Our State Fair

May 23, 2019
Intern's picture

“Since 1854, the Iowa State Fair has celebrated the best of Iowa – its quality food, its fertile land, and its hard-working people. The State Fair was designed to educate Iowa’s farmers about the very best ways to raise food and livestock. As a result, Iowa has evolved to a world leadership level in agricultural production. Today, the Iowa State Fair provides a showcase for Iowa as the Food Capital of the World.” – Governor Thomas J. Vilsack.

The Iowa State Fair began as an experiment in Fairfield, Iowa on just six acres of land. Since then, the Fair has expanded and grown and become a tradition for nearly 1 million people every August. Our State Fair is known for so many things including the famous butter cow, the Avenue of Breeds, riding the Ferris wheel, attending great concerts in the grandstands and eating food on sticks with real lemonade.

A huge aspect of the Fair for me growing up was 4-H. Almost every year I succeeded in having a non-livestock project be chosen for the Iowa State Fair and was so excited to have the opportunity to see my projects or give a presentation. Giving these presentations and having success in the visual arts project area is what actually led me to my career choice as a communicator. The goal of the 4-H program was to help rural youth by encouraging public school teacher to establish boys’ and girls’ clubs. From the beginning, members worked on projects, but the goal of 4-H has evolved from projects being demonstrations that centered around how to do something and now having the club member also talk about why they did the project and what they learned.

4-H has been a huge part of many young people’s lives and the Blue Ribbon Foundation plays a big part in raising the funds for a great building to showcase 4-Her’s work. After the 2019 Iowa State Fair a six million dollar renovation of the 4-H building will begin thanks to a donation from the Richard O. Jacobson Foundation. The building will be renovated from top to bottom with new lighting and floors, updated facilities and restrooms, construction of a new kitchen facility, and creating additional classroom space. This donation will allow many more generations to show off their projects at the great Iowa State Fair.

- Gabrielle Gerke, PR intern