Organizers pleased as virtual fair winds up

“It was a learning curve for all of us,” Wahkiakum County Fair Board President Joe Blalock said of this year’s Virtual Wahkiakum County Fair.

Blalock, who is not only on the Fair Board, but is involved in 4-H, said that between seeing what the youth had created and working with Steve Carson at the Skamokawa Internet Services, they were able to put together a website that was better than initially expected.

“We were just hoping we could get something together, so it actually came out better than we were hoping. I really have to credit the community too, because as soon as we got the website up, people were advertising, and everybody was volunteering so we could keep it within the fair week.”

“I really wanted to thank the 4-Hers for all their hard work and a lot of the seniors in the community who entered a lot of their stuff,” Blalock said.

The website, https://wahkiakumfair.org/virtualfairshowcase/ will remain up for the time being, and Blalock is encouraging the community to go and check it out, especially the T Building, where he says some of our local senior citizens entered their items.

It went so well, the fair board may even keep the feature as a supplement to the physical fair each year.

Meanwhile, judging is still up in the air.

“On the 4-H side, we do have the judges there,” Blalock said. “That really is what is important, as far as giving the kids feedback. As for the adults, we’re going to have to figure out as a fair board how we’re going to handle that. It’s ongoing.”

The 4-H Market Sale was held thanks to Carrie Backman and the youth who volunteered on the 4-H Virtual Fair Committee.

“It was like a silent auction,” Blalock said. “All the 4-Hers that put an item on there got a bid, which exceeded our expectations. They all got their stuff sold. I think we did $6,600, which is about half what we did last year, but it was better than expected.”