Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Students Show At County Fair
FAYETTEVILLE — Kevin Barenberg, Lincoln High School agriculture teacher, can’t say enough about the Washington County Fair.
“This is a neat deal,” Barenberg said last week, as he spent another hot day at the fairgrounds with his FFA students, along with kids involved with 4H clubs.
“They start with babies and before you know it, they have a project that they may make money on. If not, they have experiences that will last them a lifetime.”
Students involved in raising livestock receive life lessons, Barenberg said.
“Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad but always it is something they can take and learn from.”
About 30 students from Lincoln High FFA Club participated in the fair. Another 20 students from the Lincoln area participated as members of 4H clubs in the area. Barenberg said FFA helps the different 4H clubs.
“We want to make it less about FFA and more about the kids,” he said.
Farmington, Prairie Grove and Lincoln schools all had students involved in the county fair last week. Some showed livestock. Others submitted entries to horticulture, food or crafts.
Kelby Biswell, a Lincoln High School senior, showed chickens, turkeys and rabbits but her passion is horticulture. She plans to go to college and major in agriculture with a specialty in horticulture. She wants to be an agriculture teacher.
Biswell lives on a farm with five siblings so she knows the importance of a home garden. Her siblings are all involved in agriculture programs and all help with the family gardens, which provides food for the table.
Her team submitted crops in the county fair’s horticulture division. They submitted samples of okra, tomatoes and pumpkin, even a cornstalk. Last year, her team made it to the national FFA competition in horticulture and to the statewide horticulture competition for 4H.
Biswell agrees with the life lessons mentioned by Barenberg.
FFA and 4H have taught her confidence in public speaking, how to change a tire, how to give a proper handshake and how to run a meeting, she said.
Many students start showing at the county fair at a young age.
Emma Wilhite, 10, a fifthgrader at Lincoln Middle School, is a member of the Cane Hill Clubbers 4H Club and started showing when she was 5 years old.
This year, she is showing her Hamp pig, called Hamlet. She also has rabbits and turtles on her farm in Lincoln.
Emma wakes up early before school to care for her pig.
“I have to feed it, water it and make sure it doesn’t overheat,” Emma said.
Her friend, Jalynn Barenberg, also 10, has a Bluebutt pig named Blue ‘n Gold.
Like Emma, Jalynn feeds, waters and walks her pig every day.
Sometimes her mom has to wake her up to care for her pig but Jalynn said she gets right up. “I always like it,” she said. The fair opened Aug. 30 and ran through Sept. 3.