Wheat Land Communities’ Fair set to start September with fun
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years AGO
Two young Western-style competitors walk their horses around the ring at last year’s Wheat Land Communities’ Fair. This year’s fair begins Aug. 28.
FILE PHOTO
A Future Farmers of America member leads his pig around the auction arena during last year’s Wheat Land Communities Fair livestock auction.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | August 23, 2024 3:00 AM
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair begins next week, running from Aug. 28 through Sept. 1. This year’s theme is “Moooving Forward Together,” in keeping with the fair’s agricultural focus and small hometown scale.
“We try to offer free activities for the families joining us,” said Lori Williams, a member of the fair board. “(There are) the train rides and the arts and crafts. Our Lego barn is back by popular demand, and the traditional bingo and capping off each night with a rodeo.”
The fair starts Wednesday afternoon when the livestock and other exhibits make their first appearance. The Ralston Grange sponsors a superintendents’ supper that evening. The action begins in earnest Thursday morning with various livestock showings and 4-H demonstrations, and Thursday evening the young people can shake off some of the day’s dust at the Showring Shuffle youth dance.
Friday the livestock showings continue, and there are a few more activities as well. Pieces by Parrott, from Moses Lake, will host kids’ crafts, and Amy’s Artistic Expressions will be painting faces.
The Ritzville Community Parade will get things started Saturday morning, rolling through Ritzville’s historic downtown. Big Dawg and the Howlers will perform, followed by the Be You Tiful dance recital, stick horse barrel races and a fashion review.
“That’s part of our 4-H program, but anyone is welcome to participate in it,” Williams said. “Typically, if someone makes a garment on their own, then they are invited to kind of model it … That's something that kind of goes back to a lot of fairs, a presentation of goods and projects that the kids (have worked on).”
Sunday starts with Cowboy Church, led by Pastor Rod Dennis of Lind Community Church. There will also be a shooting demonstration by the Western Washington Mounted Shooters, and the Cow Pie Raffle, where $10 gets a player a chance to guess where in a field a calf is going to do its business.
The Ritzville Rodeo starts at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday as well, featuring the Wild Card Trick Riders, another shooting demonstration and musician Jamie Buckley, as well as lots of bull riding, calf roping and barrel racing.
No fair is complete without a selection of food, healthy or otherwise. Offerings will include gourmet sausages from The Dog Stop, roasted chicken from the Lions Club and kraut runzas and homemade popcorn balls from the Ralston Grange.
There are a couple of things new this year, Williams said.
“Thanks to a (Washington State Department of Agriculture) Capital Improvement Grant, our central restroom building has been completely upgraded with new fixtures and ADA accessibility to both the building and the stalling areas,” she said. “So, we're pretty excited that we're able to continue to make improvements on our grounds, considering we're privately owned and operated.”
The other change is that the Wheat Land Communities’ Fair has named two local ladies as its ambassadors, Maeve Korthuis and Alyssa Williams.
“Traditionally, it was fair royalty, and they'd go through parades and wear the crown and the sash,” Williams said. “We thought we would make it more of a leadership opportunity for kids to represent the fair and go out in public and be the face of our fair, and have a small scholarship tied to it.”
A Future Farmers of America member leads his pig around the auction arena during last year’s Wheat Land Communities Fair livestock auction.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
QUINCY — Quincy’s National Night Out was more compact this year, which worked out well, said QPD Sgt. Joe Westby, who’s in charge of event planning for the Quincy Police Department. “National Night Out is a big event, and the fact that we’re able to shrink it up is like a breath of fresh air,” Westby said. “If you're always doing the same thing, it's kind of nice to switch things up and see how it works.” National Night Out took place Thursday on the block of C Street next to the police station, a shift from previous years when it was held at Lauzier Park. The smaller space meant fewer emergency vehicles for children to explore, but it also meant less walking for attendees. Grant County Fire District 5 brought a fire truck, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had a patrol boat. Renew, the Grant County behavioral health agency, had a booth and so did Quincy Partnership for Youth. Veterans Operation Creation sang the national anthem, and the Quincy Animal Shelter brought kittens that piled over each other making friends with passersby. As before, the QPD served grilled hot dogs.
Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.