A Mt. Pleasant company is responsible for the county and state fair ribbons and awards

MT. PLEASANT — Staats Awards, a Mt. Pleasant based company, is a crucial part of fair season across the nation.

Staats Awards provide awards for 29 of the 50 states along with many county fairs, business awards, and other areas of recognition.

According to their websites, “Staats supplies its products to county and state fairs, festivals, livestock shows, schools, corporations, and other organizations locally and across the entire United States, and even extending into the U.S. Virgin Islands.”

According to Staats Awards’ website, Staats has provided the awards for the Iowa State Fair since the 1960s when the fair board recognized there was an opportunity to utilize an Iowan company.

For the Iowa State Fair alone, Staats creates 5,000 hand-sewn rosettes, 14,000 V-top ribbons, and 1,400 banners.

“It is all hand sewn,” General Manager Lori White said.

Heat presses are still utilized for lettering, and use a similar method of type-stamping like newspapers and requires letters to be physically swapped for each different award wording.

While White admits the process can be tedious, “It’s a rewarding position that we have here,” White said.

Mt. Pleasant has been the proud home of Staats Awards’ intricate work for nearly 125 years since E.G. Staats founded the original company that specialized in braid and trim for band and fraternal uniforms, along with pennants in 1898.

Right here in Mt. Pleasant in the 1920s, Staats even established the standard colors for fair placements.

While a blue ribbon has always meant first place, and red has always meant second, prior to this standard, the ribbon colors for placements were decided by each fair. \

Now, the Staats color standard is used for fair placements all the way to tenth place across many states.

The small town of Mt. Pleasant is recognized as Staats Awards’ recognize the hard work of county and state fair participants throughout this country.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com