It's a multi-generational afFair
 

[August 08, 2016]  For many Logan County farm families, participating in the fair is a family tradition, often multi-generational. Those who show spend months, in some cases all-year, preparing and the preparation pays off with award winning projects. Past participants often shift their experience into serving as superintendants and assistants.

The Opperman family

The Dave and Stephanie Opperman family are a long-time fair family. Their children Jenna, Kathryn, Megan, and Sam Opperman, all participated in 4-H when they were younger.

Megan and Sam Opperman are still working with the fair by helping with various events.


Sam and Megan (left) during the 2015 poultry show.

Twenty-year-old Megan Opperman often participated in the home and family show with baking, arts, and crops. She used to do tractor pulls and show rabbits when she was younger

Megan assists with the dairy and culinary shows.
She is now co-superintendent for the Cake Classic. She said, "I do background work for it like finding judges and making sure it runs smoothly." She is also assisting with the pie contest this year.

Serving on the Jr. Livestock Committee, she is busy throughout fair week. She passes out the ribbons, keeps track of the scores and what judges say, makes sure records are correct, and helps with questions.

Comfortable anywhere from kitchens to barns, she was on the scene Tuesday helping dad who was superintendent of the Goat Competition.

About showing livestock, she said that you have to train the livestock to walk correctly because they are judged on how they walk and carry themselves, and those trained the most tend to cooperate better and be handled better.

Megan said it takes a lot of communication to keep everything running smoothly, and takes leadership and hard work.

Megan said the fair gives her a good sense of community and she enjoys working with all the areas she is involved with.

Megan is also involved with her dad David Opperman in the Poultry. He is there when poultry is being judged and he is a superintendent for Junior Livestock.

David has been working with the livestock shows for over 20 years. His father was a superintendent of Junior Livestock for many years, so the fair has long been a family affair.


The 2016 Goat show closed out, Steve Johnson offers his appreciation to David Opperman (right) for another good show.

Sam Opperman used to show a lot of projects and still helps with Jr. Livestock, walking the animals, getting the animals where they are supposed to be, and helps pass out ribbons.

Stephanie Opperman is a support person for the family helping them where needed during fair week.

It has been the whole family working together to make sure departments are running right. All have put in a lot of hard work and dedication.

The Schempp kids from Atlanta

Darin and Cindy Schempp's kids Molly and Cavit are very active in 4-H and in their community, Atlanta.

4-H has been a family tradition, since Cindy (Johnson) Schempp grew up in 4-H showing mostly Beef animals.



The Schempp kids and their cousin (sitting) who also works on the farm and shows, were dressed in red shirts for the goat competition.

Cindy said, "Molly started [participating in the fair] seven years ago showing in goats, cooking, visual arts, sewing, crops, vet science are a few of the 25 projects that she started with. This year, she has narrowed it to 15."

Cindy said, "Cavit has shown for five years with mostly the same amount of projects, and also includes welding and shooting sports."

Both have received blue ribbon awards in the Logan County 4-H Food, Nutrition & Health Show. In past years, Molly was the state fair delegate for the Health category, and Cavit was a state fair alternate in the foods category. They have also received top ratings for their visual arts projects.

Molly and Cavit have both participated in all the scrambles as well.

Cindy said, "We work all year on projects as 4-H is a subject in our lineup of subjects for home school, and work on the projects three to five days per week by learning, researching, and practicing the techniques."

Cindy said, "We LOVE fair week and Scrambles night is so exciting! While catching goats and steers are our favorite memories of fair events, it is the friendships that we cherish and carry with us from year to year."

The Aylesworth kids - Mount Pulaski

The Randy and Kelly Aylesworth family of Mount Pulaski has been competing in the fair for many years. Kamryn and Dixon Aylesworth are both part of the FFA and 4-H in Mount Pulaski.


Kamryn in a beautiful walk/trot at the Open Show competition on Thursday.

Kamryn, who graduated from Mount Pulaski High School this year, has won top prizes for horse and dog showmanship, foods and sewing, and visual arts. Kamryn has spent a lot of time working with horses, competing in horse shows during the year, and winning many ribbons.

Dixon has won visual arts awards for wood and sculpture.

Their cousins Dustin, Chase, Lukas, and Clay Aylesworth have also shown livestock over the years, so the cousins have competed against one another at times.

The Carter family

The Ed and Carlene Carter family has been involved in 4-H for 16 years and participated in various open judging categories for 15 years. All five children, Elizabeth, Tim, David, James and Miriam have entered projects in several categories over the years.

The children have participated in 4-H in arts, woodworking, vegetables, flowers, sewing. At least one of two also participate in the open textiles. Carlene said, "We started in 4-H because I was in 4-H as a teenager and enjoyed it, and as homeschoolers, it gave the kids an opportunity to learn new skills and exhibit their work.

Carlene said, "In 4-H at the fair the kids have competed in visual arts, floriculture, poultry, cats, dogs, goats, woodworking, vegetables, photography, and many other miscellaneous Department W projects. They've also competed in cooking, flowers, vegetables, sewing, a lot of art and photography, and junior livestock in the open judging."

Between the five of them they have tried a large cross-section of projects and all eventually settled into what they enjoyed most. All the kids really enjoy the art category.

The kids have learned a lot of skills showing off their fair projects, especially in getting something completed, and getting it prepared to its best advantage. Even when they were little, they got a kick out of being able to see their art works displayed in the art building, and it was even better if there was a ribbon hanging on it.

Ed mostly has done photography, and once baked a winning cake.

Carlene said, "I enjoy the textiles such as embroidery, quilting, clothing, some floriculture, and a lot of dairy and culinary, especially canning and pies."

Carlene said, "I love the sewing categories, but the dairy & culinary judging is a lot of fun and interesting to watch. You learn a lot about technique and what judges are looking for and what is an ideal example of that product, depending on how talkative the judge is. The textiles judges are really good about writing comments on tags so that you know the areas you need to improve, or what you did well. I've personally learned a lot that way."

Carlene said, "We're also big fans of the Cake Classic. Everyone but Tim have participated in it at least once, it's very challenging, especially when it's hot, and unpredictable, and I love the fact that it is a fundraiser for 4-H. Elizabeth, David, and I have each won it once over the years."

Carlene said, "Elizabeth and I helped with the sewing judging one year, putting things back on hangers, etc. Elizabeth and Miriam helped the former 4-H visual arts superintendent for several years hanging pictures and putting things in cases. David took pictures of 4-H livestock judging for the Courier for several years."

The Carters have actually dialed back what they are showing quite a bit this year, as the kids are all adults now and busy with jobs, but most are still showing a few things. Carlene said, "This is Miriam's last year in 4-H, so our family will officially be out of the '4-H business' next year, [which] is a slightly bittersweet change. I won't know what to do with myself the week before the fair without someone to remind to "get working on those 4-H projects!"

Miriam Carter with her winning gladiola in 2015

Carlene said the family will probably still continue to show in open judging, at least to some degree.

The Crider family

Ian and Darlene Crider and their children Rebekah, Hannah and Daniel have also been participating in the fair for 16 years and started competing in open judging contests soon after. Darlene is Carlene Carter's twin sister and the two have often found themselves competing against one another. The Crider kids often compete against their Carter cousins, too. Darlene said they are a competitive lot.

Darlene said, " We usually participate in the culinary contests, floriculture, textiles, photography and fine arts." She said they work on some projects over the winter, like fine arts and textiles, but "80% of the projects are started within a month of the fair. We just get heads down working hard and try to see how much we can accomplish. And turns out we can accomplish a lot when we have a deadline!"

Darlene said, some "projects can be done in a couple of hours, [and] some will take several days. We will usually be working on several at once; so one can work on that drawing, while the glue dries on that project, while you have bread rising, or canning jars in the pot. Just a way of using time efficiently."

Darlene said it "makes for a couple of intense weeks, but is very gratifying. I think it's really good for the kids (and myself) to see what we can actually accomplish, what we are truly capable of when we work hard." She said it wouldn't be summer without the Logan County Fair.

Daniel, the youngest Crider, attended his first fair judging when he was only 2 1/2 weeks old. Darlene said, "That was a difficult year for me, but I used the time while I was pregnant, and couldn't do a whole lot else, to sew and ended up submitting over 30 sewing projects."

Darlene said, "I also love that our skills have improved so much over the years because of the fair. Having to be careful in preparation for judging gets you in the habit of being careful at home and you end up being a better cook, seamstress or whatever. The judging (though sometimes tough to hear) is very instructive and constructive, helps us see areas of improvement we didn't see before, makes us do that extra 10% to make the product better."

Darlene has many positive memories of the fair. She said watching the culinary judging with the kids is always fun, and the 4-H scrambles [are] lots of fun to watch.

Some of her best memories have been when the kids have succeeded beyond their expectations. Darlene said "there is nothing more exciting than to see them get a plaque or ribbon for a project on which they worked really hard.

Daniel's favorite memory was getting selected for state fair judging for his Geology and Entomology projects for 4-H; they represented the most work for him. He ended up taking his Entomology project to state.

Hannah's favorite memory was from her early days. Darlene said, "Hannah was about 8, and she did a flower arrangement that got best of show for Jr. floral arrangements. Big R sponsored the category and donated all kinds of wonderful gardening implements, which was very exciting for an 8-year-old. But the best part was that she got to beat her older sister!"

For these families, competing at the fair has become a long time family tradition.

[Angela Reiners]