Winter weather once again rolled in before the Jingle & Mingle Holiday pop up event on the 13th Street District Thursday. It was canceled in the final hour before it was scheduled to start.

13th Street Board President Heidi Draisey said the National Weather Service office in Des Moines sent out notice of a winter storm warning shortly before 4 p.m. She connected with the other board members immediately, taking note of the weather behavior she witnessed.

“It was wet, raining and getting cold fast,” Draisey said. “There were white-out conditions near the 18th Avenue soccer field. There were big flakes south of town, and it was so different coming in. Near Lennox, it was light with blue skies. It surprised me, personally.”

After the 13th Street board members made the decision to cancel Jingle & Mingle, they got to work notifying the participating businesses.

“We did not anticipate a storm warning, and we really wanted to give the opportunity of foot traffic for the retail businesses,” Draisey said.

The desire to bring in that foot traffic is why the pop up event was rescheduled from Dec. 11. According to Draisey, they had all the pieces gathered – Santa Claus, kids’ activities, pictures and the mTunes Quartet was going to do some caroling. The weather just did not work out this year.

Draisey hopes the board will bring a holiday event back for 2026, but that will be decided during the beginning of the new year.

“The first holiday pop up was hosted in 2018, and it is something that will be on the agenda,” she said.

When asked about upcoming events next year, Draisey asked residents to save the date of Sept. 11 for the annual Harvest Market. Announcements for other big and small 13th Street District events will be announced throughout the year.

She stressed the board really tried to make Jingle & Mingle go.

“Thursday weather has been very eventful,” Draisey said. “The important thing was to keep people safe, and the weather was not cooperating with that. I still encourage people to go out and enjoy the 13th Street businesses and get their shopping wrapped up before the holiday next week. We are very sorry for the inconvenience. No one is more sorry for this than the board.”

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 o

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.