The Sherburne County Fair celebrates it 125th anniversary this year, and 4-H kids are preparing to put on a great show.
Most activity for the general public begins Thursday, but the kids do a lot of work long before that.
Tuesday, members of the Refuge Rangers, a 4-H club with 48 kids from Becker, Big, Lake Zimmerman, Princeton and surrounding areas, were busy getting their parade float ready.
“The theme is “Grow with 4-H,” said Bailey Muehlbauer.
“We’re going to have a flower garden,” said Kayla Meyer. “We’re cutting out a white picket fence and we’re going to make flowers so we can decorate the sides of the float.”
On each of the flowers they’ll be listing a separate activity.
“Different projects you can do in 4-H, like animals, vegetable gardening, shooting sports or photography,” said Muehlbauer.
The group had originally intended to begin decorating a large round hay bale at the fairgrounds Tuesday afternoon as part of the first annual competition. But the bale wasn’t delivered yet, and a forecast of possible thunderstorms changed their plans.
Instead, they moved inside and began working on their float. They were making good use of formerly-used materials, like old, wooden 22-targets as stabilizers to hold up small signs and old billboards as grass.
For the main items on the float, they were using a variety of colored corrugated plastic foam board donated by M&P Sign Co. from Monticello. It’s waterproof material - just in case it rains.
“We’ll be making tulips, daisies - something that’s recognizable,” said Muehlbauer.
The flowers will be used first on the hay bales to display at the Fair.
“We’re going to reuse the flowers on the hay bales and then put them on our float the morning of the parade so we don’t have to make double of anything,” said Muehlbauer.
A few of the kids will be riding in the float at the parade. Most of the older kids will walk along side and hand out candy.
“And hopefully, we’ll be able to do a choreographed dance,” said Meyer.
“They will be doing everything else at the fair too,” said Katie Meyer, Kayla’s mom. “It’s very diverse. They’ll have everything from rockets and bridges to livestock.”
The Refuge Rangers have the 12th position in the parade, which gets them back to the fairgrounds early.
“That’s good because some of the kids show animals and do presentations,” said Katie.
Although most fairgoers don’t attend the fair until Thursday, the 4-Her’s will be busy much earlier, showing their projects Tuesday and bringing in all their animals Wednesday.
