Thank you for successful first year

To the editor:
We just finished with the inaugural Sportsman Garage Sale on April 9 and 10 in the Marion and Irene Bubp Exhibition Hall and the Women’s Building at Jay County Fairgrounds.
The theme was about sportsmen catering to hunting, fishing, taxidermy, camping, tools and all things pertaining to these areas.
Jay County Fair Board members Brian Aker and Ron Krieg along with volunteers Jeremy Lewis and Scott Swingley put together this idea and floated it to the board of directors as an event to raise funds. This is a new event designed to cater to the average guy down the street and the business on the corner that sold mowers and the above mentioned items.
The fair board voted to sponsor our idea, and before we knew it exploded. In six weeks we sold out 39 booth spaces inside the Bubp building, 16 booth spaces inside the Women’s Building and several outside spaces. It grew overnight with more than 50 deer and fish mounts adorning the walls inside the Bubp Building and an array of additional wildlife like turkeys, big horn sheep, a fully mounted black bear, a full-body mount of 10-point buck and more, all in the span of six weeks.
The sales of these items from the vendors generated well over $30,000 in sales to the vendors and brought a conservative estimate of 5,000 people to Portland and Jay County. Two people drove seven hours to get here and stayed overnight.
When all things were totaled we were able to present the Jay County Fair Board close to $6,500 as our share of the event to be used for improvements at Jay County Fairgrounds.
We would like to thank the following organizations and individuals for their generous donations and support: Jay County Fair Board, David Bricker (True Value), Fisher Packing, American Legion Post #211, Chris Krieg, Clint Davis of R Davis & Sons, Curt and Tammy McLaughlin, Brad Glentzer, Anita Mills, 1Shot Sports, Kip VanSkyock, Dwight “Digger” Rines, Rob Weaver and WPGW, Linda Leonhard. We would also like to thank the Aker family — Debbie, Katie, Chelsea, Tyler and Bryce Roberts; the Lewis family — Dawn, Alec and Tyler; the Krieg family — Betty and LeAnn; and Brooke Aker for sharing Matt’s trophy’s with us for a memorial.
Thanks also to the many people that brought deer mounts in to adorn the Bubp Building. It created quite an impressive display of Indiana deer.
The support was overwhelming for a first-time event. The bar is set high.
Our intention is for a bigger and better show in 2017, and we are in the planning stages already. The tentative date for 2017 is the second weekend in April.
Once again, a big thanks for all who helped make this first event a memorable one.
Ron Krieg, Brian Aker, Jeremy Lewis and Scott Swingley
Sportsman Garage Sale committee