Family celebrates fairgrounds bench memorial

DES MOINES — A Brighton family with a generations-long tradition of attending the Iowa State Fair has memorialized one deceased member with a bench on the fairgrounds.

Deb Jesina said she and her relatives had camped at the fair every year since 1960, 52 years at the same spot. Jesina’s father, Lee Schafer, had long mentioned in passing that the landmarks with small plaques would make a great meeting place for family members every summer.

After he died in 2016, the family figured a bench would make the perfect memorial. They spent the next nine years on a wait list, before their bench and plaque were placed this summer.

“It was something my dad had talked about but for some reason never instigated,” she said. “I knew it was something I wanted to have done, because it was something that he probably would have wanted us to do.”

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Jesina said family members were delighted when a fair spokesperson reached out with a handful of location options for the bench, one of 750 built on the property since the program launched in the ‘90s, each with its own plaque. They settled on a spot on Expo Hill, one of the highest elevations on the fairgrounds, near the MidAmerican wind turbine.

She said the location was a perfect fit, calm and quiet at many times of day, and visible from a campground shuttle route frequented by family members.

The reaction was emotional after they found the bench on the hill.

“It just felt like you could feel dad there, every time,” she said. “Like he was sitting there, saying, ‘I’m glad you did it, I’m glad it got done’ … and mom was still here to be able to see it. And that was, probably, my biggest goal.”

The Blue Ribbon Foundation — which also runs the fairgrounds’ “Buy a Brick” program, Legacy Terrace, Trees for the Fair, and a handful of other fundraisers for the state’s annual event — added 25 of the benches this year.

Meg Courter, the foundation’s development manager and lead on the bench project, said the nonprofit had a sizable wait list already for the benches, but is accepting new applicants as it plans to build more of the rest spots every year.

“It actually is a priority, the administration and the fair board want more seating and more shade for fairgoers, so this is part of that process,” she said. “People love to do this, as a memorial and a tradition, so we are going to be adding more.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com