Volunteers needed to keep Hay Days alive
Community support is needed to keep Monona Hay Days, the community's annual summertime celebration, alive. (File photo)
By Audrey Posten, Times-Register
Community support is needed to keep Monona Hay Days alive.
Stakeholders met last week to begin restructuring the non-profit board and generating new volunteers in the wake of Teresa Graham’s decision to step down as president and head of the committee she’s chaired since 2018.
“I’m stepping down, and we have to plan for the future,” she told those gathered on Aug. 20.
To limit the burden from falling on one individual or a small group, Graham estimates at least 20 different leaders are needed to head up activities for Monona’s annual summertime event.
“We need someone to run the tractor show, the parade and float contest,” she listed as examples. “At least two people need to run games.”
While Hay Days originally recruited local service and church organizations and school groups to man food booths and games in exchange for keeping profits from the day, organizers said it’s become harder to find volunteers in recent years.
“As a committee, we ran some of the booths ourselves to bring money back in,” Graham said.
She’d like to see groups get back on board for what she called a “circle of helping.”
A post on the Monona Hay Days Facebook page “seeking fresh ideas and enthusiasm to keep MHD thriving for years to come” listed several ways community members can get involved: marketing and community outreach, fundraising, chairing individual events, recruiting volunteers and attracting food vendors.
“We’re trying to lighten the load for the president,” Graham said. “That can effectively be done by dividing events up.”
Although the board makes core decisions for Hay Days, it brings in committees to aid those decisions, added Monona Chamber and Economic Development Executive Director Ardie Kuhse, who’s also vice president of the Hay Days board.
A lot is already in place to make this easier for volunteers, Graham noted. She’s offered to serve as a liaison for the next president and answer questions from anyone heading up a facet of the event.
“I’ll sit down with them and give them really good notes,” she said.
Moving forward, organizers shouldn’t be afraid to make changes or complete tasks in their own way.
“We can change up Hay Days. It doesn’t have to be regimented,” she assured. “Just because I ran it that way doesn’t mean it has to be that way.”
Time is of the essence to finish filling out the board and bringing on volunteers. Graham said planning begins nearly a year in advance. The core committee starts meeting in January, then brings in volunteers for monthly meetings. The group gathers more frequently in the weeks leading up to Hay Days.
Graham said it’s rewarding to see it all come together. In recent years, she estimated Hay Days has drawn around 2,000 people to Monona.
“It’s a lot of fun, and I’ve enjoyed this,” she shared. “I don’t want to see it die.”
That could be the case, though, if community volunteers don’t step up. Interested individuals are encouraged to reach out to Graham at (563) 880-4192 or the Monona Chamber at (563) 539-8340. The next Hay Days meeting has tentatively been set for Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 6 p.m., at the Monona Community Center. Watch the Monona Hay Days and Monona Chamber Facebook pages for updates.
In the meantime, those at last week’s meeting were asked to reach out to friends, family, businesses and other community members to get them involved.
“Reach out to people, talk about that Hay Days might go away [without help],” Graham said.
Mayor Grant Langhus is championing the cause too.
“The more people to help, the merrier. We need to keep getting people involved,” he said.
