Thank you to all University of Iowa staff, faculty, and students who volunteered to spend time at the university’s booth at the 2017 Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. Your hard work engaging with Iowans made it another incredible year.

Volunteers handed out nearly 70,000 posters, applied more than 60,000 temporary tattoos, and staffed 11 special exhibits for the fair’s record attendance of about 1.13 million people.

Several campus units set up special exhibits for fairgoers, including a display by the College of Pharmacy to teach children to tell the difference between candy and pills and a display by the Department of Chemistry that had participants doing experiments with gummy worms, cheese balls, and liquid nitrogen.

The Department of Intercollegiate Athletics brought cutout stands of several UI coaches, including football coach Kirk Ferentz, men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffrey, and wrestling coach Tom Brands.

The UI’s presence extended beyond the booth when Scott Turner, executive director of the UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital, showed a steer in the 35th Annual Governor’s Charity Steer Show. The show benefits the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Iowa.

Special guests at the booth this year included former wrestling coach Dan Gable, winner of the gold medal in wrestling at the 1972 Olympics, who signed copies of his book, A Wrestling Life 2, and Ed Podolak, UI alumnus, sports commentator, and former running back for the Kansas City Chiefs.

The UI booth also displayed trophies won by UI sports teams this last year: the Floyd of Rosedale, the Cy-Hawk and Cy-Hawk series trophies, the Heroes Game Trophy, and the Big 10 Baseball Championship trophy. Visitors could pose for pictures with the trophies as well as with Herky and the UI Spirit Squad. Admissions representatives were also on hand throughout the fair to answer questions for visitors.