In an effort to make visitors to Smithville welcome over the Jamboree weekend, The Smithville-DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce has announced the winners of "Project Welcome Mat" for 2017.

Participants at local businesses set messages on their signs referencing the festival. The People’s Choice winner for 2017 is Middle Tennessee Natural Gas, DeKalb Middle School took the Most Original award, and Best Worded went to Liberty State Bank.

Middle Tennessee Natural Gas received the People’s Choice award for its message “Cloggers, Crafts, and Fiddlesticks, Welcome to Jamboree 46.”

The award for “Most Original” went to DeKalb Middle School for the message “The Music, The Food, The Crafts...OOH WEE, Welcome to Our Jamboree.”

The Best Worded award to Liberty State Bank for the message “Banjo Picks, Guitar Licks, & Fiddlin’ Sticks all at Jamboree 46.”

"We want to thank all the businesses and DeKalb Middle School for using their message signs to welcome Jamboree visitors. It’s vitally important to make sure that our guests know how appreciated and important they are," said Executive Director of the Smithville-DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce Suzanne Williams.