Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) Staff, and the many volunteers of CCE have spent a year gearing up for displaying projects and educational displays to be highlighted at the Schaghticoke Fair featuring the theme “The Fairest One of All”.
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The 4-H Building (located next door to the New York Products Building) is home to 4-H exhibits, Nutrition Information, Childhood Lead Primary Prevention Program, interactive youth activities, 4-H, Dairy Ambassador and recipe demonstrations as well as school, and family living educational displays. There will be scheduled interactive activities for young fairgoers and several stationary exhibits that will range from Natural Resources of the area, healthy recipes, and 4-H Club Projects as examples.
Again this year, 4-H members designed a fair theme T-shirt. You are sure to see many 4-H members and volunteers around the fairgrounds sporting these shirts “The Fairest of the Them All”. Feel free to ask questions of those in the 4-H T-shirts; members and volunteers alike look forward to sharing their 4-H projects with fairgoers. New this year 4-H Teen Ambassadors will also be wearing vests inviting fairgoer to “ask me”. Teen Ambassadors will be roaming around in the building and grounds and their whole purpose is to be available to the public to clarify and answer questions.
A new element 4-H will be offering is a Geo Cache Scavenger Hunt. Young fairgoers will be able to pick up a Scavenger Hunt sheet in the 4-H Building and with their smartphone or GPS they will need to find a number of locations on the fairground. Youth who complete the Scavenger Hunt will be able to claim a free hotdog from the 4-H Snack Bar. This offering is an example of the many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) projects we offer to our county youth.
A reliable standby will be back in the 4-H Building our Shooting Sports Laser Shot Gallery. Our hope is everyone that comes through the fair spends some time at the Laser Shot Gallery to test their target shooting skills but more importantly, learn or reinforce critical safety skills. This is free but we do encourage donations at the Laser Shot.
Friday evening 4-Hers will be modeling their “fairest” outfits in the 4-H Fashion Revue. Every day will include nutritious cooking demonstrations. On Sunday of the fair we will be holding our first 4-H Talent Show at 6 PM.
From rabbits and cavies to sheep and pigs and much more can be seen in the many barns throughout the fair. All the poultry you will see at the fair this year will be of the wooden variety. Due to the Avian Flu, there will not be any live poultry at the fair but there will be a great variety of silhouette wooden chickens and decorated cages by our 4-Hers in their place.
The 4-H Snack Bar, managed and staffed by our 4-H Teens, offers delicious food. Proceeds raised at our 4-H Snack Bar goes directly back to support our 4-H Trips, Awards, Scholarships and fair expenses related to our many animal shows and exhibits.
Friday you can visit our Goat and Beef Shows and end the day with our Sheep Showmanship Contest. Saturday will bring Sheep and Wooden Poultry judging. Sunday includes our Shepherd’s Lead Line Show. The last day of the fair, Labor Day, is loaded with our Dairy Cattle and Dog Shows and the day ends with our 4-H Livestock Auction.
On Labor Day, Cornell Cooperative Extension will be holding their annual 4-H Livestock Auction in the judging arena at 6 PM. 4-H members have consigned hogs, goats, dairy steers and market lambs to the auction. All are welcome to attend the sale on Monday. Anyone interested in learning more about the Auction such as how to sponsor, buy or general information can contact Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rensselaer County at 272-4210. [/private]