Garden Spot FFA & the 2018 West Lampeter Community Fair

Throughout the muddy three days of the fair, our members participated in events and activities around the clock. From dawn to dusk, our chapter covered the bases this September with great success. The 2018 Lampeter Fair was tons of fun for everyone involved, from setting up, exhibiting, working the food stand, and tearing it all back down-the Garden Spot FFA was there for it all!


The 17th, 18th, 20th, and 24th numerous members of the Garden Spot FFA came to help the West Lampeter Community Fair Board set up what everyone saw for the next three days. Many of us brought hammers and staple guns to tackle that 4 day haul. With sweat and manpower, the team got everything done and on time too. What no one was expecting was the rain, even then our members volunteered their time before, in between, and after food stand shifts to go help spread mulch when it was down pouring. It’s safe to say the mulch “teams” saved the day.

Our chapter had fourteen chapter members who showed livestock or displayed artwork in the fair. Out of those fourteen, twelve of them showed animals, these included market lambs, market hogs, market goats, dairy beef, and steers. Leah Welk received Grand Champion and Reserve Champion with her lambs. Jess Herr received 1st and 3rd in class with her lambs. Gracie Hess’ lambs received 2nd and 3rd in class. Danae Ranck’s Dairy Beef received 3rd, and Bryce Good’s Dairy Beef 4th and 5th. Jared Risser’s hogs got 3rd and 3rd place in class. Owen Risser’s hogs received 2nd and 4th in class. Grace Hess’ hogs received 3rd and 5th in class. Tobias Leaman’s hogs received 4th and 4th in class. Jordan Martin’s hogs received 3rd and 4th in class. Leah Welk received Grand Champion and Reserve Heavyweight with her hogs, and with her goats She also received Grand Champion and Champion Middleweight. Jordan Martin’s steer received Grand Champion and 1st in class. Other members who also exhibited at the fair were Jaclyn Martin who exhibited her steers and hogs, Katie Ranck who exhibited her goats, Sawyer Lancaster who received 1st and 3rd with his art, and Cheyenne Oberdorf who received 2nd with hers. Our members put outstanding effort into showing livestock and displaying artwork, with lots of participation everywhere and clearly it paid off!

Lampeter Strasburg, Penn Manor, Pequea Valley, Lancaster County CTC, and Lancaster Mennonite School upperclassmen all took Thursday off to come to the fair. Here students judged various livestock that could be seen at the fair for much of the day. At the end of judging students were shown ideal characteristics of each particular animal, and what was unappealing to judges. After a hearty lunch break, everyone gathered in the ring to participate in school on school tug of war! Teams worked around muddy spots digging their boots into what they could to get a grip, brown jeans became a trend that afternoon. Next, teams competed in games such as log saw, corn hole, corn shucking, and ring toss until the end of the day.


This time around only underclassmen from Lampeter Strasburg and Penn Manor came to the fair Friday. Students had the opportunity to judge and walk a variety of the show animals. Judges also explained the preferred looks of the show animals. Later the underclassmen took part in similar games as the upperclassmen the previous day. All around, it was a great day.


Our food stand was overflowing with participants, in total 47 members worked throughout the three wet days. From 8am to 10:30pm we divided and conquered shifts and required tasks to make our FFA food stand run like a well oiled machine. The first two days of the fair were pretty steady because of the rain, but Friday was dry and the people were hungry! Our stand was selling sausages like hot cakes, and ham loafs like sausages! It takes well equipped team of people to dish out food like the Garden Spot FFA, and fortunately we are the Garden Spot FFA. No doubt about it, our members were definitely living to serve.

In the end, the Garden Spot FFA and its members have put out tremendous time and effort into the 2018 Lampeter Fair. From building to cleanup our chapter covered the bases to get things done.
--By Brayden Emmerling, FFA Chapter Assistant Reporter

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