Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair wins four awards
By Steve Herring
Published in News on February 11, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Holding the awards from left are Edythe Blanton, office manager; Sandra Head, exhibit coordinator; Eddie Pitzer, fair manager; and Curtis Shivar, president of the Wayne County Livestock Development Association.
DUDLEY -- The Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair won four awards in its first entry into competition sponsored by the International Association of Fairs and Expositions.
It also won two first-place awards from the N.C. Association of Agricultural Fairs Convention and the Got to be N.C. Award given by the N.C. Department of Agriculture.
"I think it speaks highly of the people who come to our fair, and the interest in it because it takes people bringing in the exhibits so that we can have those exhibits on display," fair Manager Eddie Pitzer said. "I mean when the evaluator comes to our fair and looks at what we have here, it is actually what the people in Wayne County and surrounding areas bring to the fair that makes it an award-winning fair."
The fair received the first-place Agriculture Award and Youth Award from the state convention.
The Agriculture Award is given to the fair that best showcases agriculture and the agricultural heritage of the area served.
The Youth Award is given to the fair that best showcases youth and youth activities of the area served.
A change in convention rules kept the fair from winning the coveted Image Award, an award it won in 2014 -- the 17th time since the awards program started in 1977.
The award is given annually to a fair that demonstrates the best balance of outstanding agricultural and youth exhibits, livestock shows, contests, entertainment, commercial displays, a variety of foods, and a good carnival.
The 2013 awards program was canceled because of some restructuring as to how fairs are evaluated.
"We were not qualified for the Image Award, but we will be next year," Pitzer said. "It truly demonstrates what an agriculture fair should be. They changed that rule to where if you won it the previous year, you cannot compete for it the current year.
"In 2014 we won it. So in 2015 we did not compete for it, but we will be eligible in 2016."
The Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair is a perennial winner in the state convention, but it was the first time it has competed in the International Association of Fairs and Expositions.
Edythe Blanton, office manager, Sandra Head, exhibit coordinator, Pitzer and Mark Hood, secretary - treasurer of the Wayne County Livestock Development Association that sponsors the fair, attended the most recent session.
"We have seen some of the competitive exhibits because normally when we go out there they have all of them on display," Pitzer said.
"So we kind of go in and look at what others are doing. There is everything from the (fairbook) covers, to advertising that they use, sponsorship packages."
The fair submitted photos of different displays.
The fair won first place in general display for non-competitive or noncommercial display that was created by the fair or one of its noncommercial partners.
The photos were of the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service display.
The second first-place award was in photo series for a competitive event. The winning event was the food preservation display.
The display area was created to look like a kitchen instead of just a standard line of shelves or stands.
The second-place award was for a new or unique display.
"We built and painted a four-piece unit for our scrapbooking entries just to really show them off," Mrs. Head said. "It was in the main exhibit building. It was tall and had slots and you could slide the scrapbooking page in so that it didn't take up as much space."
The third-place award was also for noncommercial or non-competitive display. The winning entry was the Beekeepers of the Neuse display that included a live beehive.
"We are real pleased," Mrs. Head said. "It was a good start for us. We actually went to the convention the year before, and me and Edythe looked (at displays)."
"We thought we had some things as good as what won," Mrs. Blanton said.
"We are proud of how we did."
"We have great community partners, and that is part of this," Mrs. Head said. "So showing off what they do is important, too. But we are just proud of what we do here at the fair, and feel like it is the best of the best."
Mrs. Head said they knew the local fair was as good or better than a "lot of these fairs" in the competition.
"So we have to show off what we have got going on here," she said.
The four awards aren't bad for a first time, Pitzer said.
"Hopefully she will continue doing that and working with it," he said.
The annual event, is normally held in Las Vegas, N.V., but will move to San Antonio, Texas, in a couple of years, Pitzer said.
"It's a conference that we go to every year," Pitzer said. "It runs from Saturday to Wednesday. It is a good conference. It is full of workshops, and you have people from all over. This year, there were some people there from Australia, Canada, Mexico and the United States.
"So you get a broad diversity. You have everything from large fairs, the big state fairs, down to the smaller county fairs like we are. It is just a great opportunity to go and be with those people and hear what they do."
It includes numerous workshops and table topics, covering just about any subject, a person can think of that is involved with the fair, he said.
The fair books a lot of its entertainment at the International Association of Fairs and Expositions since there is such a wide variety of entertainment to choose from, he said.
"Plus there is everything in there from the software you can use to insurance to you name it," Pitzer said.
"It is just an opportunity to go see a lot of stuff in one place. So we use it as a good planning tool to get started here."
The 2016 Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair will be held Sept. 29 through Oct. 8.