By Alan Van Ormer
Tribune editor

The largest fundraising event of the year for American Legion Post #65 and the Legion Auxiliary starts on Friday and ends Saturday at Dell Rapids City Park.
The 90th Annual Cootie Days includes rides, concessions stands, Bingo and food, as well as a raffle for cash prizes. Raffle tickets are $5 for six tickets. Advanced ride tickets can be purchased at County Fair, T & C’s Self Serve, T & C’s Other Place, Cubby’s, Lewis Family Drug and Ed’s Produce. First prize is $250 in cash, second prize is $100 in cash and third prize is $50 in cash. There will be eight additional prizes of $25 in cash.
Post Commander Tom Reecy said Cootie Days has been a fundraiser since the Post started 90 years ago and is also a social gathering for families. The funds raised from the two-day event help with veterans benefits, various youth programs, Boys State, high school oratory contests, senior scholarships for Dell Rapids and Dell Rapids St. Mary students, legion baseball, flag etiquette and Americanism and the firing squad.
Dean McDermott started coming to Cootie Days with a carnival in 1973 when he was a child. Since 1983, McDermott Family Shows has been part of the landscape of Cootie Days.
“It is a great community,” McDermott said. “They treat us very well and it has worked out well into my South Dakota tour.”
After Dell Rapids, McDermott Family Shows heads over to Elkton to participate in an event in that community.
The family-oriented show consists of carnival rides such as the scrambler, tilt a whirl, swings and merry go round, as well as popcorn wagon and hot dog wagon.
“We have games. We have rides. We have food. We try to put on a clean, family-oriented show,” McDermott said. “They can come out and get a few thrills, eat some cotton candy and just enjoy the day.”
The carnival starts at 5 p.m. on Friday and will kick off again on Saturday afternoon.
Art Nebben, a member of the local American Legion, remembers in the 1930s when Cootie Days was in August. He was 10 years old and they always worked to complete their threshing chores in time to go to the carnival.
“The kids went wild down there,” he said.
The most dramatic change to Cootie Days came when the annual street dance was halted (in the late 1990s, early 2000s) because of liability issues, Reecy said. “The revenue was cut very dramatically and we had to search for other ways to generate revenue,” he said.
The American Legion has supplemented that revenue loss by holding different events throughout the year that includes the brat feed on Memorial Day and soup suppers.
Nebben said there were crowds at the street dance. “When we took away the street dance, Cootie Days lost something,” he said. “We used to have big crowds.”