ne of the most common sayings I hear veteran extension agents say is, “There are 105 counties in Kansas and there are 105 ways of doing things”. As I transferred to Montgomery County this winter I learned this is true, especially as we prepare for the county fair. In many ways it’s a great thing because I was able to bring some ideas from Crawford County. At the beginning of July, the Montgomery County 4-H Fair Association and myself met to finalize fair preparations. It was exciting to see our numbers are up in some lower participation areas like dairy goats and rabbits.
Then came all the fair activities! If you are interested in seeing what all Montgomery County does at the fair I encourage you to follow Montgomery Co. 4-H Fair on Facebook. The Independence Chamber of Commerce was generous enough to give us their radio spot to advertise the many events happening at the fair. I filled 20 minutes of air on 960 AM talking about all the exciting events. Montgomery County has a great fair board, which allows me to do some great programing at our fair. This year we partnered with the Independence Public Library to host a water rocket activity that was open to all youth in the community. We also partnered with Coffeyville Regional Medical Center to host Barnyard Olympics. The youth were ecstatic about these new opportunities to engage with their friends at the fair. A special shout-out goes to agents Kylie and Jacob for hosting FACs and Horticulture judging contests at the fair. These contests with our livestock judging make up the sweepstakes contest at the fair, for which prize money is awarded to the high individuals.
Our county isn’t the only fair I’ve attended this month. For the past several years, I’ve hosted the Barnyard Olympics at the Cherryvale Youth Fair. I do this event on the same night as the community supper. Its great visibility for 4-H as this is an open fair that any youth are welcome to attend. It was especially fun this year because youth for all four counties in our district attended. In August, I’ll help with the Interstate Fair in Coffeyville as they have a 4-H division too.
This month was also the district horse show. My job at the district show is to pass out ribbons and help set up the arena for timed events. Montgomery County had four youth participate in the district show and three of them qualified for state in multiple events!
O