Cedar Rapids preschooler makes sauerkraut label

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Norton family - Mark, Josie and their two boys, Cooper, 5, and Jackson - love a good parade.

“We go to parades all summer long, it's our thing,” Josie Norton says. “I love parades. The boys love the fire trucks and the candy doesn't hurt, either.”

It was at the Great Jones County Fair parade that the Cedar Rapids family received single-serve packs of Frank's Kraut promoting Lisbon's annual Sauerkraut Days.

As a result, not only did the family attend the celebration of sauerkraut and community, Cooper's smiling face also will appear on Frank's Kraut labels nationally this summer.

Each year at the event Frank's Kraut asks sauerkraut lovers to submit photos for use on future labels.

“I just decided to do it,” says Josie, who took a picture of each of her sons and sent the images to Frank's.

A few months later, the family was notified that Cooper's picture was selected.

“He knows how to work it,” Josie says of her youngest child, who has a gleeful grin in the winning photo.

That smile, Josie says, fits Cooper, a happy, playful preschooler, who wakes at 6 every morning so he can start playing. A fan of trains and cars, Cooper also loves LEGOS and drawing.

Cooper, who will start kindergarten in the fall, likes sauerkraut, but Josie admits she's the true fan in the Norton home.

“If I get some, Cooper and Jackson will try it, but I'm the one who loves it,” she says.

Sauerkraut fans, can still show their love for Frank's Kraut. The company is still accepting pictures of fans displaying their love of sauerkraut. For more information, visit Myfrankskraut.com or attend the Ackley, Blairstown and Lisbon sauerkraut festivals this summer. All are sponsored by Frank's.

“It's a tribute to the appeal of the Frank's brand and sauerkraut in general to see not one, but three entire festivals dedicated to sauerkraut in the state of Iowa,” says Katie Smith, marketing manager for the company.