COMMUNITY FAIR OF OSCEOLA INC

New Fair Building

Monetary Donation

Date Needed By: 08/30/2024

Contact Name: COMMUNITY FAIR OF OSCEOLA INC

Details on what is needed:The Community Fair of Osceola is a three day event the first weekend after Labor Day that serves to bring the community together in family-friendly activities along with attracting significant tourist dollars to the local community. As we move into our 100th year, we work to continue the small town tradition of the local community fair. We are staffed entirely by unpaid volunteers both on the fair board and those who come to work just on fair weekend. Our current building was constructed in 1960 and is nearing collapse facing the Community Fair with an existential threat. We are going to replace this building with a new building of similar size in collaboration with Village efforts to revitalize neighboring Oakey Park. As an official Main Street Community with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, The Osceola Chamber of Commerce can access cell phone data to understand the number of people visiting the downtown core. The week of the 2023 Community Fair and Osceola Wheels and Wings saw 8,857 unique visitors to the area, up from 6,581 visitors the week before - a 2,276 person (35%) increase. This increase occurs following one of the busiest tourism weekends of the year so it is significant. Demographically, Osceola has a median household income of around $75,000. On Fair weekend, 52% of downtown visitors had an annual income of between $100,000 and 150,000 per year. Additionally, 47% of downtown visitors came from households of more than two people in them, pointing to the strong presence of families. The top three origins of people that visited the core were Osceola itself, Dresser, WI and St Paul, MN. More than 3100 people visited from Minnesota. Moreover, these cellphone numbers likely do not measure the true impact as they only measure those who spent significant time (and likely spending money) in the downtown core in the vicinity of the Harvest Bazaar and do not include those that would be visiting the Fair Grounds to the North or the Airport grounds for Wheels and Wings to the South. While we do not have general attendance numbers for the fair, the major events for the fair provide some guidance to the size and reach. The Truck pull on Friday night generally sees around 60 trucks in attendance and ticket sales range of 1,000 to 1,200. Saturday's tractor pull is similar with approximately 180 tractors entering on average with a paid attendance of around 800. For the carnival attractions in 2023, 10,200 individual ride tickets were sold on top of the 570 wrist bands, which allow for unlimited rides during certain time periods on Friday night and Saturday. Fair weekend is not the only time the building impacts the community. Recently, the Fair grounds started to host the Valley Brew Fest which is a fundraiser for the Osceola Rivertown Trails Coalition which serves to maintain public hiking and biking trails in and around the Village of Osceola in coordination with the Village. The Fair also has educational and cultural impact. Exhibitors, many of them still in school, submit projects ranging from subjects surrounding plant and soil to cultural arts for judging. Organizations help run various stands at the fair as well. The Osceola High School FFA Chapter has helped to organize the Tractor pull. The team work, communication, organizational skills learned in these activities is invaluable. As the fair enters its 100th year of existence in 2024, it is right to consider the cultural importance of the fair. Many communities in Wisconsin have shuttered their local fairs and now only have a county fair each. The Community Fair of Osceola continues the long-standing rural and small-community tradition of summer or fall gathering and celebrating. The existence of the fair building will help ensure and preserve this legacy. A new Fair building would provide Osceola with a large, publicly available indoor community center for large group meetings, business/networking events, weddings, dances, fundraisers, and other activities for which the community does not currently possess. Moreover, it helps to preserve a one hundred year old cultural/historical tradition of the Osceola Community as without the building, our Fair would be under an existential threat that is has not seen before. The Fair Building project is strongly supported by the Osceola Community. So far, the Fair Board has raised just over $300,000 in 10 years of Fair profits and donations. The Osceola Lions Club has donated $25,000. We are also closely working with and supported by the Village of Osceola. The building itself sits in a Village Park on land leased from the Village. The village has taken action in the past year as they affirmed the location of the building