Grant County, ND

Marvel Schmacher, Sentinel Butte, is the Highway 21 Treasure Hunt grand prize winner of $100.00. Her name was drawn from nearly 1,200 names registered during the Highway 21 Treasure Hunt when eight communities along Highway 21 hosted city-wide rummage sales, June 20-21, 2008.

“Marvel was thrilled to hear she had won.” says coordinator Luann Dart. “This is the third year she has visited the event.”

Participating communities include: St. Anthony, Flasher, Carson, Elgin, New Leipzig, Mott, Regent and New England.

“Sales went well this year,” Dart says. A registration log was kept at one sale in Elgin, where 274 names were listed. Another gauge for attendance are the registration slips in each community. Duplicate registrations were not counted as much as possible, and Elgin had the highest attendance among the eight communities with 358 folks registering. Carson had the second highest registrants at 218.

Those registration slips also indicate how far visitors traveled for the sales. More than 100 people from the Bismarck/Mandan area made the trip. Folks traveled from Jamestown, Valley City, Minot, Williston and Dickinson. Smaller communities of Pingree, Cooperatown, Duseith, Zap, Watford City, Steele, Linton, Ashley and others were also represented. And lots of local folks supported the sales, which is also important.

“The Highway 21 Treasure Hunt has a large economic impact on this area,” Dart says. If each local rummage sale earns $400.00 rummage sales alone brought up to $48,000 into the area.

Local businesses also reported a positive economic impact from the sales. The Crossroads Inn rented nine of its 11 rooms to rummager that Friday evening. They came from Rugby, Bottineau, Baker, MT, and Cooperstown, just to attend the sales. Restaurants were also busy and reported a large volume of customers, while grocery stores and gas stations along the route also noticed increased business.

“I want to thank everyone who had a sale, and other those who supported the sales”, Dart says, “And I especially thank each community coordinator who make this event such a success.”

Next year’s Highway 21 Treasure Hunt will be held June 19-20, 2009.

County Fairs are a great opportunity for county residents to showcase their garden produce, craft, food or sewing item that was made by them.  For the 4-H member it is a great way to show the public what 4-H is all about. The 4-H program teaches life skills through many projects, such as rocketry, computer science, nutrition, citizenship, leadership, theatre arts, robotics, geospatial, electricity, bicycle, entomology and photography. 4-H is much more than livestock projects. It has evolved from a program that traditionally served rural youth to one that serves the needs of all youth, no matter where you live. Studies also show that youth who participate in 4-H do better in school, are more motivated to help others and are less likely to engage in risky behaviors.

So check out a county fair near you.

The Grant County Fair & 4-H Achievement Days will be held August 14-17, 2008 in Carson, ND.

It was great to read the blogs about shopping locally and helping get the word out to residents about the importance of this.  It truly helps communities all around when people attempt to shop at home.  It is so nice to see Grant County working on an effort to get more individuals to shop locally!

Lynette