Students may have a chance to visit home without leaving the campus this weekend as one Veishea event brings hometown counties to Ames.

The 150th Year Boulevard is an event that will play a large part in this year’s Veishea theme — Continuing Iowa’s Heritage. All 99 of Iowa’s counties were invited by the Veishea committee to set up displays to show what their county is doing to wish Iowa a happy 150th birthday.

The 150th Year Boulevard will be held on Saturday, April 20 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Union Drive north of Lake LaVerne.

Shellee Novotny, Veishea general co-chair, said they came up with the 150th Year Boulevard idea last fall when the committee was trying to think of ways to tie the sesquicentennial theme into Veishea.

“We decided to use a street to display the different counties ideas. We wanted something to connect Welch Avenue and the parade route and we knew the street north of Lake LaVerne would have a lot of traffic,” Novotny said.

Heather Richards, Veishea public relations co-chair, said of the 99 counties invited, nearly 30 accepted the invitation to participate in the Veishea celebration.

“We hope students come over and see what their counties are doing for the 150th anniversary of Iowa,” Richards said.

Priscilla Matt, chair of Story County sesquicentennial commission, said Story County will have a tent set up for part of their display. The major goal of the 150th Year Boulevard is to promote future sesquicentennial events, such as the Birthday Bash that will take place in Nevada in two weeks.

“The main thing is to try and encourage everyone in Story County to take part in the sesquicentennial events. We’re trying to include as many people as possible,” Matt said.

She said the commission is very excited about being part of the Veishea celebration, and she was thrilled that Veishea took the time and work to contact all 99 counties and invite them to participate.

“We’re delighted to be a part of this. I think this is really going to be the Veishea to remember,” Matt said.

Some other items that counties will be displaying include artifacts from town museums, quilts, poster board presentations and town photographs.

The counties that will be showcasing their sesquicentennial plans include: Adams, Benton, Buchanan, Calhoun, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Clay, Clinton, Fayette, Franklin, Greene, Hamilton, Henry, Howard, Iowa, Keokuk, Kossuth, Mahaska, Marshall, Plymouth, Pottawattamie, Scott, Story, Taylor, Union, Wapello, Wayne, Winnebago, Winnieshiek and Wright.