8/28/2009 Day-long shindig as CR remembers Khrushchev visit
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev (left) and Roswell “Bob” Garst admire ears of field corn during Khrushchev’s visit to Garst’s Coon Rapids farm in September 1959.
Coon Rapids has scheduled a full day of activities Saturday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev's visit.
The events begin at 9:45 a.m. at the Garst family farm, now part of Whiterock Conservancy, along Highway 141 southeast of town. Then a ceremony will be held to enter the farm on the National Register of Historic Places. Speakers will include Tosh Lee, daughter of Roswell "Bob" Garst who hosted Khrushchev in 1959; Garst's granddaughter Liz Garst; Khrushchev's son Sergei, now a U.S. citizen and professor at Brown University; and Wes Jackson from the Land Institute of Kansas.
A delegation of 43 Russian officials will attend Saturday's "Agricultural Progress Festival."
Afternoon events include:
- A parade of farm equipment at 1:30 p.m. The equipment will then be on display on Main Street.
- Speeches on Main Street following the parade. Speakers will include Sergei Khrushchev, Iowa Department of Economic Development Director Mike Tramontina, Russian Sen. Vladimir Plotnikov and State Sen. Daryl Beall, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
- A Garst and Khrushchev look-alike contest at 4 p.m.
- A silage-throwing contest at 4:30 p.m. (Bob Garst angrily threw silage at a throng of photographers interrupting Khrushchev's farm tour).
- The play "Peace Through Corn" by Iowa playwright Cindy Mercati at 3:30 and 5 p.m. at the Coon Rapids-Bayard High School auditorium.
- A 25-minute documentary on the Khrushchev visit will be played at the Municipal Building from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
- Narrated bus tours of Coon Rapids starting on the hour and half hour between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
- Tours of the Garst farm house from 9 to 11:30 a.m. and from 2:30 to 5 p.m.
- Tours of the Syngenta plant from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
- Dedication of the Entry Way Icons at the corner of Highway 141 and Fifth Street.
- Live music on Main Street from 4:30 to 7 p.m. and from 8 to 11 p.m.
- Food and product sales on Main Street from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Parking will be available at the entry to the Garst farm, east of the Garst farm at the corner of Highway 141 and Velvet Avenue, at the Syngenta lot near the corner of Highway 141 and Fifth Street and at the high school, county fairgrounds and aquatic center. Shuttles will be operating from the remote lots to the Garst farm and downtown from 9:15 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
The parade route will be the same as that used for the annual Carroll County Fair parade.
All proceeds from a beer garden will go to the Coon Rapids Fire Department.
