Fair Fare

 

Randy in 1967, a 5th grader and his first year in Stafford County 4-H with his first 4-H beef project.

 4-H is "very fun." Just look at any beginning 4-Her's permanent record book.

Randy's record book from his first year as a Stafford County 4-Her in 1967 said:

This year is my first year in 4-H. I have enjoyed it very much. Going to the 4-H things has been very fun. I really enjoyed the refreshments very much. I am looking forward very much to next year in 4-H. This year, I have enjoyed 4-H camp and have got lots of ribbons. 

My first 4-H story was also written in 1967, as a fourth grader. (The photo at the left was the one attached to my 4-H permanent record.) My story was longer. (There's a big surprise, right?) I used the word "fun" six times to describe my song leading job, picking out ingredients for my Snacks and Little Lunches project, 4-H Sunday and assorted other 4-H events. I also "enjoyed" things twice and "liked" 4-H another time or two. A glance at Jill's and Brent's record books mirrored our family's outlook that 4-H is "fun" and very likeable.

4-Hers - and their parents - have been "liking" the youth program for more than 100 years, long before there was a "like" button on Facebook pages. On Friday, we went to the Shawnee County Fair in Topeka to see Kinley's and Brooke's 4-H projects. Kinley and Brooke come from a long line of 4-Hers, including their maternal great-grandparents and their paternal great-grandmother (Bonnie Ladd). 

 

Bob & Janis Moore - Pratt County Fair service award recipients

 in 2011

 

My family's involvement with 4-H started with my parents back in the 1940s. Both were members of the Lincoln Bluebirds 4-H Club in Pratt County, the club that my siblings and I later joined. (That club later merged with another, and we became the Lincoln Climbers.) 

 

Eric's family is similarly entrenched in the 4-H program. These days, Eric is one of the community leaders for the Auburn 4-H Club in Shawnee County. His dad, Alan, worked in both Kansas and Iowa Extension before retirement. Grandma Christy still judges her fair share of hand pet projects at county events.

 

Participating in county fairs is second nature to all of us - including Kinley and Brooke. This year's fair for the girls wrapped up on Sunday. 

 

But the girls excelled in the foods division. Kinley's Apple Cider Doughnut Cake with caramel frosting was Best of Show, giving her a chance to sell in the premium auction.

 

Kinley also had the top ribbon for decorated cookies or cupcakes.

This year's entry was a beach theme. The decorating/artistic part of food preparation appeals to Kinley, and she's had a purple ribbon in that category every year of her 4-H career.

Here she was in 2021 and her decorated watermelon cookies at her very first Shawnee County Fair. We all think she could sell the cookies professionally, but she'd have to get faster to make it economically feasible. Bonus: The leftover cookies were delicious!

 

Brooke also got to sell during the food premium auction. Her braided Everything Bagel bread got the champion ribbon in intermediate foods. 

 

I had to show the full balloon display created as a backdrop for this year's fair. 

Brooke had a great first year in photography. Two of her photos got champion and reserve champion in beginning photography for color photos. Until this year, I'd helped Kinley mount her photos for the fair. But this year, Kinley mounted her own and taught her younger sister. That's what 4-H is all about: Learning to do something and then passing it along to another 4-Her. 

Brooke also got a champion ribbon for her educational notebook on book genres, which helped complete her 4-H reading project.

Kinley and Summer were back in the dog obedience and agility competitions. 

Summer made it through the agility course with no errors, a first for this duo, which qualified for a purple ribbon. 

 

   

We did plenty of laughing getting Summer to the fairgrounds for the show. Kinley and Eric had to go early to help set up. Eric asked us to bring a wheelbarrow to help move all the paraphernalia after the show, so Summer couldn't sit in her customary spot in the back of the SUV. She invaded Brooke's personal space.

 

 

And she probably caused some second glances from other drivers at stop lights as we drove across Topeka to the Expo Center.

 

The fair ended on Sunday after the style show. Both girls earned purple ribbons in that competition and both qualified to compete at the Kansas State Fair fashion review in September.

The girls definitely had a better outcome at the Shawnee County Fair than I did at the Stafford County Fair the week before. But that's OK. I definitely have had my share of champion or reserve champion photos in open class in the past.

And I did well with the extra photo contests - one sponsored by the Kanza Chapter of the D.A.R. and another contest sponsored by Stafford County Economic Development. 

This composite photo was chosen by the D.A.R. as the winner in a contest celebrating America's 250th birthday. I created it several years ago and have used it on notecards, but I thought it was perfect for the sesquicentennial. 

This photo taken in a milo field last October got the top award in the commerce category from Stafford Eco/Devo.

That photo is now on a conference room wall at the Staley Leadership Building on the campus of Kansas State University. (Story HERE.) It will also be used for the South Central Community Foundation Match Day campaign this fall. The photo also got a blue ribbon in the fair's open class agriculture category. 

A cropped version of this panoramic sunset shot taken last December at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge was second in the Stafford County Places category. 

A story and photo about the Trojan Pop Shop in Stafford operated by three sets of sisters won first place in the business owner/blog category, a new category for the fair. I'll post that story in an upcoming blog. 

Other blue ribbon photos in open class were this one, taken on the Durango-Silverton train in Colorado last October ...

... And this photo I took when we were on vacation with the girls earlier this summer in Omaha at the Lauritzen Botanical Gardens. 

 

I had several other photos which were second- or third-place in their open class photography category and some that didn't place at all.

 

My online scrapbooking entry in arts and crafts got first place in its category. I try to do a book after our trips to collect the photos and the blog posts I write following the trip. 

 

While it wasn't a banner year for me at the Stafford County Fair, that's not why I do it anyway. I've been part of county fairs in one way or another for my entire life. It's a tradition that's worth preserving. 

 

And while it's great to collect purple ribbons and extra prize money, I hope what the girls ultimately collect from the 4-H experience is to take the 4-H pledge and the 4-H experience to heart.   

 

 I pledge my head to clearer thinking 

 My heart to greater loyalty

 My hands to larger service

 And my health to better living

 For my club, my community, my country and my world.

 The 4-H Pledge, Written in 1919 by Kansas 4-H Leader Otis Hall

 

It would probably be a better world if all of humanity would think about the principles that 4-Hers vow to uphold: Clearer thinking, greater loyalty, larger service, better living ... those are all attributes that would do this old world a whole lot of good.

For 120 years, 4-H has been changing lives. Back in 2006, we celebrated 100 years of Kansas 4-H. The youth program has been part of the national landscape since 1902.

 

The 4-H website says:

The 4-H idea is simple: help young people and their families gain the skills they need to be proactive forces in their communities and develop ideas for a more innovative economy. That idea was the catalyst to begin the 4-H movement and those values continue today.

 

No wonder it's stuck around this long.    

Leadership Lens

"How do you view leadership through your camera lens?" 

That was the question K-State's Staley School of Leadership proposed to professional and amateur photographers as they looked to refresh their building's artwork.  

The Leadership Lens initiative generated 86 images from 28 artists from Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Oregon and Texas. From the entries, a juried panel selected 19 photos from 15 different photographers to refresh the hallways and conference rooms of the Staley building.  

There was a photo from the South Pole. Another showed a desolate desert scene from a world away. And even from among those unique, far-flung places, I had two photographs chosen for inclusion - taken by a farm wife in South Central Kansas. It just goes to show that there is beauty everywhere. It's in city skylines, but it's also found on an early morning down a dirt road in Kansas or reflecting off water at sunset. It's just a matter of opening our eyes to the wonder.

Last Friday, March 27, the Staley School of Leadership hosted a reception for Spirit of Leadership, an annual event  where alumni, friends, students, faculty and staff come together to reconnect, reunite, and re-energize around leadership. They also recognized the photographers whose work was chosen for display in the 2025-26 version of Leadership Lens.

They moved into the Staley School of Leadership building on the K-State campus in 2010. At that time, they chose photos to include in the hallways and conference areas. In 2017, they offered the opportunity to submit photos for a "refresh" of the space. (I had two photos chosen then. Click HERE for more about those photos. They auctioned those 2017 pieces off to raise money for programs at the Staley School.)

Last fall, they again offered the chance to submit photos and to focus on how leadership could be reflected in the images by submitting artist's statements.  

 

My artist statement for A New Day Dawns: The best sunrises and sunsets occur when there are clouds in the sky. The clouds create a unique texture of light, shadows and color to make the sky an interesting tapestry. As leaders, we may wish for blue skies and an easy path. But the “clouds” in our lives build our tapestry, too. It gives us empathy for others and helps us persevere. Likewise, milo is known for its resilience in difficult growing conditions. Success seems sweeter when we have faced obstacles and come out on the other side.

I took this photo of a sunrise over a milo field south of our house last fall. It now hangs in a second-floor conference room. 

The second photo chosen was taken at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge during a December 2021 sunset. It hangs in a second floor hallway at the Staley School.

Taken at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, Stafford County, Kansas

My artist statement for Ripples:

I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.

 --Mother Teresa

Effective leadership radiates outward like ripples in water. The ripple effect underscores the power of small leadership actions in creating significant, positive changes. When leaders recognize small wins, practice active listening, demonstrate empathy and foster open communication, they can build a strong, cohesive and motivated team and make "ripples" in the world at large. 

The artist statements hang by the artwork. 

I was thrilled that several members of my family could join Randy and me at the reception. (Brooke had a birthday party for one of her best buddies.)

Eric's parents, Alan and Christy, also joined us.

It meant a lot to me that they all made the effort to be there.

 

There is art other than photography in the building, too. Susan and Kinley did their best statue impression.

 

Organizers of the event used the monarch butterfly as a central theme for the evening's festivities, handing out lapel pins.

 

It seems to be a lesson we could all use these days: Practice leadership by nurturing growth within yourself and others. Like the monarch butterfly, embrace and celebrate transformation.  

 

This Facebook reel shows some of the process of selecting and installing the new artwork. 

 

What an honor it was to have photos chosen! If you're ever on campus, check out all the artwork. 

 

The Eye of the Beholder: Stafford County Fair

This was probably my favorite photo from our trip to Glacier National Park last year. I know that's a bold statement. But I loved the contrast of the bright and colorful fiberglass kayaks against the moody, overcast sky of Two Medicine Lake. Jill and Susan loved it, too. However, I liked a lot of the photos I took from our nation's breathtaking National Parks. Case in point: I filled a whole book with photos from that trip.

However, the judge at the Stafford County Fair last week had a different one he/she preferred. (I'm going to go with "they" because I don't know whether they were male or female). I got a white - or third in the class - with the photo of the bright kayaks. 

But they gave me Reserve Grand Champion on this black-and-white version of a photo I took at Jenny Lake at the Grand Teton National Park. 

Don't get me wrong: I like this one, too. I also like the color version, which I also entered. So did the judge. I got a blue on it, too. 

 

But it does demonstrate how "judging" and "subjective" should be in the same sentence. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It's never more true than when you enter photos in a county fair.

As always, I entered a bunch of photos in the open class division of the Stafford County Fair last week. I've admitted here before: It's not a money-making proposition. In fact, I'm confident I lose money by the time I pay for enlargements and mat boards. (Not that he ever complains, but I tell Randy that my hobby is cheaper than his hobby, so I still come out ahead).

I felt like I had fewer to choose from this year. But, as I analyzed that feeling, I came to the conclusion that I usually feel that way. Admittedly, I have fewer photos for the "agriculture" category. But our travels gave me more "scenic" and "nature" photos than I could use.

 

This blue ribbon winner was from Crystal Bridges in Bentonville, Ark.

This black-and-white print was also from Two Medicine Lake, showing the fast-moving, low clouds that were the backdrop for our morning there. It, too, got a blue.

So did this photo I took of the Big Boy steam locomotive during its stop in Salina last fall.

 I didn't have to travel quite as far to get this blue-ribbon winner - looking through a kaleidoscope at the Vernon Filley Art Museum in Pratt. 

But a couple of my blue-ribbon winners were taken in my own yard - literally.

I got a blue on the book I made for Randy after our Eureka Springs/Bentonville trip:

 

And I got second place on my National Parks book. (Again, I would have flipped the ribbons, but what do I know?) 

As I've said many times before, I don't enter at the fair for the ribbons or the premium money. But entering in the fair helps keep this rural American tradition alive. Sure, it's fun to see how your artistic eye stacks up against your neighbors. But it's even better to have a place to wander around and reconnect with people from across the county who you don't see on a weekly basis. You can't beat that! I've been doing that since I was a 4-Her in Pratt County several decades ago. 

Two of the photos I really liked didn't get a ribbon at all. I should learn my lesson: My bird photos and sunrise/sunset photos - or, I guess, Northern Lights ones - never fare well. 

I know how much time and effort - and unusable clicks of the camera - went into getting this shot of our backyard visitor. And it's not every day that you can see the Northern Lights without leaving home.  

I wasn't the only photographer in the family this year. Kinley will find out what color ribbons she'll get on her 4-H photography this week at the Shawnee County Fair in Topeka. We've worked together on that project for the past three years, but this year, she didn't need much help. I brought the needed supplies to Topeka to get the photos mounted, but she took the photos and mounted them herself. I guess that's the goal as a mentor: You're supposed to work yourself out of a job. 

I have not yet worked myself out of the 4-H foods superintendent job. Last year was my 30th year working with 4-H foods, many of them as superintendent. That volunteer job is more important than any ribbons I accumulate, I hope.

I wasn't the only family competitor at the Stafford County Fair this year. Randy entered garden produce and got a red on his pears and a blue for his longest zucchini. 

Really, we've both been winners with his work in the garden this summer. Well, for everything except tomatoes. Those have been a bust. We always joke when we go through the checkout at the garden store each spring whether the investment in vegetable seedlings will pay off. That remains to be seen, I guess. But garden-fresh produce is always a win.