Ames had a pretty big 4th of July celebration going on all day yesterday. At the Bandshell Park there was a small carnival for the kids, concerts were going on just about all day, and a lot of vendors were set up there selling tons of different things. This is where we were, but we were giving away free popcorn as well as inviting people to enter a drawing for a free $100 gas card.
Our first priority was to meet some people and do something nice for them. In that respect, I think the day was a big success. We passed out over 1100 bags of free popcorn, and had 293 people enter the drawing for the gas card. I don’t know how many cards we passed out, but it was A LOT.
Here is a picture of our booth …
Several times we would have people lined up 15 deep waiting on their bag of popcorn. The popcorn popper just wouldn’t keep up with the demand sometimes. This picture doesn’t show the line because when there was a line we were too busy to take pictures.
I got to meet a lot of neat people. One of them was none other than Abraham Lincoln. I asked him if he would like to come to Freedom Ridge, but he started droning on about “four score and seven years ago” and how he really hates going to the theater, so I just casually backed away and busied myself with popcorn bags. 
It was a tiring but very fun day. The weather was absolutely PERFECT. I’m glad we were able to take part in the day’s activities and I look forward to Freedom Ridge making a positive contribution to the Ames area. Ames is a great place, and we are glad to be here!
