The Rotary Club is putting on its annual Oktoberfest at the Star Valley Ranch RV Resort on August 31.
The club puts it on each year to help raise funds to support local projects and needs around the community.
“This is kind of the capstone…or season ending event for the RV park,” Dale Cottom of the Rotary Club said. “It’s one of the best attended.”
Of course Oktoberfest means there will be adult beverages, but Cottom says there are things for the whole family to do.
“I’ve got six kids, they all come,” Cottom said. “There are lots of other kids that come as well.”
He says last year was the first year they introduced live music. Because of the popularity of that, they will bring it back again this year. There will be two groups providing the tunes.
Cottom says Oktoberfest will continue to provide the famous Polish bratwursts with lots of sauerkraut. He says the sauerkraut is so popular that sometimes they have run out in past years.
“But we promise not to this year,” Cottom said.
The club does several projects in Star Valley and among them are scholarships and giving out dictionaries to elementary school students.
There’s one project that Cottom says they are particularly excited about this year and that is supporting the Star Valley Health Foundation Mammogram Project. They have donated over $3,000 to the program.
“There’s a need for more technical and screening,” Cottom said. “And it needs to be made more available to more people, especially those people who don’t have the funds or the opportunity or the insurance to pay for that high-tech screening.”
He also says that one project the club is raising funds for is helping needy students in Ukraine. Prinicpal of Etna Elementary, Keith Klein, organized it.
“In some of these countries like Ukraine they don’t have the same type of funding for school systems and school supplies that they do in the United States,” Cottom said.
Klein’s daughter, Katie Klein, was in Ukraine working for the Peace Corps and she noticed the needs of these students according to Cottom. So her and her father approached the Rotary Club about teaming together to raise money for school supply purchases and deliveries. Cottom says they’ve already delivered some projectors.
He also says that it is all possible because of the support they receive from the community.
The event will open at 5 PM and dinner will be served at 5:30 PM on August 31.
