Iowa Hall of Pride netINS, Inc. Butler House on Grand B&B Sam's Barber Shop Breitbach's Country Dining Douglas T. Bates III, Attorney KMA Radio's ''Chuck & Don Show'' The Monks of New Melleray Abbey
How the donut man from Bunkers Dunkers in Jefferson helped land RAGBRAI XXXVI for an overnight stop here!
Our hometown of  What’s the deal with the black & white saddle shoes?  Click here for the story of our farm in Greene County, Iowa. Here's looking at life at Simple Serenity Farm  It's been quite a year for gardening at the farm, and here are some photos of the late bounty Follow the link below for additional details. Click here for larger format Earlier photos in this series 
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The route for the 2008 RAGBRAI -- that's the Des Moines Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa -- included our Greene County seat of Jefferson as an overnight stop on Monday, July 21. More than 20,000 people came to Jefferson, pop. 4,600, that night. Read the amazing story here about a chance encounter three years ago in Florida, where our vacationing local donut king Randy Bunkers warmly greeted a stranger who was wearing a RAGBRAI T-shirt. The fellow happened to be RAGBRAI director T.J. Juskiewicz -- and in the summer of 2008, hurrah! RAGBRAI came our way!
There’s the annual Cooper Prom (for all ages), concerts, basketball, suppers, ice cream socials and people coming through all the time on the Raccoon River Valley Trail. Here is the story on the little community in Greene County, Iowa, that is now home for the Offenburgers.
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So You Need a Speaker, Huh?
I’ve been on the speaking circuit for so long around Iowa that I can’t imagine there are many people left who haven’t heard me. But for some reason, groups keep calling, and I keep speaking, knowing that doing so enables me to meet a lot of people I’d never meet otherwise. And being out there helps me find a lot of people, places, events and organizations that make good columns later. My fee is generally $1,000 plus expenses, and my topic depends on the audience. It seems like I speak to a lot of Chamber of Commerce banquets and the annual meetings of commodity groups across Iowa. I like doing community and school groups, although I’ve really worn out on doing commencement addresses -- I’ve done ’em for graduations ranging from pre-schools to universities, with high schools and law enforcement academies in between! The topics I’m most comfortable with are life in Iowa, a vision of what Iowa and the Midwest can become, my favorite tales from 40 years covering Iowa and journalism in general. I can do some Iowa history, but I’m no authority. One thing new I’m doing is consulting on university, college and high school journalism programs, as well as with newspaper staffs around the Midwest. Depending on your program or staff needs, I will spend from two days to a week with you. My consulting fee starts at $1,000 plus expenses. I book my own speeches and visits. You can e-mail me off this website, write a real letter and send it -- how quaint! -- or call. Thanks for thinking of me. Contact data: Chuck Offenburger 1516 310th Street Jefferson, Iowa 50129 Office (515) 386-5488 Fax (515) 386-5408 E-mail: chuck@offenburger.com
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