Sheldon, Iowa — Preparations are underway to move a business building that has been vacant for the past couple of years and relocate it to the RiseFest Grounds in Sheldon.
Rob Roozeboom is the founder and president of Rise Ministries, the organization behind RiseFest and he says the organization was offered a very generous donation from a Sheldon business two weeks ago.
(As above) “We got a call from Perspective Insurance…actually from Tom Fuoss of Perspective Insurance…saying that they had a building on a lot that they own, and they were interested in gifting that building to Rise…would we be interested in it…moving it out to the festival and utilizing it that way? And, so of course we were very interested.”
He says Rise then had to answer several questions relative to accepting the structure.
(As above) “What does that look like? What is it going to take to move it? What are the costs involved? CAN we get it moved? There was a timeline of June 1st, so that’s kind of an expedited project, I guess you’d say. And with the festival being June 11 this year, it was like, OK, is this something that can happen? Can we make all of this work? What does this look like? What are we going to use the building for? Etc, etc.”
Then, he says, special sponsor for the project came on board. Den Hartog Industries of Hospers came on board to help with the project. Boer & Sons came on board for the actual moving of the building and Sawyer Construction joined the project to prepare the building for the move.
The building is located at the southwest corner of the intersection of Highway 18 and Country Club Road and formerly housed Bob & Jo’s Antiques and Collectibles. Prior to that, it served for several years as the home of Still’s Lawn Ornaments. Rozeboom says with such a large building, there’s a lot more involved than just loading it up and moving it to the RiseFest Grounds.
(As above) “There’s three sections to it. We have to detach it to move it anyway, so we’re going to detach it and make three separate buildings out of it when we put it on the RiseFest Grounds.”
He says there has been a lot of discussion about what the buildings will be used for, once they’re moved.
(As above) “The larger portion, the 40 by 60, will obviously be used for storage, but we’re also hoping to use it throughout the festival for special guests. We have to figure that one out exactly yet, but that’s a concept…that’s an idea. Then there’s a longer piece, that’s the narrow piece, that we are actually looking at turning into what we’re going to call, a strip mall, so to speak.”
Roozeboom says there are other ideas for the third section.
(As above) “And then the last section, we are throwing around the idea of it becoming our seminar building, because we always have seminars at the festival. And then maybe, it was thrown around a chapel idea…a chapel/prayer area. But right now, we’re really looking at this seminar type building, with possibly a prayer chapel feel to it.”
He says it’s amazing that the project has come this far in just two weeks, and thanked all those involved in moving it from an idea to a reality.
(As above) “We’re extremely grateful. We thank everyone for getting involved. We appreciate Perspective very much. Of course, we appreciate Den Hartog Industries getting involved with this, Sawyers jumping on board and Berghorst and whoever else comes to the table to help us get this thing going. It’s been really, really neat to watch this process start, and we’re just grateful. And we’re hoping that it will bless festival goers and other events that happen out on the festival grounds in the future.”
Roozeboom told KIWA that the buildings will most likely not be ready for use at this year’s RiseFest. But he went on to say, “God has done some amazing things in the past, and we don’t know what amazing things he has planned for the future.”
