Episode 23 Around the Bourbon County Fair
Ag Credit Intern Emily Murphy spoke with some of the people behind the scenes of the Bourbon County Fair and what they love about the week-long event, including Sunshine Day, which provides a welcoming and accessible environment for individuals, families, and children who have sensory sensitivities and disabilities.
Bourbon County Fair https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057567036208
Central Kentucky Ag Credit https://AgCreditOnline.com
- Transcript
[00:00:01.280] - Intro
Welcome to beyond agriculture, the podcast that takes you beyond the scope of ag and into the real life stories, conversations and events taking place in our community. Who we are and what we do is beyond agriculture.[00:00:26.490] - Emily Murphy
Welcome back to the Beyond Agriculture podcast. This is Emily Murphy, marketing intern here at Central Kentucky Ag Credit. You may remember me from our previous episode where we did a recap of Kentucky FFA state convention. If you haven't already, I highly recommend revisiting that episode to learn more about how agriculture is impacting youth today. In today's episode, we're introducing our county Fair series. As you know, rural citizens often look forward to summertime festivities as it is prime County Fair season. This week I stopped by the Bourbon County Fair and Horse show to meet with individuals who are very passionate about the agriculture in their communities. Something I gathered from my visit to Bourbon county is that everyone cares for their community. With the help of 4-H and FFA members as well as Bourbon County Fair board members, the fair was able to host what is known as Sunshine Day at the fair. In a nutshell, Sunshine Day is when the fair is modified and adapted to fit the needs of our friends who may have a sensitivity to high sensory activities. Sunshine Day provides these individuals with equal opportunity to enjoy the fair just as anyone else would.[00:01:39.170] - Emily Murphy
Some of my guests for this episode can tell you more about the heartwarming experience that surrounds Sunshine Day. Our first guest for today is Lois Carter. Lois serves as the advisor for the Bourbon County Fair Board. She has also been the Bourbon County 4-H agent for 33 years and will retire in January. Most can agree that Lois has left a huge impact on Bourbon County, and it is a huge honor to have her here with us today. Lois, could you please tell me what the fair means in your community?[00:02:12.870] - Lois Carter
I think the fair is an amazing opportunity for our community to come together. People come here to visit and see friends that they have not seen maybe since last fair, or even longer than that. It's a great opportunity for our youth to showcase what they have worked so hard for. So, I just. I think it's a wonderful community event with lots of community support.[00:02:36.710] - Emily Murphy
As the Bourbon County Fair Board advisor, what kind of planning goes into this event?[00:02:42.730] - Lois Carter
Well, you might find it unusual to know that we've already started a list at the fair desk to make improvements and changes we want for 2025. We will have an official wrap up meeting in the fall and then we'll start with monthly fair board meetings in January. We will involve our chairman of our various events at most of those meetings. Then we start when we get down to the nitty gritty, we make sure that judges have been contacted. We make sure that the petting zoo is going to have enough bedding. We make sure that the hand washing stations are ordered, the ribbons are ordered. So we do start planning a full year in advance for the next fair.[00:03:32.660] - Emily Murphy
What has been the most fulfilling experience while serving on the fair board?[00:03:38.540] - Lois Carter
Undoubtedly the sunshine day. We started that last year and there were tears shed and we laughed, and we cried and it was just the best event ever. I think anyone involved with the fair would probably agree with me in saying it's the best thing we've ever done. So, we're thrilled to be able to offer that same opportunity again this year. And we're very thankful for Ag Credit for sponsoring this event as well.[00:04:05.230] - Emily Murphy
How does your county four h assist in this year's fair?[00:04:09.550] - Lois Carter
Well, first of all, of course, we throughout the year offer lots of opportunities for our 4-Hers to make projects and to get involved in 4-H projects that can be exhibited at the fair. So that would be the first way. We also have a strong tradition of having what has been affectionately called the burger buggy. I've been in the community for 41 years and been the 4-H agent for 33 of those. And the 4-H concession stand has been on the same corner all of those years. When I began, it was the 4-H burger buggy because that's all we sold. And now we've branched out to add a few other items. So, I think that is a good service to our community. Along with being a major fundraiser for 4-H, our 4-H council members are very involved in being chairman of events here at our fair. Our 4-H council president is actually the treasurer of our fair board. So, our volunteers are incredibly involved in making sure that this fair goes off without a hitch.[00:05:14.980] - Emily Murphy
Once again, thank you, Lois, for your dedication to Bourbon County. Serving alongside Lois, we have Beth Graves, who is also highly active in the community. Beth serves as the treasurer of the fair board and is also the principal of Bourbon County Central elementary School. Let's hear what Beth is most passionate about when it becomes fair week. Beth, could you please tell me what does the fair mean to this community?[00:05:40.590] - Beth Graves
Sure, the fair is really, you know, it's kind of the social event of the year in the county. But beyond that, you know, it's a time for fellowship and families to get out and have a little fun. You know, we have lots of families that this is kind of a little mini vacation for them, being able to come out and enjoy the fair together and experience the carnival and all that the fair has to offer. We're also. My family and I are also an ag family. My kids show livestock. So this is also an opportunity for all of our livestock kids to be able to come out and show off their livestock and all of their hard work, as well as our youth and adults being able to exhibit in the exhibit hall. And that seems to be a little bit of a lost art, but we have revived that in the last several years, and we have lots of adults and kids that come out and exhibit their artwork, their baked goods and photography, and lots of great things just to share with the community.[00:06:52.080] - Emily Murphy
Could you please tell me how being a fair board member is aligned with the agriculture in Bourbon County?[00:06:59.800] - Beth Graves
Absolutely.[00:07:01.230] - Beth Graves
You know, we have about 15 members of the fair board, and we all bring different things to the table. And so, one of the things that I am lucky enough to bring to the table is that ag background and experience in livestock. But several of our fair board members come with similar experiences, whether that be specifically livestock or horticulture or, you know, any things in the exhibit hall. But each of those fair board members being able to bring out that expertise really allows us to provide as many ag opportunities to our community as possible throughout fair week.[00:07:45.280] - Emily Murphy
Beth, we appreciate you for empowering the lives of young people in the Bourbon County school system. As an administrator, we applaud you for the obstacles that you encounter daily. Here at Ag Credit, we're not just advocates for the agriculture industry, but also for the field of agriculture education. We want to thank the FFA advisors that encourage students and cultivate leadership daily. Tara Poe, or Ms. Poe, as her students call her, is here representing the Bourbon County FFA chapter. Let's hear what her key takeaways have been from the fair so far. Miss Poe, could you please tell me how the Bourbon County FFA chapter is aligned with Bourbon County agriculture?[00:08:27.280] - Ms. Poe
Yes, a lot of times when people think of education, they just think of the classroom portion. But agriculture education is also based off a three-circle model, so our students are learning in the classroom. So that's one part of it. But we also put an emphasis on SAE and leadership, so out of their ag classes they can join FFA. So, through that is the leadership aspect. So, these ladies are going to tell you about cool activities that they got to do during the fair that was based off that leadership part and giving back to the community in general. And then the third part is SAE. So that stands for supervised agriculture experience. So, through the classroom, we really hope that they find a project that is ag related, and they do that outside of the classroom. So, they're kind of learning more than what they're learning in their ag classes and applying those in our community. Bourbon county is very strong in livestock production and crop production. So, a lot of our members come to us already having those projects, from goat showing to cattle to hay production. But some of them actually find those SAE projects while they're in the classroom, and the fair really gets to highlight those projects, from fair entries to those livestock shows.[00:09:38.370] - Emily Murphy
We're very thankful for individuals like Lois, Beth and Tara who strive to empower youth daily. Speaking of which, there are some 4-H and FFA members who are going to share some of their fair experiences today. First, we have Allie and Emmy. These young women serve their FFA chapter as president and chaplain. Needless to say, the Bourbon County Fair has kept them busy. Let's hear about their experiences so far. Could you please tell me how the Bourbon County FFA chapter assisted in this year's county fair?[00:10:09.460] - Eme FFA
Yes, to start off the week, on Monday morning, we had FFA members come and help take in fare entries. We had vegetables, hay, anything you wanted to bring in. We also encouraged our other members to just bring in all their stuff, their growing at home, everything they're doing at home, and just bring it to the fair. Along with that Monday night. This was our first year doing it. We did the farm bureau had this, and we did the family fun night where you could just bring your kids of all ages. It was a good event for younger kids. I know we had a lot of fun games. We also had prizes where if you won a game, you could put them in to win a good prize. And along with this, we did our little tractor pull, which was just little toy tractors that kids rode on. And they did it just like the regular pull at the fair.[00:10:50.890] - Ally
Along with the Farm bureau night, FFA members will also help with a sunshine day. And what that is a day, a quieter day for low sensory kids to come and enjoy the fair without the big flashing lights and noises. FFA members kind of help and assist those kids to enjoy fun activities during the day. And another thing that we do, the Ag Credit hosts, is a goat show where these kids are able to show goats if they want to just kind of have fun and relax before the fair starts.[00:11:22.050] - Emily Murphy
We're very glad that we had the opportunity to talk with Emmy and Allie about their perspective of the Bourbon County fair. To wrap us up, we're going to hear from Caroline Akers, who is heavily involved in 4-H and livestock showing.[00:11:35.820] - Caroline Akers
My name is Caroline Akers. I'm going to be a senior at Lexington Catholic High School, and I show goats in Bourbon County.[00:11:43.550] - Emily Murphy
Caroline, could you please tell me what activities you've been up to at the fair this week?[00:11:48.910] - Caroline Akers
This week at the Bourbon County Fair tonight I've been showing goats at the Bourbon County goat show. I just did my showmanship. I won my division and then I went back in, and I got reserve champion Bourbon County showman. So, I'll be back on Saturday to show at the round robin.[00:12:08.320] - Emily Murphy
Could you please tell me a little bit more about the round robin?[00:12:12.220] - Caroline Akers
So, the round robin is an annual show that happens on Saturday night. After all the livestock shows at Bourbon County, the top two showmen from Bourbon County of each species will go show in it. And it's where all those showmen will show each species. So, cattle, hogs, goats, and lambs, and then they'll pick a top three for the round robin winners.[00:12:38.130] - Emily Murphy
We would again like to give a warm welcome to the individuals that joined us for yet another successful episode of Beyond Agriculture. You each have a bright future ahead of you and we hope you enjoyed being guests for today's episode. To our listeners, thank you for listening to beyond agriculture. While you're out and about this summer, make it a goal to stop by your county fair to see the impact of agriculture in our rural communities. Be sure to tune in next time to Beyond Agriculture.[00:13:06.050] - Outro
This episode of Beyond Agriculture is brought to you by Central Kentucky Ag Credit. Thanks for listening to the podcast. Be sure to visit agcreditonline.com/beyondagriculture. Access the show notes and discover our fantastic bonus content. Also, don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you can join us next time for beyond agriculture.