For years, businesses in the City of Vinton have been decked out with holiday roping and wreaths just in time for the holiday season. Twenty-fourteen will be no different thanks to the local Vinton-Shellsburg scholarship committee, GoVS (Generating Opportunities for Viking Scholars). The decorations will be in place just in time for Vinton’s annual holiday parade on Thursday evening, November 20.
Volunteer board members start preparing in September, gathering dates and price information from a local nursery, preparing and mailing order forms and lining up volunteers to help distribute and hang the orders. Student volunteers from the National Honor Society and FFA are instrumental in the final step of hanging up and taking down the roping.
“It takes teamwork,” noted GoVS treasurer Wendy Riggle. “From making arrangements with the nursery to compiling the orders and then delivering, hanging up and taking down roping, there are many hours of labor involved for GoVS and its volunteers.”
Once the final order is placed with the nursery, the individual orders are divided into groups based on proximity for efficient delivery and hanging.
On Friday, November 14, GoVS will receive 100 foot rolls of bound evergreen and cut it into the correct length for each order. A bag with red bows for each order is attached and then tagged for delivery on Saturday morning.
By 7am on November 15, a few volunteers in bucket trucks will begin hanging up what cannot be safely reached by ladder. Adult volunteer and student teams will disperse throughout the city around 9am, and have it all complete within a few hours.
“It took several years, but we really have this down to a science,” said GoVS board member Dan Engledow. “What previously took a full crew six or more hours on Saturday morning, now takes less than three.”
GoVS, which recently underwent a name change from ‘Vinton Area Dollars for Scholars’, uses the profits to help fund scholarships for students in the Vinton-Shellsburg Community School District. The group and its partners have awarded over a quarter-million dollars in scholarships since being founded in the early ‘90s. Their fundraising efforts have also included 50-50 raffles at the Benton County Speedway, coffee mug sales sponsored by John’s Qwik Stop and the famous donkey basketball games.
“You’ll hear more about the next donkey-ball game soon,” GoVS board member Kelly Elliot said with a smile.
Members of the public that would like to order evergreen roping and wreaths are encouraged to visit the GoVS website (www.govs.us) for an order form. The last orders must be turned in by Sunday, November 23. Those orders will be available to pick up on Tuesday, December 9. Special arrangements for delivery are also possible. Any questions regarding orders or general information can be emailed to GoVS at: info@govs.us.
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