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Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Coralville hard at work preparing for RAGBRAI overnight stop
More than 900 volunteers needed for the city’s sixth time as host
CORALVILLE — Nicknamed the “hub of hospitality,” Coralville is eagerly preparing to welcome thousands of cyclists from all over the world when the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa spends the night in town in July.
This year’s RAGBRAI route — which begins July 22 in Sioux City — weaves through Coralville on July 28 before wrapping up in Davenport. This will be Coralville’s sixth time as an overnight host.
Coralville is gearing up for a double celebration as RAGBRAI’s 50th year coincides with the city's own 150th anniversary. The official theme of Coralville’s overnight stop is "Cheers to the years.”
Coralville is well-suited to be an overnight stop for RAGBRAI with hospitality being part of the city’s heritage, along with various options for entertainment, retail and restaurants, Mayor Meghann Foster said.
“Coralville knows how to throw a good party,” Foster said. “ … We always look forward to showing everyone what our community has to offer.”
More than 20,000 cyclists will go on the seven-day ride across Iowa, and cities along the route have been hard at work recruiting vendors, planning entertainment, coordinating logistics and finalizing details. Volunteers also will be needed in each town to ensure a smooth event, with Coralville needing more than 900 volunteers.
Think Iowa City is estimating $6.5 to $7 million in overall economic impact to the area when RAGBRAI stops in Coralville, said Nick Pfeiffer, vice president of public affairs at Think Iowa City. The economic impact for the area estimated in 2018 when Iowa City hosted an overnight stop was about $4 million.
“That's the incentive because it shows off our community, it allows our businesses to take advantage of new people to the area that may need their services and products,” Pfeiffer said. “But it also shows off what the city can do for these travelers to come back and want to spend a whole weekend here and explore more.”
Planning began in January
Coralville’s planning began in January when the city was announced as an overnight stop, City Administrator Kelly Hayworth said. A total of 20 committees were formed, each responsible for a different aspect of planning.
The planning isn’t all that different from previous years since Coralville has been an overnight stop before. But more riders are anticipated this time, Hayworth said.
“That's been a big part of this is just how to deal with those numbers,” Hayworth said, adding that this also includes more RVs.
RAGBRAI provides a handbook for overnight towns that’s more than 200 pages, Hayworth said. The handbook breaks down everything the towns need to know and ideas showing what other cities have done in past years.
Marengo chosen as meeting town
Cyclists will need to ride 82 miles after overnighting in Tama-Toledo before arriving in Coralville, passing through Chelsea, Belle Plaine, Amana and Oxford. The meeting town for the day is Marengo.
RAGBRAI’s stop in Marengo could do a lot of good for the city, said Corienne Dally, Marengo’s community development director. It will be an opportunity for thousands of people to appreciate the city, its people and its businesses, Dally added.
“We’re just hoping that people can see Marengo — we have a beautiful park, we have a lot of things to offer and basically, it's someplace that they want to come back to,” she said.
Dally said she has been planning for RAGBRAI since early March, when Marengo was officially slated to be a meeting town. With paperwork, logistics, social media and vendors to hammer out, Dally said the preparations have been thorough.
Riders are expected to come in on Highway 212. Participants will then be directed down Court Avenue, with vendors in what Dally called the “eye of the storm.” With 40 vendors lined up for riders to choose from, RAGBRAI will be an opportunity to highlight local businesses, Dally said.
Out of the 40 vendors, Dally said there is a great variety of food offerings. From pie and iced coffee to burritos and jerk chicken, the different offerings provide a multitude of options for riders. Along with food, Dally said there are going to be a handful of apparel vendors, including Iowa River Apparel located in Marengo.
“We're having some growth. We're getting a lot of new businesses,” Dally said. “We're hoping that with the riders coming in, that they'll see things that they'll want to come back for.”
Along with the vendors, Marengo is planning on having a DJ and the Herky the Hawk mascot with spirit squad members for riders to take photos with.
S.T. Morrison Park will be main campground
The set up for RAGBRAI’s overnight stop in Coralville will be in and around S.T. Morrison Park, Kirkwood Elementary and Northwest Junior High.
The entertainment stage will be set up similarly to how it is during the city’s FourthFest celebration, Foster said. Rock band Bush will be the headliner, with opening band Plush, an all-female rock group.
There also will be magicians, jugglers and local music acts throughout the day, said Pfeiffer, who is chair of the sponsorship committee and the publicity committee.
“It's not just the big headliners up at night — there's entertainment going on throughout the day,” Pfeiffer said.
Having the main site be close to the schools and the Coralville Recreation Center will allow riders to use the showers and pool to cool off, Foster said.
The area is also walkable and will have “larger than life” photo murals celebrating Coralville’s 150th anniversary, as well as a mural for RAGBRAI. All of the wheat-pasted murals are being done by artist Isaac Campbell.
Volunteers needed
Coralville will need the help of more than 900 volunteers, and there are various ways to get involved, Foster said. Volunteers will be needed the day of the overnight stop, in addition to the day before and the day after.
Anyone interested in volunteering can sign up online at CoralvilleRAGBRAI.com. Individuals can sign up, but so can groups, businesses and other organizations who would like to volunteer together.
The planning committee currently is taking names of anyone interested in helping and is working on the jobs and responsibilities volunteers will have, Hayworth said. Volunteers will be needed for the beverage garden, information booths, maintaining the campground area and more.
One of the biggest needs right now, Foster said, is volunteers to help house riders. People interested can volunteer to have riders camp in their yard or stay in their home.
“With Coralville hosting this several times now, there's people that come back over and over again, and so people that have had volunteered their house back in 1995 are still housing the same people that come back,” Pfeiffer said. “They've made lifelong relationships just by volunteering to house a rider.”
Budgeting for expenses
Hayworth said the budget committee began working instantly on the process and how much will be needed to cover expenses. Coralville’s RAGBRAI budget is $179,000.
The RAGBRAI organization provides $15,000 upfront to help with costs, Hayworth said. The Iowa City Area Sports Commission also has given the Coralville RAGBRAI committee a grant to assist with expenses.
The sponsorship committee has been out asking businesses to sponsor different aspects of the RAGBRAI visit. For example, Hills Bank is the movie sponsor and Iowa City Area Association of Realtors is the housing sponsor.
Something different this year, Hayworth said, is the RAGBRAI organization is providing the main entertainment and covering the expenses that go with that, such as the stage and sound equipment.
“That is a really big deal because that's been a huge expense in the past that can either make or break the budget, quite frankly,” Hayworth said.
Marengo is collaborating with Ed Twedt, a longtime RAGBRAI supporter who helps ensure that vendors can make money from the event. Dally said Twedt helps towns with the planning process and uses his experience to advise individual vendors for how much stock should be purchased in preparation.
Dally said that over the past several years, there have been complaints that there hasn’t been a great deal of profit coming out of RAGBRAI. Collaborating with Twedt and his organization helps mitigate that risk, according to Dally.
“The whole reason for being here is to promote our local businesses,” Dally said. “We would not have gotten involved if it wasn't an opportunity to really boost our local businesses and give them an opportunity to make some extra profits for the year.”
Jami Martin-Trainor of The Gazette contributed to this report.
Comments: (319) 339-3155; izabela.zaluska@thegazette.com
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