Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913

This Year's Fair

This year’s fair is now a memory captured in photos, ribbons and souvenirs.

A change in medication made it possible for me to attend this year’s Cancer Survivor ride. Being able to participate in this event is truly an honor and fills my heart to overflowing with gratitude to all the doctors, nurses and researchers for their care, and to the local Relay For Life and businesses for their sponsorship.

The other highlight of the fair for me was getting to see all the projects our grandchildren entered and the awards they received. That is always such a joy for me.

It was very enriching and rewarding to see the talent displayed by the youth in our area. Their imagination showed no limits. It was obvious they had put in long hours to bring their ideas to reality. What they learned through their work is something that will stay with them and hopefully help them throughout the rest of their lives. I feel 4-H is one of the very best organizations children can be a part of. I would bet that if you visited with grown-ups who were in 4-H, they would tell you that 4-H has stood them well as they pursue their careers.

Watching 4-H participants who had livestock as their project brought back lots of memories of when our children were in 4-H. Three of them had beef as a project and one had lambs. At the time it wasn’t necessarily fun getting up at 5 a.m. to help with farm chores and then head to the livestock barn at the fair, but it did help teach responsibility and about committing yourself to a certain goal.

Each year I always make sure to have at least one meal at the 4-H Food Booth. When you have children in 4-H, both they and you are automatically scheduled to work at the food booth. It seemed I always got stuck frying hamburgers and warming soft tortillas - both of which I didn’t want to see for at least a month afterwards. Even now, cooking hamburgers brings back the memory of cooking them for five to six hours straight.

I didn’t make it to any of the night shows at the fair but from everyone I spoke with who did go to some or all of them, I heard nothing but praise for the great job the Fair Board had done this year. And I also heard many positive comments about the carnival.

The last time I entered anything in the fair was several years ago. Yet seeing how much improvement has been made this year, I am inspired to work on some things for next year’s fair.

Just think of how even greater the Northeast Montana fair could be if we and our children, whether members of an organization or not, could enter just one project. And think of how much you could teach your children, about not only working on their own project but working together on a project for the fair. Or just plain helping out with the fair where help is needed.

 

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