decorahnews.com reader suggests Decorah will have to work harder to become an overnight stop for RAGBRAI

decorahnews.com reader Dan Voss sent this letter to the editor in reaction to the news that RAGBRAI will not stop in Decorah this summer:

"When RAGBRAI announced this year's route, I was not really surprised that Decorah was not picked as one of the overnight stops. My observation is that it takes a lot more than filling out an application to get the ride to stop for an overnight. I look to the example of Charles City. Charles City has been selected to be an overnight stop for a fourth time. 1982 was the first time that Charles City was selected as an overnight stop. Charles City was selected again in 1996. I was a resident of Charles City in the 1990's, and while I wasn't directly involved, I know that there was a very public, organized lobbying effort by Charles City to attract the ride. As I recall, this lobbying spanned over the period of at least 2 years. It involved city officials, many community groups, as well as the participation of the community as a whole. I believe that this effort even included a number of community leaders dressed up as grandmas showing up in Des Moines with apple pies guaranteeing that every rider entering 'America's Hometown' would get a piece of apple pie.

Not only was the effort of Charles City successful in getting RAGBRAI to town, they've apparently made the riders welcome and happy since they were an overnight stop again in 2002 and now again in 2010.

The 2010 calendar provided an opportunity for RAGBRAI to come to Decorah without colliding with Nordic Fest. It would have taken a huge effort to handle these two major events back to back, but it also would have offered a chance to showcase Decorah to a new audience of people.

RAGBRAI XXXVIII is a lost opportunity. If Decorah wants to take advantage of a future opportunity when RAGBRAI and Nordic Fest would not conflict, we need to be prepared to get the community involved and not just tell RAGBRAI that it is OK if they come. The community will need to be prepared to tell RAGBRAI that we welcome/want/beg them to come.