Hooray, it’s finally fair season! The Clallam County Fair will run August 18th-21st. The last County Fair was in 2019, and we are ready to get back out there. It may be a bit smaller than years past because it’s rebuilding, but it’s happening! Let’s dig into the relationship between 4-H and County Fairs.
First a quick reminder, 4-H is a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) program delivered by Cooperative Extension—a community of more than 100 public universities across the nation.
Our Clallam 4-H program is headquartered at the Clallam County Court House in Port Angeles, in a shared office with all the other Clallam WSU Extension programs. You can find our local 4-H leaders, Melanie Greer and Dan McCarty there when they are not out in the field or at the fairgrounds!
4-H was founded 120 years ago to help support positive youth development while teaching the latest in agriculture and homesteading techniques to youth and families across the country. While 4-H has expanded beyond agriculture and homesteading, traditional project areas continue to be foundational.
The 4-H program year runs from October 1 to September 30, in large part because the State Fair is in September. Youth in 4-H clubs with projects in animal science, home arts like canning and sewing, andi others, spend much of the year learning and preparing for their project area. Youth programs often include an element of showcasing the youth’s personal growth and learning, this can even include sports, which may be demonstrated through team games.
Many traditional 4-H projects showcase at their local county fair. Whether it is a pie that is baked or a steer that gets auctioned, youth are showing the whole community what they have achieved that year in 4-H. Please note that the 4-H youth are not competing against each other, but against the standard for that product. What this means is that 4-H youth projects are judged on how successful they are at showing what a consumer would expect from that product, not whose is prettiest or fastest. Then if a 4-H’er does well at their county fair, they get the opportunity to take that project to the State Fair in Puyallup in September.
Now to explain the important role the Pacific Northwest Junior Livestock Auction (PNWJLA) has regarding our County Fair. Youth in 4-H and Future Farmers of America (FFA) who raise a meat animal can sell that animal into the food system at the County Fair on the Saturday at noon. This is an important learning opportunity for youth who are considering careers in animal husbandry. They have learned about raising the animal through 4-H, and then the PNWJLA helps the youth take that animal to market to sell. YOU can purchase one of these animals, one that has been raised humanely, at the auction at the Clallam County Fair on Saturday, August 20th at noon. The auction will be held in the swine arena. Learn how to participate in an auction at the PNWJLA’s website.
The PNWJLA educates and ensures that kids have animals ready and safe to enter the food system through quality assurance classes that meet the industry standard. This quality assurance is the youth version of the equivalent qualification adults must go through to sell a food animal into a USDA facility. In this process the youth learn to raise and market their product to bring in buyers. Most youth take the money and use it to purchase their next animal and often save the rest to put towards college funds, ultimately it is up to the youth’s discretion. This is a basically a master class in career readiness for our future food producers.
4-H and County Fairs have a synergistic relationship, as the goal of the County Fair is to showcase what makes that county unique and the 4-H youth bring just that to present. When 4-H shows up to the County Fair they help the fair meet their goals as set by the Washington State Fairs Association (WSFA), and the Fair gives 4-H a public place to showcase 4-H’ers hard work. Both 4-H and the County Fair benefit from this close partnership.
We are very proud that the Clallam County Fair is one of the top 5 County Fairs in the state of Washington as was chosen by the WSFA in 2019. This designation was earned through the work of Clallam County Department of Parks, Fair, and Facilities by maintaining a well-kept and well-managed fairground, plus the commitment of the Fair Board. The exceptional management of the Fairgrounds has helped increase the opportunities for the Clallam 4-H’ers to learn and grow. The WSU Clallam Extension office is grateful for this fantastic working relationship, as are the youth that use the facility. Check out this years schedule here.
As mentioned, 4-H will have a smaller than normal showing at the fair this year, so come cheer them on. They are so glad to be back and rebuilding for the future. You can help us build back up to our previous numbers, we are looking for volunteers. Specifically, we need leaders to teach our home arts type projects such as sewing, crocheting, cooking, food preservation, photography, art, and any other non-animal activity you can think of, you don’t have to be an expert! Just open to learning and sharing with youth.
To become a volunteer, contact Melanie Greer at 360-417-2398