Small Fries can't wait to start 4-H experience

“Our main focus in 4-H is youth development,” said Nori Pearce, the county extension officer for the local 4-H club.

Many students developed by Lake County 4-H begin at five or six years of age.

Perhaps it is the sheer joy of children that age that makes the Lake County Fair’s “Small-Fry Stock Show” one of the most anticipated events of the week.

“My favorite part of the show is the air of excitement. The kids are just so excited to be there and share the name of their animal or the funniest thing it does,” said Hannah Vaughan, a 4-H ambassador who has helped with the event for the past five years.

Each year, before the older students do their big market sale on Thursday, they allow young children-- children involved in 4-H and those who are joining from the community - to show their pets or their older siblings’ animals.

The 4-H ambassador program helped with the event for several years, but this year there was a true changing of the guard: The fair board officially handed the event to the ambassadors to lead.

“We’re using the same program, but we’ve just taken more leadership this year in organizing beforehand,” Vaughan said.

According to Vaughan, the Small-Fry Stock Show is focused on sparking interest in young kids to join 4-H.

For the Wheeler family, that spark became a flame.

Madisen Wheeler is an ambassador now, who plans on helping with the show. She started 4-H when she was six and showed her rabbit and dog in the show.

“It was the coolest thing to me, and I want them to have the same feeling in pride in showing their animals. It’s important that it becomes fun, and that they see that they can have fun with their animals and don’t just have to get up early to clean up after it and feed it,” said Wheeler.

This year, Madisen Wheeler will show her Jersey Wooly Rabbit, and she and her older sister, Natalie, will both show Angus Market steer.

Her younger sister, Kaydee, is eight this year and is doing the Small-Fry show for her third time. She is showing a goat this year.

“My favorite part of fair is showing my animals and taking care of them. We get goats that we have to feed, and even bottle feed,” Kaydee said. “I’m also excited to meet other people and to walk my goat around.”

Kaydee also said that she is excited to show goats and lambs when she’s older, and to go into market when she turns 10.

The Wheelers’ youngest sister, Venessa, is also getting ready to join the show for her first time.

While animal showing and selling is not the only activity available to students through the 4-H program, it is an integral part.

“This is one of the last places we can really showcase agriculture,” said Samantha Vincent, the chairman of the fair board. “We want to try to get people re-acquainted with agriculture and we are kid-based. That’s what’s important.”