In his nomination, Zitelman recalled Rahe's dedication to promoting Dyersville, the Left and Center Field of Dreams and the Ghost Players. The Ghost Players began in 1990 and from 1991 through 2006, Rahe coordinated trips, both throughout the United States and many foreign countries to entertain thousands of military personnel who were stationed overseas and people at special events.
When mentioning the international trips to entertain our troops, Zitelman said, "Keith should win an award for the fact that he was able to get these gentlemen (Ghost Players and support personnel) passports into, and out of some of these countries and back home again, with only a few glitches."
In 1991 and 1992, with the help of dozens of volunteers, Rahe played a large role in organizing and managing the Field of Dreams Festival that brought thousands of
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"As you remember, those Labor Day events included Randy Hundley's Fantasy Baseball Camp, music concerts, charity auctions, celebrity golf tournaments, banquets and parades, all of which had to be organized and orchestrated to happen on schedule and plan for any contingencies that may occur, bad weather being one of them," Zitelman said. "Rahe is excellent in planning ahead for contingencies, especially rain, as it seems nearly every event he gets to organize has had to deal with weather of some kind."
Rahe helped organize the Shoeless Joe Baseball Tournament that ran from 1999 to 2003, plus helping with the stop in Dyersville of ESPN's 50 States in 50 Days event in 2005 and several television commercials that were filmed at the baseball field.
A major event that Rahe helped play a major role in was the return of Kevin Costner to the film site in 2006, for the first time in 20 years. The event, in conjunction with NetFlix Movie Night, was a special night that saw Cosner entertain a crowd of thousands with his band and then watch a special viewing of "Field of Dreams" on a huge inflatable screen that was erected in center field.
In 2005, Rahe began a new job as executive director of Dyersville Industries, Inc. His daily duties included handling daily duties of the Total Fitness Rec Center, National Farm Toy Museum and handling leads of businesses that might be interested in locating in Dyersville. One of those leads was U.S. BioEnergy, which was interested in building a 100-million-gallon ethanol plant in Dyersville, at a cost of $150-$180 million.
Also during his time with Dyersville Industries, Rahe helped coordinate the National and Summer Toy Shows and in 2007, introduced the Summer Concert Under the Stars, featuring Collin Raye, as an added attraction to the Summer Toy Show. Rahe also added time, ideas and organization to the RAGBRAI event in Dyersville last summer.
Zitelman continued, "Because of Rahe, thousands and thousands of people have heard of Dyersville and by his continued promotion and spreading goodwill throughout, they have kept coming."
As the 40th recipient of the Dyersville Lions Citizen of the Year award, Rahe joins an impressive group of former recipients, which includes Art Huinker, Merle Ross, Bill Scherrman, Dr. Anthony Untz, Michael Palmer, Wayne Drexler, Joan Cummings, the Laverne Deutmeyer family, Phil Schmitz, Gus Wilhelm, Sister Mary Clare Miller, Bill Rediger, Monsignor David Wheeler, Pastor Bob Wessels, Leland Nebel, Maurice Noonan, Cookie Scherrman, Vic and Mary Jo Budan, Jean Volkens, Dave Bell, Connie Trenkamp, David Schroeder, Roger Westemeier, Lois Heims, Al Bockenstedt, Terry Bockenstedt, Robert (Gar) Kramer, Miriam Eick, James and Ellen Kennedy, Del Olberding, Herb Trapp, Joe Ertl, Tim Kubicek, Richard (Ric) Willenborg, Donald Meyer, Al Gibbs, Jeanette Digmann, Joan Kramer and Robert Wilhelm.