July 11, 2016 at 4:40 p.m.
Enjoy, appreciate our county fair
Editorial
A little more than 40 years ago, a rescue took place in Jay County.
The institution that was rescued?
The Jay County Fair.
Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the fair was suffering through a period of decline. The attractions were lackluster. Attendance was nothing to brag about. And the fairgrounds themselves looked pretty crappy.
That’s when a group of individuals — mostly members of the Portland Lions Club — decided a rescue was in order.
That group — folks like Everett May Jr., Clyde Beeler, Bill Ludwig and Bob Lyons — made a concerted effort to get on the fair board and reinvigorate the fair before it simply ground to a halt.
Not every aspect of that rescue went smoothly.
Longtime fair board members — some of whom had been on the board for decades — didn’t much care for criticism and new ideas from the “Young Turks” of the Lions Club. There was some pushback.
But the rescue team prevailed.
Within a matter of half a dozen years, the re-energized fair board had brought in a higher caliber of midway than the county had seen before, had begun experimenting with big name entertainment and had given the fairgrounds a facelift.
If a new idea came along, the board tried it. If it worked, it was added to the mix. If it didn’t work, it was jettisoned and replaced by another new idea.
The board also reached out for expert help whenever it could. In the 1980s, supporters of the fair took part in a design study workshop with architecture students from Ball State University and quickly adopted the best of the ideas that came out of the process.
The food court, the north entrance, the Farmers’ Building stage and the consistent white and green color scheme on the buildings all trace their roots back to that BSU engagement.
Most of all, what the board did was keep on improving. There was never a suggestion that the fair rest on its laurels. Why do that when you could always make the fair better?
Enjoy the fair this week. Thank fair board members and volunteers for their tireless labor. And take a moment to thank those folks who rescued an endangered institution more than 40 years ago. — J.R.
The institution that was rescued?
The Jay County Fair.
Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the fair was suffering through a period of decline. The attractions were lackluster. Attendance was nothing to brag about. And the fairgrounds themselves looked pretty crappy.
That’s when a group of individuals — mostly members of the Portland Lions Club — decided a rescue was in order.
That group — folks like Everett May Jr., Clyde Beeler, Bill Ludwig and Bob Lyons — made a concerted effort to get on the fair board and reinvigorate the fair before it simply ground to a halt.
Not every aspect of that rescue went smoothly.
Longtime fair board members — some of whom had been on the board for decades — didn’t much care for criticism and new ideas from the “Young Turks” of the Lions Club. There was some pushback.
But the rescue team prevailed.
Within a matter of half a dozen years, the re-energized fair board had brought in a higher caliber of midway than the county had seen before, had begun experimenting with big name entertainment and had given the fairgrounds a facelift.
If a new idea came along, the board tried it. If it worked, it was added to the mix. If it didn’t work, it was jettisoned and replaced by another new idea.
The board also reached out for expert help whenever it could. In the 1980s, supporters of the fair took part in a design study workshop with architecture students from Ball State University and quickly adopted the best of the ideas that came out of the process.
The food court, the north entrance, the Farmers’ Building stage and the consistent white and green color scheme on the buildings all trace their roots back to that BSU engagement.
Most of all, what the board did was keep on improving. There was never a suggestion that the fair rest on its laurels. Why do that when you could always make the fair better?
Enjoy the fair this week. Thank fair board members and volunteers for their tireless labor. And take a moment to thank those folks who rescued an endangered institution more than 40 years ago. — J.R.
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