After a long day of showing their projects to fair-goers and judges alike, the Lakeview Livestock 4-H Club gathered around for pizza and a quick meeting in the northwest corner of the campgrounds at last week’s Northwest Montana Fair.

About a dozen kids and their parents talked about what had happened so far, what needed to be done, and of course, congratulated those who did well with their projects that day.

Wyatt Todero won grand champion with his Polish rabbit, Harley Todero won grand champion with her artwork and Hannah Bass won grand champion with her chickens.

Michelle Hellwig, one of the club’s leaders, said this is a growing year for the club since they had several of their members graduate from high school in the spring. Although their membership numbers are about average this year, the variety of projects they brought was greater than usual.

“We’ve got a greater variety of animals this year and some woodworking projects,” Hellwig said.

Alison Bramlet, a sixth-grader at Somers Middle School, brought pigs, chickens, geese, and a woodworking project this year. As one of the younger club members she said she encountered a few unexpected surprises while raising two geese for the fair.

“It was my first year doing geese and they are really funny and like to scream, like a high pitched honking,” Bramlet said. “I’m surprised they have lungs that big.”

Lakeview Livestock’s members also brought six handmade blankets that they made to the fair. Hellwig said they plan on donating the blankets to charity once the fair is over.