Volume 25 No. 9 September 5, 2019

UPCOMING 2019 SCFF – A Year to Remember

EVENTS The 2019 Steele County Free Fair opened on Tuesday August 13th with several changes and several things missing. The skies parted with a short weather delay and we opened a great week of weather here at the fair. The new north end of the track brought thousands of new fairgoers to see the September 2: Labor Day (Office Closed) All Star Stunt Dogs Show, Ninja Anywhere, the new location for the Pig Races, Ultimate Bubble Sports, along with the new Steele Saloon. Fair September 7: Private Event (Foundation) goers were also greeted with the new Wi-Fi service here at the Steele County Fair Grounds, thanks to Jaguar. The new Cattle Barn was built and September 13: OHS Dance opened just in time for everyone to move in on time, thank you to Wayne and Betty and everyone that made this happen. September 14: Private Event (Foundation) We did also miss several big parts of the Steele County Free Fair in 2019. We lost my “Buddy” Jim Gleason and I know he was with me all week. September 14: Craft Sale (Four Seasons) Also missed were Dave Fandel, Richard “Dick” Schleich and Steve September 15: Alzheimer's Walk Stansberry. These four individuals were ALL a big part of the fair and are missed greatly. September 21: Private Event (Foundation) With the perfect weather everyday was filled with smiles and fun. All areas of the fair enjoyed huge crowds and most showed increased numbers Sept. 21-30: Owatonna Motor Company for their departments. Talking with a lot of our great vendors, they all also stated that they couldn’t have asked for a better week. September 26: DU Banquet (Foundation) Entertainment again was wonderful, from the United Prairie Bank Stage to the Reseland Stage. All ages enjoyed both stages. The Garden grew September 28: Rustic Mama’s (Foundation) nightly crowds with awesome bands that were on hand. Free entertain- ment this year was helped by the Moogician, Burt Flemming the Chainsaw Sculptor, Norm’s Magic, James Wedgewood, Cannonball Smith, the Butterfly Encounter and the All Star Stunt Dogs Show, all great additions. Over 2000 4-H exhibits and over 150 trips awarded to the State Fair. Thank you for a great job to ALL our 4-H kids and leaders for SCFF OFFICE INFO making Steele County proud. We also had nearly 3000 Open Class exhibits that help make our great fair the class of the county and state. Steele County Free Fair Office Hours I want to give my deepest “THANK YOU” to the following: SCFF Board Monday-Friday 8:00-4:30 PM of Directors, Staff, Grounds Crew, Sponsors, Superintendents, Volunteers and all our great Vendors. Most of all thank you to ALL our guests that enjoy our fair and make it a part of their summer annually. Thank you to the towns in our county: Medford, Ellendale, Blooming Prairie and P.O. Box 650 (507) 451-5305 Owatonna. Thank you to the Steele County Team: Commissioners, Staff [email protected] and Highway Department for all their help in completing the barn and www.scff.org north track projects. rd Have a great year and I will see you at next year’s fair, August 18-23 If you would like to receive your monthly 2020.“Food, Fun and Friends a Plenty in 2020.” Barker Newsletter by e-mail, please contact us and we will be happy to add you to the Scott Kozelka list. Manager HOME MADE BEER THANK YOU ERICA Home Brew Beer continues to be a popular competitive Erica started interning with the department at Steele County Free Fair. This year 46 entries SCFF when she was in 5th Grade with 14 brewers or teams competed. All entries were and for the past 8 years has been a from Minnesota and most were from Steele County. very important part of our office. Results were as follows: She has learned the ins and outs of the office and the fair, has Grand Champion: Bryan Christjansen—Kolsch Second Place: Bryan Christjansen—Munich Helles answered phones, run errands, Third Place: Jon Hilstad—Blonde and marked vendor spots, worked with Tim Pelton—Canifornia vendors and the public and has Common. become a part of our fair family. Erica is now a sophomore at Creighton in Omaha, Nebraska The label contest winners were: 1. Bart Bahr-Bazooka 2. Tim Hunst—Peach Blonde Ale SOUTHERN MINNESOTA 3. Tim Hunst—I am Gruit AG AMBASSADOR

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Brian Randolph from Randolph who recently passed away was recognized as the Steele County Free Fair Southern Minnesota Ag Ambassador of the Year. The program was held in the Livestock Show Arena during the District II Holstein show Saturday evening at the Steele County Fair. Brian loved promoting agriculture and working with kids, especially 4-H members with a passion for goats. Even from a wheel chair Brian worked with kids and made them smile. When they were unsure of how to interact with someone in a wheel chair and artificial legs Brian would take his leg off and tell them it was a "magic" leg. Brian also had a passion for the Dakota County Farm Bureau working to represent agriculture and farmers. Two other individuals were recognized as Finalists for the Steele County Free Fair KDHL Southern Minnesota Ag Ambassador of the Year. Dale Spindler is a dairy farmer from Owatonna. Dale has pretty much adopted the Steele County American Dairy Association Malt Wagon. For many years Dale has delivered the Malt wagon where ever it needed to be. Picked it up, cleaned it and got it restocked for the next event. The other finalist was Shannon Kuball from Morristown. Shannon and Nate along with their children continually open their farm to visitors. For many years third grade classes from Faribault are bussed out to their farm in the spring. In addition they are involved in farm groups and commodity organizations always representing agriculture in a positive and professional way. A FEW FACTS JIM’S BENCH  Photography had 205 photos entered A bench has been purchased in memory of Jim  1600 people rode on the shuttles during the fair Gleason. This bench was placed outside the fair office during fair week and many great comments  13,347 walked through the Wells Fargo Auto Museum were made.

 Pedal Pull Competition had over 100 youth participate Donations are still being  1871 people visited the Muckle Museum during the fair. accepted for this bench. SATURDAY BIKE WINNERS If you are GOLD STAR AMUSEMENTS interested, CONTINUES please contact the fair office. BICYCLE GIVE AWAY The Gold Star Amusements midway continued the annual ride special on Saturday with 8 bikes given PHOTOGRAPHY DEPT away. The 2019 bike winners Local resident David included Tverberg’s entry Logan Pesta—Long Prairie entitled “Midnight at Lisa Johnson-Stewartville Morehouse” was the Ary Anderson-Medford recipient of the Emma Hoermke-Northfield People’s Choice Aurora Stelpflug-Rochester Award in Lincoln Radloff-Austin Photography at the Bradley Caranza-Austin Mateo Dubray-Goodhue 2019 Steele County Free Fair. Over 205 FOOD CONCESSION photos were submitted, and attendees to the fair voted for their AWARDS favorite. Two years ago shortly after the 2017 SCFF, Terry Wiese passed away. Terry had, for a number of years, evaluated and awarded food and carnival concessions and rides on different aspects of CULINARY DEPARTMENT their booth, or food, or ride. This year, Terry’s son Marc took over for his father. In 2019 only food concessions were evaluated with Supreme Ruler was Beth Decoux more expansion next year. from Owatonna. This award is given to the individual who has the highest points for all ribbons and awards received.

Junior Supreme Ruler was Ava Cox. This award is given to the BEST PRODUCT BEST NEW PRODUCT BEST LIT Junior who has the highest points EL SOL GO BANANAS STAND—DEANNA’S for all ribbons and awards received in the Junior divisions.

Mariah Rions of Owatonna won the Culinary Creation for Juniors Champion. She was able to create cupcakes with lemonade, Bing cherries, and almonds.

Ronda Prechel of Faribault was the winner of the Culinary BEST VALUE MOST UNIQUE PRODUCT BEST LOOKING Creations for Adults Champion. She was able to create a BMJ DELITES WILD RICE BURGERS STAND delicious candy with lemonade, apples, Twix candy bar, WING KINGS almonds and caramel corn.

The Sensational Salsa Division was brought back this year and Julie Schulz of Owatonna was the first place winner. JOIN US NEXT YEAR August 18-23, 2020

LEARN MORE Visit our website at www.scff.org