The Chamber of Commerce will host the 29th annual Farm, Home and Hobby Show Feb. 25-26, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., both days.

The event, which draws an average 350-500 visitors yearly, has been moved to late February to prepare for possible snow-related effects.

“The past few years we’ve unfortunately had unfavorable weather,” said Pleskac, who attributed lower attendance in recent years to untimely weather.

This will be the first year the event will be held in the recently completed Dell Rapids Elementary building on 15th Street.

“We wanted a new venue to have more accessibility and parking,” Pleskac said. “With our new elementary we think it’ll be a great collaboration.”

The event had previously been held at the old elementary building, which had presented issues with only street parking in residential areas.

The chamber president said he thinks having the show there will also showcase the new building, emphasizing the importance of youth education in Dell Rapids.

“We wanted to make it a win-win situation for both,” he said.

Pleskac said that bringing in out-of-town guests will also help boost the town’s profile as well as its future customer base.

“Anytime you attract members from outside the community to come in, you get a positive effect on the community.”


In addition to the show, the Dells Forward Youth – formerly the Optimist Club – will be serving pancakes. “They do a fantastic job, and it’s a very good meal,” Pleskac said of the annual tradition.

This year’s event will include vendors with products for sale, as well as service clubs, such as the Catholic Order of Foresters, and service providers, such as utility and telecommunications groups.

“It’ll be a pretty big variety,” Pleskac said. “That’s our goal – to provide something for everyone. It really presents an opportunity for Dell Rapids to showcase the variety it has.”

Vendors interested in hosting a booth at the show can sign up at the chamber website, dellrapids.org.

“Anyone who’d like to get there presence out in front of a few hundred people, we’ll try to accommodate anyone who’s interested,” Pleskac said.

Proceeds from the vendor fees are used to offset the cost of custodial work on the space, as well as fueled back into the chamber general fund, which is used to improve benefits to chamber members, as well as put on annual events such as Quarry Days.