When you think about showing at a fair, you often recall seeing the green clover at most of the pens; but do you have to be in 4H to show?  How about the FFA?  What do I have to have my child do to show at the fair?

The reality is that the Clayton Community Fair is an open class fair, which means anyone who has done the work, signs up in advance and pays any fees required for their project to enter can be a part of our fair.  It doesn’t matter if you want to make grandma’s world famous chocolate chip cookies, set a table, sew an outfit or a blanket, snap a photo, ride a horse or raise an animal to show – as long as your child does the work and sign up to show before the deadline – we are very happy to highlight their skills.

For some families, you would like some guidance along the way, maybe you have never sewn a thing or never raised an animal.  Where you start is up to you, some of the traditional approaches is to join 4H or in our area we have thriving Grange organizations that can help you learn the skills for your project.  If you are wanting to learn to cook or bake, look for online classes or local classes through the library.  If you want to show an animal, look online for resources – those may be via 4H, the FFA, the local grange or search to see if you can find a mentor.

Don’t forget, we also have adult classes in the fair.  Make fair projects a family affair and show off everyone’s skills. You never know what feedback you get will elevate how you grow, make, cook or raise and show animals.

While the weather is cold and frozen, most of us are not thinking about the fair and when to decide what you want to show and when to get your materials or animal.  However, your parents and 4H leader may be telling you that NOW is when you need to decide what you want to work on.  Your list may not be fully complete, but the more areas of the fair that you enter the more money you could earn.  While you may have always raised an animal or flowers, perhaps this is the year that you stretch out into new areas.  Winter is the perfect time to look at the 2024 Fairbook and see what all you could have entered.  Can you make cookies?  There is a entry for that as well as cakes and place settings not to mention cupcakes and chocolate.  While your stuck inside, now is the time to stretch your knowledge and learn to bake something, work on doing it well and then in August make a batch of cookies, a pie or a cake and bring them to the fair! How about building something with legos, metal for you welders and wood; those can all be entered into the fair as well. So take this slow cold time when your mom is telling you to “go find something to do” and try your hand at leather work, painting or taking pictures. Go for a bundled up hike and find those birds nests from last year, guess what you can enter those as well. 

As for your traditional entries, if you sew then everyone will tell you the sooner you start the more time you have to make it perfect and less stressing the week before entries are due to sew that outfit, blanket, pot holder, pillow case or whatever you decide to tackle. For you buddy gardeners, the seed catalogs are coming in; what are you going to grow, what can you start indoors to make your entry even better in August?  

For our livestock youth, it may be cold and crappy weather outside but keep in mind you have to own that steer at least 120 days before the fair (um that’s April 13th!) do you have a steer or heifer lined up?  For our pig, sheep, goats and rabbit kids you have to own your animals 90 days before the fair, while May 13th seems like forever away, it will be here before you know it.  Where are you getting your animals?  What about your tack? Did you clean it, oil it and get it ready at the end the fair last year or did you toss it into your tack box never to see the light of day?  Perhaps now is the time to find out if your tack needs repairs or replacement instead of on check in day?  Look at how last year went, what was a pain or a hassle that had you stressed?  What could you do differently this year?  And don’t forget that there are livestock clinics coming up in February, you need to sign up for those events now.

If you are sewing or baking, have you thought about an online class?  Have you checked out any local resources to see if you can attend a class and learn more skills? If you are completely out of ideas of what to do for your fair entry, have you looked at Etsy or Pintrest to get some ideas?  What colors are you interested in, what fabrics, what is something you can sew to give to someone or get ready for your future dorm room? Can you learn to sew or knit something that can be donated to a local charity?  A quilt for a fundraiser or even hats for the homeless or for NICU babies? Look at your Christmas list, can you make a list of things you could make for people and enter them at the fair?

When is the time to worry about starting on your projects for the fair?  Now silly!  Trust me, your competitors are looking at what they did last year and figuring out how to get more ribbons and money this year at the fair.