What's Happening at the Fair?

Every year the Fair Board and volunteers of our community work together toward achieving a common goal. The planning is all done now and it’s time to enjoy what we have worked so hard to keep a part of our community. It's opening day at our Wahkiakum County Fair! Time to visit with friends, view entertainment, eat lots of delicious foods, and take a look at all the improvements that have been made to the fairgrounds.

The Fair Board selects a special person to dedicate the Fair to each year. Nancy Corbin received this honor. Nancy has a long history with the Fair, in fact 16 and a half years of history. What was so special about Nancy? During those 16 and a half years she never missed a Fair and very few board meetings. She was dedicated, involved and wanted to help good ideas be implemented on the Fairgrounds. Nancy was always available to help at fund raising activities and helped plan them too. The fair board appreciates every hour that Nancy shared to make our fair what it is today. There is a community spirit that surrounds our Fair, it started with good people in key positions that make everyone feel welcome. Thank you and congratulations, Nancy!

I encourage everyone to purchase raffle tickets from Fair Princesses Cassie Bolton and Akaysha Stonebraker. We have a new prize to add to the list that you can win with the purchase of a $1 ticket. Martha Backman has donated a half of a beef! With this addition to the already great raffle prizes we have, it’s time to buy more raffle tickets! The princesses will be selling raffle tickets all three days of the Fair till the drawing on Saturday evening.

Fair Dance news! Friday night at 10:30 p.m. head over to the Skamokawa Grange and enjoy the best dance music a DJ can play. This Fair dance is open to all ages and costs $5.

The Fair Board would like to say a special thank you to Larry Holland and Art Pedersen, fishermen of our community, for the salmon that they donated for our barbecue on Saturday. The salmon was caught in Alaska by Art and Larry. Pacific Star Seafoods of Kenai Alaska filleted, vacuum packaged and froze the salmon. Pacific Star Seafoods donated the processing of the salmon and we appreciate their long distance support of our Fair! Thank you Art, Larry and Pacific Star Seafoods!

Advertising is an important part of our fundraising activities. Lisa Mooers created two wonderful posters this year for our events, one for the Silver Buckle Series Open Game Show and our Fair entertainment poster. The Lower Columbia Economic Development Council paid for the cost of these posters. We hope to bring many visitors to our Fair, as we have placed posters all over Washington State to encourage their attendance. Thank you LCEDC for supporting the Fair’s advertising needs and our fund raising activities!

The Fair Board hopes you enjoy the music entertainment, 4-H shows, Silver Buckle Finals, Salmon BBQ, Wapato Native American Dancers, special events, still-life and the animal exhibits from the community. Manager Lore Twiet told me that Jeff Skirven is bringing three of his students from New Zealand to exhibit their skills at our Fair. Jason Winnyerd is the top axe thrower in international competition, Deon Lane and Kerry Head are right behind him in the top standings. Don’t miss this great logging exhibition there are two shows each day of Fair. It’s the place to be on August 19 -21, see you at the Fair!

If you need to gain access to the fairgrounds contact Manager Lore Twiet at 360-431-5247 or you can call 360-795-3480 and leave a message on the fairgrounds answering machine.

The next Wahkiakum County Fair Board meeting is September 8, 7 p.m., T-Building, at the Fairgrounds in Skamokawa. The public is always welcome to attend.