By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
With the Wood County Fair not even a month in the rearview mirror, the Fair Board heard an idea during the August board meeting to bring an educational activity to next year’s fair.
Fair Director Deanne Corken suggested creating a “Farm-to-Market” educational activity somewhere on the fairgrounds. She had seen the concept while visiting the Elkhart County (Indiana) Fair and was impressed with “the constant stream of kids” enjoying the fun driving course.
The activity would teach young participants about the connection between the food they get from stores and the farms where food is grown.
Youths ride in miniature pedal or battery-operated tractors with attached wagons, navigating the course. Along the way, they pick up agricultural products such as wool, eggs, milk, chicken and carrots that they take to the market to earn farm bucks. They also pick up corn, soybeans, apples and hay to feed to “animals” along the path.
“Some of the plants are real so they know what they look like,” Corken said, and others are replicas so they can be easily reused.
The Elkhart fair set up a trading post at the end of the path for youngsters to trade in their farm buck for a snack made from ingredients they took to the market, she explained.
“I think this would be a good educational activity at our fair,” she said.
Corken proposed that she and current family members would like to create the event on the fairgrounds in memory of their parents and grandparents who were deeply tied to the Wood County Fair as sheep exhibitors and former fair board directors.
“We are willing to be responsible for it, build it and pay for it, but we need approval from the board for a place to put it,” she said. “We would also take financial donations or help to do this for next year’s fair and make improvements along the way.”
Before the board approves the project, Brock Abke, grounds chairman, asked that the grounds committee determine an appropriate location. They plan to meet prior to the September board meeting.
Elected directors and officers
The new and re-elected fair board directors were officially sworn in at the Aug. 22 meeting. Directors who were re-elected included Craig Coe and Christopher Shllling (District 1); Dave Nietz and John Nissen (District 2), and Conni Grames and Melissa Leimgruber (District 3, 3-year terms)
Individuals elected to their first terms included Kalen Bloom (District 1), Nicholas Hannan (District 2), and Christina Adams and Abby Winslow (District 3, 2-year terms).
The 2024-25 officers for the board were elected. Paul Perry will serve as president; John Nissen, first vice president; Tony Violi, second vice president; and Kathy Thomas, secretary and treasurer.
In other business:
–Paul Perry shared messages from Director Jessica Nagel that there will be no Winner’s Circle printed this year. Last year they spent $3,000 to have it printed and there were many copies left over. Instead, they will include champion pages in the 2025 Fair Edition.
–Initial financial reports show a deficit for the 2024 fair; however, the final picture is incomplete because there are still many outstanding revenues and expenses yet to come in, said Treasurer Kathy Thomas
–Jimmy Blackford, grounds and maintenance, reported he and the maintenance crew are getting the grounds and buildings back in order after the fair and the National Tractor Pull in preparation for winter storage, which will begin Oct. 1.
–The Junior Fair Livestock Sale raised $240,000 and the average price each junior fair exhibitor received was higher than last year.
–Fair Director Doug Michaelis said the junior fair members who had meat rabbits and poultry received cash from the truck that bought the animals from the members. A total of $1,158 was paid directly to the members.
