The Festus Tourism Commission awarded a total of $133,087.02 in grants last month to help fund a variety of events and projects to boost tourism to the city.
Typically, the commission awards about $200,000 or more in grants during its semi-annual meetings, but it only received requests for $140,387.02 this time around.
The COVID-19 pandemic, of course, was the reason for the lower number of grant requests and approvals, commission chairwoman Staci Templeton said.
She said the grants the Tourism Commission awarded for 2020 often went unused because of cancellations due to the pandemic.
While some activities planned for this year may end up being canceled, too, commission members say they hope life may return to something normal so the grants they awarded may be put to good use.
“It’s important to remain optimistic that there will be events and we want to make sure we provide sponsorships,” Templeton said. “We have no control over how COVID is going to control our world, but we want to make sure we are moving forward.”
The other commission members are Melody Yesberg, Rhonda Gerstner, Rick Fischer and Mike Cage. Fischer did not participate in the Dec. 16 meeting, when the latest round of grants was awarded.
Templeton said the emergence of COVID vaccines is a reason to be optimistic that large gatherings will return in 2021.
Several of those who received some of the latest grants said they, too, are hoping to see a return of community events this year.
When the Tourism Commission awards grants, they are only paid after events are held, with organizations reimbursed for their expenses. So, any grant funds that are not used remain with the commission.
A number of the grants awarded last month include “rollover” amounts from events that were cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic or other reasons.
Voters approved a 2 percent hotel-motel tax in 2002 and then approved a measure in 2012 to raise the tax to 5 percent, and revenue from that tax provides the commission with its funding source.
Even if all the money from grants awarded in December are spent, the commission still has about $168,000 in remaining funds right now, Festus finance director Stephanie Cunningham reported.
Below is a list of the most recent grants the commission awarded, along with comments from some of those recipients:
■ $30,000 grant to Robert Bruns for his AP All American Bowl and a $10,000 grant for his State Championship Tournament. Bruns has operated several elite team youth football events in prior years with funding assistance from Tourism Commission grants.
■ $28,000 to the city of Festus as requested by City Administrator Greg Camp for a marketing campaign, as well as $6,500 to Cunningham for city advertising and miscellaneous expenses for municipal events.
Camp said the first event the city is scheduled to put on this year is its Dirty Dozen Mud Run – a race over obstacles. A date has not been set, but previous Mud Runs were held in the spring at the Larry G. Crites Memorial Park (formerly West City Park).
“We want to be able to host our events and not worry about, unfortunately, what we had to worry about in 2020,” Camp said. “We will have to see how things play out with COVID.”
■ $12,000 to the Jefferson County Tourism Commission, a new entity established by the Jefferson County Growth Association to promote tourism in the county, Camp said.
■ $12,000, a rollover grant to Denny Foster, owner of the Main & Mill Brewing Co. in Festus, for the Street Fest he has organized for six years. The 2021 Street Fest is expected to be held on a Saturday in October. In the past, the event has included live music and several Main Street businesses participating.
“We didn’t do our Street Fest last year due to COVID,” Foster said. “I feel like we have a pretty good chance at making it work (this year), because it’s not until the middle of October and the vaccines are coming. I’d say our optimism level is high for the event, as well as for other city events later in the year.”
■ $10,000 requested by Ray Marler for the World of Outlaws auto racing event at the Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely. The event is planned for Aug. 6-7, he said.
“I’ve got a feeling we’ll be back to normal by then, with the vaccines,” said Marler, who, along with race car driver Ken Schrader, owns the raceway.
Marler said the raceway facility holds close to 7,000 people and normally is packed during the World of Outlaws events.
“That’s my biggest show of the year,” he said. “Last (time) we drew people from over 30 states and from Australia and New Zealand.”
This is the first time Marler has been awarded grant money from the commission and he said it will be applied to advertising.
Templeton said the event’s big draw to the region is the reason commission members voted to award a grant to a venue outside of Festus.
“Tourism looks at how an event impacts the city in general,” she said. “This event is large and has a big draw of spectators and participants from around the country. They come to Festus hotels and restaurants. It’s a way for us to market the city.”
■ $7,600 to Andy Held for the Bottleneck Bridge Ride bicycling event.
■ $6,000 to Kevin Hagerty for Cadet Tom Memorial Days, an event formerly called Bikers on Main Street.
■ $6,000 to Wesley Armbruster for a Track Football Consortium event.
■ $2,000 to Katie Huck for the Take 10 for BB (Bryan Brennan) 5K Walk-Run sponsored by the Twin City Area Junior Optimist Club, which is sponsored by the Twin City Area Optimist Club. The event, which raises money for suicide awareness and prevention, is scheduled for Oct. 23 at the Larry G. Crites Memorial Park.
Huck, a member of the adult Optimist Club, said the event actually was held in the fall of 2020, with precautions, and she believes the 2021 version will go off with even more runners.
“In 2020, everybody had to wear masks and take their temperature before they ran,” she said. “They’d go in groups of 10 and had different start times.
“We had about 45 runners. COVID affected (participation). In 2021, we would like to at least double the numbers of runners.”
■ $1,500 to Shelley Otec for a YMCA Thanksgiving Day Workout in November.
■ $1,487.02 to Jim Berger on behalf of the Jefferson County Pickleball League for expenses incurred from a 2020 pickleball tournament now named the Larry Crites Memorial Pickleball Tournament.
“We had 200-plus participants. We had people in it from seven states, including Missouri,” Berger said. “We want the 2021 tournament to be a nine-day event covering two weekends in June (in conjunction with the Twin City Firecracker Extravaganza).”