Below you will find information about the team of people that helped to put together the Strassenfest this year.
Committee
| Event Coordinator | Nick Hoffman | nhoffman@hoffmanofficesupply.com |
| Strassenfest Pageant Coordinators | Becky Hickman Darla Blazey Sheila Beck | becky.hickman@germanamerican.com dsblazey@gmail.com skbeck1964@gmail.com |
| Chamber Secretary | Janet Beckman | janetb@jasperin.org |
| Chamber Executive Director | Nancy Eckerle | chamber@jasperin.org |
| Sponsorship | Pat Norris | patricknorris10@gmail.com |
| Logistics | Russell Jaent | tobylolie4@gmail.com |
| Little Miss/Mister Pageant | Sheila Beck | |
| Deutscherverein Representative | Steve Schmitt | saschmitt59@gmail.com |
| Special Projects | Gary Schnell | |
| Entertainment Coordinator | Heath Kluemper | heathck@gmail.com |
| 2018 Chairman | Michael Ackerman | mike@ackoil.com |
| Media Relations | Bob Bleemel | bbleemel@witzamfm.com |
| Social Media Content | Shelby Hettinger | hettingershelby@gmail.com |
| Booth Coordinator | Corie Schwartz | cleckerle@gmail.com |
| Web Relations | Ben Potter | |
| Jr Miss Pageant | Darla Blazey |
Host & Hostess
The Jasper German Club President and their spouse serve as the Host & Hostess of the Strassenfest each year.
Steve and Barb Schmitt
Hofmarschall
2018 Hofmarschall – Original 1979 Strassenfest Committee
What was the origin of the Strassenfest?
When a group of energetic citizens come together to support their city, the results can be an amazing thing. In the summer of 1978, a group of interested citizens formed a committee which became the “Jasper Action Team”. This group, tasked itself with a number of guidelines to help take the growing city to the next level. One of these was to create and administer the pride and heritage of our community, including a cleanup and vitalization of the downtown area.
To help accomplish this task, an idea for a street festival to be held in Jasper’s Downtown was pitched. Just a year earlier, Jasper Action Team Chairman, Dave Buehler, had taken a family vacation that included a visit to a Lucerne Switzerland street fest. This experience helped to form the basis for the concept of what would become the Jasper Strassenfest. Having received buy in from merchants on the square, the Chamber of Commerce, and other city leaders, the group asked Charles Stenftenagel to Chair a team to put together the first Committee that would establish the festival to be held August 2 through 5, 1979.
While Jasper had a reputation of being a well-kept city, to build upon the pride of the people to achieve best in class results, the committee took on the challenge of sprucing up miles of the artery streets with special attention to pulling weeds, cleaning sand from cracks in the sidewalk and curb, and painting of curbs and trash receptacles and poles.
Some key decisions put in place by the first committee included: consistent colors of booths, maintaining the emphasis on German Heritage themes, and structuring the fest to encourage local not for profit organizations to run events and booths. This provided additional expertise, manpower and kept the earnings local to be reinvested in the community.
The success of the initial fest was beyond expectations. This led to additional groups being spawned, including Jasper Deutscher Verein, Sister Cities, Partnership Commission, and Redevelop Old Jasper Action Coalition.
Jasper Strassenfest is proud to honor as Hofmarschalls of the 40th Annual Strassenfest, the initial Strassenfest Committee of Chairman, Charles Stenftenagel, Jim Harris, Ann Gootee, Paul Seidl, Pete Sermersheim, Charles Tagliareni, Tom Hynes, Jack Brandt, Dennis Kelly, Bernie Vogler, Ken Sternberg and Cliff Dugan. The vision and leadership of this group provided the foundation that stands today.
