The barns at the Clark County Fair were packed this week, not just with livestock, but with visitors ever-eager to see them.
Hundreds of youth from 4-H (Head, Heart, Hands, and Health), a national organization hosting youth clubs providing hands-on learning experiences, brought their own livestock to the annual fair. Among them was Zoe Wyant, 14, of Troutdale, OR, who has been a local 4-H club member for 10 years. On Wednesday, Aug. 6, her turkey took "grand champion overall," a prestigious title for 4-H club members.
"I felt happy that I got the victory because it's my first time getting champion overall, and I'm really happy to show him in the ring," she said.
Wyant, a recent graduate of Walt Morey Middle School, is a senior youth member in 4-H. This year, she is showing Mason, her one-year-old male Rhode Island Red rooster, along with her award-winning market turkey.
"4H is just a really fun thing that kids could get into, and it's just fun to learn learn different animals," Wyant said. "You know, and have fun with people, you know, and 4H is really just about … you're like a family with your 4H club members."
She explained that market birds are judged on qualities like firmness and cleanliness.
"He had a lot of firmness on his chest, and the only reason why, another reason why he picked that my turkey is because they were the cleanest ones," she said.
For Wyant, 4-H is more than competition. "One thing that interests me is that it helps you learn about skills like it helps you learn about like financial skills, and it also helps, like it helps bring people together and one reason that I really love about this club is that everyone acts like a family and we all work together and we help each other for animals," she said.
Missy McElprang, 4-H youth development regional specialist for Clark, Skamania and Klickitat counties, said 4-H participation at the Clark County Fair is an annual tradition.
"4H is a youth development program that uses volunteer base to deliver a club-based model," McElprang said. "There's agriculture, of course, and there's also like robots and rockets and bugs and all sorts of different things, and the goal really is to teach kids life skills regardless of the project that they're in."
She said about 85 percent of the county's roughly 600 youth participants take part in fair activities, from showing livestock to still-life exhibits.
"They have a certain amount of time that they're required to own them and to feed them and take care of them," McElprang said.
Among this year's most popular sights was Jessy, a pig owned by 4-H youth Hunter Shirley, with her 11 piglets. Born July 25, they arrived mid-week at the fair and became an instant draw, with visitors crowding the barn to watch them nurse, nap and nudge one another.
While 4-H dominates much of the fair's livestock activity, other animal exhibits were aplenty during the fair. One of those belongs to the Nativity Ridge Farm in La Center, run by Jeff Siebert.
Siebert's pen includes Curly the camel, miniature zebu cattle, baby doll sheep, goats and Jethro the donkey.
Siebert has been bringing Curly and friends to the fair for three years. Before the exhibit, he and his wife served as 4-H leaders for seven years. Siebert has visited the fair since his childhood.
The animals are a familiar sight beyond the fairgrounds, as Siebert takes them to live nativity events across the region each winter.
"This will be my 20th year of doing the live nativity for Living Hope Church," Siebert said. "Curly changes people's lives by seeing them."
Siebert's exhibit included nativity backgrounds, authentic camel saddles, and images of his 20 years of running the nativity. For visitors, the opportunity to meet Curly is a highlight of the annual fair.
"I'm here to provide that scene for those people who have never seen a camel," he said. "They might have a frown when they walk in there, but when they walk back out, they have a smile on their face."
