Registration day gathers hundreds of entries

Hundreds of entries made their way into the Pratt Area 4-H Center Tuesday evening as the exhibition hall prepares to open today. Most of the open class and 4-H entries were signed in, sorted and placed in preparation for judging today.

All around the center volunteers worked to gather information, and organize the hundreds of entries in just a couple of hours.

These volunteers give many hours to help in the process, a vital part of making the fair work.
“This fair couldn’t happen without the volunteers,” said Mark Ploger, Pratt County Extension agent.

Many of the volunteers have been doing their jobs for years and know automatically what has to be done. Those organization skills pass from one generation to another and that keeps the fair going, Ploger said.

Sadee Kumberg, a former 4-H’er, was one of those carrying on the skills as she helped set poster entries in place.

Also helping was Bob Schmisseur who helped set up crop division displays including some prairie hay and alfalfa hay by Hunter Waters in the forage division. Waters said he liked to enter because his family raises hay and it is fun.

Leading the open class textiles is superintendent chair Sue Buhler who oversees textiles including the quilt entries, one of the biggest at the fair, with 55 categories. Tables were piled high but Buhler and the other superintendents worked quickly to sort each entry.

While the number of entries in each category varies each year they know they will get a lot of quilt entries overall, Buhler said.

Assisting Buhler with quilts this year are Shirley Lawton, Margaret Hilt and Linda Haworth.
Helping with the photography entries is superintendent Martha Wade who answers questions, makes sure the photos fit the entries and that they are properly prepared in special display bags, Wade said.

Usually the whole entry process goes smoothly but there was a hitch with the mounting boards for the photograph division. The estimated number of boards fell below the actual number and more were ordered but through a breakdown in communication, the mounting boards were delivered to the Extension Office but everyone from the office was at the fair so no one was there to take delivery. The UPS truck then took the boards to this next delivery area at Medicine Lodge.
After making contact with the driver a pickup was arranged in Medicine Lodge and Ploger drove the 60 mile round trip to get the mounting boards and returned with them in time for check-in, Ploger said.

Other than that there were no major problems with the check-in procedure, said Extension Agent Jodi Drake. 

One of the volunteers meeting entrants at the door was Kathy Stewart. Her job was to assist open class entries with registration, make sure that information got into the computer and that the entries went to the proper location in the Jean Clarkson Frisbee Exhibition Hall. The afternoon was busy with at least 120 entries over the two-hour period and most of those were open class entries.

The majority of the 4-H’ers already knew the procedure and took their entries in without assistance, Stewart said.

A wide variety of entries were registered including a collage entry for Brittany Westerman who wanted to improve on her blue ribbon open class project from 2008. She was just not satisfied with the blue after all her hard work, Westerman said.

Among the entries were Haley Mitchell and her mom Jeri Mitchell with the Pratt Pioneers Presidents cookie jar entry. With scores based 50 percent for cookies and 50 percent for the jar, the pair worked together, along with others to make a unique woman character, complete with hair made from a wig Jeri’s mother used to own. Joni Siemens helped make the dress for the figure.
The pair had lots of help with cookies from 8 people.

Gabrielle Murray entered open class clothing and made her garments with lots of pink because she loves pink and purple and green, all colors incorporated in her entries. She said she look good in pink.

Wyatt Slade entered a reading poster because he likes to read and liked the his book “Box Car Children.” It was his first time to enter the poster contest.

Taylor Murphy was unable to bring his entry so his dad Scott brought in a made from scratch tennis ball launcher that made its way into the rocketry division. Taylor made the radio controlled machine because he has a dog that loves to chase tennis balls. Taylor got interested in his project through BEST robotics.