Officials: St. Joseph County Grange Fair a roaring success

CENTREVILLE — It was an exhausting but exhilarating week for 10-year-old Zayden Prichard, a first-year showman at the St. Joseph County Grange Fair.

The Centreville-area resident said it didn’t take long to realize the difference between attending the fair to help older siblings show animals and overseeing animals of his own at the annual fair.

A member of the Happy Herdsman 4-H Club, Prichard said he put in long and dusty days tending to his dairy cow, four rabbits and two chickens.

“Well, it seems like there’s always something to do, it’s a lot of work to keep the animals fed and watered, but being at the fair all week has been worth it,” he said. “I’m already looking forward to next year.”

Prichard, echoing sentiments of thousands of former 4-H members before him, got his first taste of what it’s like to care for and show animals while spending the week at St. Joseph County’s largest event of the year.

Spending the week on site is an excused absence from school and afforded Prichard a hands-on opportunity to witness the fruits of his labor raising the animals. The 4-H auction was Thursday and means Prichard will have a new round of animals to care for next year.

While animals were the focus for Prichard all week, other people come to the fair for a more pedestrian purpose: food.

Meet Schoolcraft-area resident George Collins III. The 24-year-old college student said he annually attends fairs throughout most of Southwest Michigan and even a few in neighboring counties in Indiana.

St. Joseph County and Allegan County, he said, have proven to be the most enjoyable fairs. He said the grounds at both properties set the two county fairs apart from all others.

“I’ve been to this fair three or four time a week over the past 10 years,” he said. “The best part? The food, for sure. I also like the tractor pulls … it’s the most red-neck sport on the face of the earth.”

Collins said his go-to places for food at the fair include Pig-Headed BBQ for a beef brisket sandwich, and any stand that sells corn dogs. The soft pretzels are always good, especially with cheese for dipping, he said. Furthermore, the stand that sells steak tips never fails to disappoint, Collins said.

He said the rural feel of the St. Joseph County Grange Fair helps set it apart from other area county fairs.

A Kalamazoo County resident, Collins said he was a volunteer blacksmith in the past at Allegan County Fair. He gave a slight edge to Allegan County as the best fair in the region, but St. Joseph County is a close second, he said.

Mindy Timm, marketing director for the St. Joseph County Grange Fair, said the fair experienced strong crowds this week, especially at the nightly grandstand shows.

“For the most part, everything has been good … we’ve been getting lots of good feedback from people,” she said. “The real wildcard is always the weather, of course, and it’s really worked in our favor.”

Timm joked that fair week pretty much captured the essence of Michigan’s unpredictable weather. For example, she said many fair-goers in attendance on opening day Sunday were in shorts and a T-shirt. By Friday night and most likely ahead of the fair’s closing tonight, it wouldn’t surprise anyone to see people dressed in blue jeans and wearing a winter coat, Timm said.

She said vendors reported strong sales and most have committed to coming back next year.

“The free entertainment, shark encounter, Heritage Park area, you name it and anyone who has been here will tell you they enjoyed themselves,” she said. “When you don’t get to bed until 1:30 or 2 o’clock, and you have to be up at 7 (a.m.) for a fair board meeting, you know it’s a tough, long day.”

Timm said Thursday’s 4-H animal auction included the sale of a pig shown by Brynleigh Sherman, granddaughter of the late Jerry Waltke. Timm said Waltke was a fair board member for 13 years and spent a number of years, in addition, as an avid supporter of the St. Joseph County Grange Fair.

Sherman’s pig sold for $110 a pound, netting $31,790. Timm said the exceptionally high amount was, indeed, an anomaly, as Sherman promised to put proceeds from the sale toward development of the Jerry Waltke Memorial Pavilion Shelter.

For the sake of comparison, a solid pig will typically sell for $8 a pound on the high side.

“People were very generous to support Brynleigh this way,” she said. “There are still donations being made above and beyond what was raised through the auction.”

Timm noted Waltke was inducted Thursday into the St. Joseph County Grange Fair Hall of Fame.

This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Officials: St. Joseph County Fair a roaring success