Chamber ‘invests’ in annual celebration

Jason Speltz’s first Heartland Days as a member of New Horizons-Chamber was back in 2012, which means this upcoming weekend’s celebration will be his eighth with the organization that puts on New Hampton’s annual celebration.
And here’s the deal: Speltz is adamant that Mother Nature owes him and New Horizons.
She’s thrown pretty much everything she can at Heartland Days.
“Let’s see, we’ve had downpours like last year,” he said. “We had the year with the cold funnel, we had the one year where it was so stinking hot. And pretty much every year going into the weekend, we’ve had a forecast that is at the very least threatening.”
The chamber director paused and laughed.
“Yeah, Mother Nature owes us. Just once, I’d love to wake up Friday morning and see, sunny and 70s and 80s with absolutely no rain in the forecast for the next few days. This is our year, right?”
He certainly hopes so because the bottom line is if the weather cooperates, Heartland Days is going be one heck of a party.
Chamber officials have booked what Speltz calls two “big-name” bands — The Dweebs will take the Mikkelson Park band shell stage on Friday night while the Vic Ferrari Band will do the same on Saturday evening — and they have lined up numerous activities for folks of all ages.
— For more on this story, see the June 4 Tribune