What's Happening at the Fair?

Once again the Wahkiakum County Fair Boards Easter Bingo was a successful fund raising Event for your fair. A huge thank you to Martha and Cheryl Backman for all the planning and prize gathering they do to make these bingos a big success. Martha and Cheryl are truly dedicated volunteers!

By 6 p.m. the multi-purpose room at the Grade School was filled with people ready to play bingo. The first number was called, the room turned quiet and all attention was focused on watching bingo cards. After 10 rounds of bingo, it was time for some raffle tickets to be drawn. The generous donations from our community were piled high on a table, raffle ticket numbers called out and I think almost everyone at the event won a prize from this table. Then it was back to bingo, not just regular bingo, we play six different types to make it more fun!

The kitchen was staffed by Janet Bryan, Kay Chamberlain and Becky Ledtke. We were kept busy all evening serving up goodies to the hungry bingo players. Fair supporter Helen Keyser brought some delicious donuts, cupcakes and other treats to sell at our fund raising event; they disappeared fast! Thank you, Helen.

Mike Backman called the bingo numbers for many games and kept everyone listening intently as each number was called. To give Mike a break, Jim Moten took a turn at the bingo number calling table. Thank you both for making the bingo games move quickly and everyone enjoyed the suspense as your booming voices called out the numbers!

At the raffle tables we had Neil and Jean Beerbower, Bill Chamberlain and some additional help from Jim Moten as needed. The raffle table crew were busy all evening selling lots of tickets and the workers did a great job keeping the lines of people moving. Thank you, Neil, Jean, Bill and Jim!

Carrie Backman, Jim Moten, Cheryl Backman and County Commissioner Blair Brady were part of the crew that took the many raffle prizes out to the winners. With smiles on their faces they gave out prize after prize to our happy gathering of bingo players. Thanks, Carrie, Cheryl, Jim and Blair!

Fair supporter Betty Goodell also helps the Backman ladies gather prizes for our bingos. This year she brought a wood bench that was carved by Rob MacElfresh, with the wood block donated by Matt from Longview Timber. The bench had a huge carved salmon as the back rest. It was beautiful! Blair Brady was our auctioneer and the bidding for the bench was intense. The highest bidder was Jason Rainey; he took home one awesome bench! Thank you, Betty, Matt, Rob and our highest bidder, Jason for supporting our fair!

It wouldn’t be Easter bingo without an Easter bunny hopping in and giving candy to all the game players and their children.

The last raffle of the evening was for a 42” flat screen color TV and was won by Kelsey Briscoe. Congratulations, Kelsey!

Thank you to all who attended and we look forward to visiting with you at the 2012 Wahkiakum County Fair. The 2012 fair theme is Hay Bales and Pig Tails.

If you need to gain access to the Fairgrounds contact Fair Manager Becky Ledtke at 560-0371 or you can call 1-360-795-3480 and leave a message.