Dear Readers,
At 8:30 a.m. this past Saturday, I arrived at the fair with our Jefferson Rotary Club banner, a box of fresh doughnuts for our Rotary crew, and raffle tickets we were to sell along with sausage on a stick at the Marion County Fair. Not early enough, as Rotarian's Jim Finstrom, Bennie Franks, Bill Kennedy, and Dave Shimic had beat me. They had our tent all set up, tables ready, coffee ready, and coals fired up to cook the sausage on a stick! Rotarian's at Work!
I had to rush to work to begin the day and arrived back later that afternoon. The Marion County Fair was in full swing and the Jefferson Rotarian's were hard at work selling sausage on a stick. In fact, more than we had sold before on previous years. I was starved and immediately bought one for myself and lo and behold, The First Baptist Church, (in the booth next to us) was selling lemon and chocolate what I call Guadalupe Pie! $1.00 a slab of this delicious dessert that is layers of puddings with cream cheese, whipped cream with a crust of buttery pecan dough, YUMMY!
I spied my husband and he was eating a bowl of chili, looked more like a Frito Chili Pie and he informed me he had ate his way through the fair. As I scanned the fair grounds, I saw more families than I had seen in past years. They had brought in a trailer and had performers singing intermixed with some pretty fine Karaoke singers. I walked around the booths and took a bunch of photos to capture the atmosphere of the fair. The library was giving away pumpkins and they kids were all set up there to decorate them. I noticed Coach Hale in the dunking booth and a fine crowd gathered to watch him go down with the toss of a football. There was a barn raising out back where children could learn how to milk a cow and enter the petting zoo of farm animals. Lots of great homemade gifts to buy, I bought some flashing Halloween pumpkins earrings to wear for our Fall Festival at my church.
Inside the Kellyville building were the wares of all the folks for judging. I caught up with Barbara Hampton who had a mighty fine quilt on her arm. Beautiful jars of jam were decorated with ribbons and every type of art you can imagine from paintings to photography were on display.
As I headed back to the Rotary booth I smiled as I was trying to think what could be more fun than going to the fair. Hmmm, good food, good people, being outside on a beautiful fall day! To tell you the truth, we need more of these types of community activities. From the littlest child to those young at heart, there is something for everybody at the fair. The Jefferson Rotary Club raised some fine funds for our community and literacy endeavors. As all the Rotarian's tore down the tent later that afternoon, I vowed that next year I would take the day off to work the fair. So I am marking my calendar now and encourage all of you to join us next year at the fair! Bring your whole family and know that you will be creating a memory that is pretty hard to beat.
Thanks to all the Jefferson Rotarian's who worked our booth and spread the word that Rotarian's are at work for our community! Good job Rotarian's! Here is to more good works!
Yours in Rotary Service Above Self,
Kathy L. Patrick
President of the Jefferson Rotary Club
P.S. Don't forget that this Saturday, November 1st is our District Foundation Meeting in Winnsboro! Hope you all can make it!
