For those of you who might not know, a State Fair Commissioner judges our fair every year. He (or she) walks through all the barns and exhibits, visits with stewards and people on barn duty, counts the number of exhibits we have and then gives us a score on how well we did putting on a fair for the community. That score is what determines how much money will be budgeted to our fair from the State Fair Commission the following year.
As the State Fair Commissioner evaluates the fairgrounds, he (or she) takes note of places on the fairgrounds where people have taken extra effort in their area to make the fair special for the public. He then awards one of those areas the State Fair Commission's Black and White Award. The Black and White Award is one of the highest honors that is given on the fairgrounds each year. It has been awarded to the 4H Horse Division, the Heritage Barn, the 4H Building, Open Class Grains & Grasses, the 4H Dog Division, and even the Fair Board has received it.
This year's judge (and it is a different one every year) was most impressed with the Malone Building. The Malone Building is where the Open Class Floral, Photography, Beer & Wine, Quilts, Sewing, Needlework, Fiber Arts and Fleeces are displayed. The superintendents did a FANTASTIC job setting up the building and displaying the exhibits, but what the judge didn't know is that their work started many years before when they asked if they could refinish the concrete floor in the building. They spent many weeks together scraping, cleaning, scraping, scraping, cleaning, prepping, scraping, sanding, cleaning and painting the floor. It opened the door for them to start working together and make it the best it could be for all the exhibits housed in there. Instead of many different departments, there's one big building chock full of great exhibits. Check it out next year.
Rhonda Permenter, Terry Permenter, MaryAnn Pintler, Joy Smith, Margaret Nichols and Karen Hallett, congratulations on a well deserved Black and White Award and THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK!
