we just released this week on visit boon county dot com was uh merchandise okay so we have pre sales for merchandise out there right now and there's some really cool unique stuff in addition to some shirts and commemorative things so so head on over there to check out merch if you want to pre buy some of that stuff we're going to do a lot of our sales pre rag brie uh so people know they've got their stuff and can pick it up sure uh and again cool down and boon that's going to be our in the way it's feeling today we definitely will want to cool down pretty sure that we could be wow it'd be great if we if they had ideal weather conditions for it but it's july it's july we'll be prepared either way I know uh so things that we're still looking for again people that might care to host again please make contact uh it's just an easy way to help be a part of it we know that there are going to be a lot of people that will be again if they can't pair up somewhere we'll try to find we'll go to one of the bigger campground yeah yeah we've placed a lot of people Dave sherry's done a great job of placing a lot of people already uh as well terry mormon and so and so we but we have a lot more to place so please sign up if you have a space to host sign up if you have an interest in volunteering check out the merch on visit boon county dot com you'll start to see more stuff even pop up there with maps as we finalize that stuff this week so uh that's your your one stop shop for everything boon rag brie I think one of the new things that and again rag brie folks the last time they overnighted was what 15 years ago a lot different now than it was then first of all the average age 52 so it's a lot older yeah uh we also know that uh the concept of charters yeah as all of a sudden showing up where they retain somebody to haul their all their stuff all their gear in between the communities and help get it all set up they bring in some portable showers they do you know each one does it a little bit different but it is a what they as they got old as rag brie riders they've gotten older they've learned a few tricks that's right that's right it's the all inclusive experience to rag brie now so it's uh it's unique but it's something that we plan for and we've got space for and uh a cool addition to the ride I was going to say uh the charter part is one part of it but you still got a lot of these regular riders that are out there we do and it might be uh three four people out of a neighborhood that are getting together to ride and we might have the group that's riding from guthrie senate to here just to see hairball and then going on to marshall town and then that might be their ride yeah that they do yeah and if you're not if you're not involved in the ride and you you may be volunteer or help out during the day we're going to invite our community to come out as well that night for our entertainment and we have a an incredible lineup of entertainment from jake and hawk early on in the day to hairball as the headliner that night and and everything in between so it'll be a really cool show and I think this town with with decent weather I mean it's going to swell just because of the entertainment alone yeah they'll be coming from other other locales just for the entertainment again then they don't have to go to the state fair and see them well they'll be there anyway so we'll have that again the big thing is uh volunteering uh hosting those seem to be our big categories right now where yep we'd like a little more community input involvement if we can uh and just building those numbers and again if you if you get an overabundance of volunteers I'm pretty sure it's not going to bother you know we'll find places for people to help out for sure yeah there'll be plenty of them and again for those that might be willing to do a little day before help with setup yep day after help with cleanup if you don't want to be uh if you want to be down there and part of the crowd yeah during uh rag bride yeah you can do the uh you can do the others yep our our next big thing is a committee that we'll be tackling as signage and all the needs to navigate people around town to you know amenities and things and campgrounds so signage is one of our next big uh projects for the committee but again another volunteer role the day before will be setting up signage and the day after it'll be tearing it down so you know lots of little things to help with throughout the course of the ride so we've talked about again the the maps and how important that is too so are are are you done collecting input for maps at this time we are done yep we're finalizing shuttles and and uh finishing up camping assignments and all that and today I think is going to put a bow on the on the map so it can be sent to rag bride tomorrow yeah because they don't print just for boon they print for the whole ride so they've got everything going on and they'll just uh go for the best here so uh any other uh now meetings for the your committee uh coming up our big committee uh do we have any other uh planned meetings that are coming up here like later in June that say okay we're set we've got this stuff going and here's the final things we need are are we looking at another meeting like that we'll have community meetings for uh probably targeting now mostly volunteers who have signed up and once we get them fitted into different roles the volunteers will have staging staging meetings leading up to the ride okay where we can we can outline exactly what you'll be doing the time you'll be doing it and what expected of the role so look for some of that to come up too and uh you know just just visit the website visit booncounty.com rag bride tab and it's uh everything you'll need to know will be right there and if you and your neighbor got a couple open spaces and trees for shade and you're willing to uh host some riders yeah get together yep haven't come and have a neighborhood get together so Andy Bartlett on our program today thanks so much for joining us and helping go through a lot of this and once again uh visit boon county that's the place to go we do have the uh rag bite uh brag bride page on there and all the uh ways to sign up and get information is still available there do you have also a facebook page right we do yep boon rag bride 2026 is the facebook page a lot of promotional stuff on there all right andy Bartlett's uh on today again part of the committee thanks so much for joining us thanks jim thanks boon