Not to brag . . . but Iowa is awesome!

Howard County -  Not to brag, but it’s time to brag!

When Howard-Winneshiek Supt. John Carver arrived here in 2012, he mentioned at a meeting that Howard County and northeast Iowa was a well-kept secret that needed to be shared!

Well, the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs is pushing how great the entire state is through a video available to view on the “Iowa Culture” Facebook page.

Share Your Iowa Brag #NotToBrag features Howard County’s own Laura Schmauss, president of the Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation (NBHF), and Sue Barnes of Howard County Iowa State University Extension. 

The duo are at the beginning of the two-and-a-half-minute video, which highlights places in Iowa to brag about. They are standing at the Dr. Norman Borlaug Boyhood Farm. Other places featured in the video are Iowa State University, University of Iowa, Grant Wood’s studio and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Historic Park Inn at Mason City, with a little Simon Estes thrown in for good measure.

The Howard County ladies filmed their bit in November, and the video was unveiled Dec. 9 in Des Moines. It already has over 350,000 views and 4,800 shares.

So how did Howard County get in the video? Barnes said Dr. Borlaug was one of the 10 spots selected. Ken Quinn, head of World Food Prize talked to her about being part of the video. Barnes thought it would be a good idea to share the spotlight with the NBHF, to which Schmauss agreed.

“It was cold the day they filmed,” Barnes recalls. “We had to practice and practice our lines and then go to the car to warm up.”

She noted the film producers were two young men from Des Moines, who were very helpful. “It was fun to bring a little fame for the Borlaug Farm.”

Schmauss agrees. “We’ve had comments from near and far — good things. Positive things.” She added it took a good hour to film.

There are a lot more places  to brag about and many of them are on the Iowa Culture mobile app. The app has mapping tools that direct the user to more than 3,500 cultural sites across 99 counties, covering 56,272 miles according to its website. It has about 15 places of interest in Howard County alone.

To check out the video, go to https://www.facebook.com /IowaCulture/videos/ and click on #NotToBrag.