{"id":79603,"date":"2016-09-06T06:57:49","date_gmt":"2016-09-06T11:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=79603"},"modified":"2016-09-07T07:34:51","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T12:34:51","slug":"2016-county-fair-officially-over-livestock-auction-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2016\/09\/06\/2016-county-fair-officially-over-livestock-auction-today\/","title":{"rendered":"2016 Van Wert County Fair officially over"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL & DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>Van Wert independent<\/em><\/p>\n

Although the 160th edition of the Van Wert County Fair is officially over, fairgoers had plenty of opinions on what was their favorite part of this year\u2019s fair.<\/p>\n

\"Ryan
Ryan Rager (left) was the reserve champion showman of showmen, while Lauren Schmid was named champion following Monday’s Showman of Showmen competition.<\/strong> (photo submitted)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Along with the Junior Fair events, there seems to be a common theme at the fair: food, family, and fun.\u00a0Those were the things mentioned by people who took advantage of nice weather and enjoyed some Labor Day weekend time at the fairgrounds.<\/p>\n

Jason McGarvey of Van Wert was there Saturday with family, and said the food is his favorite part of the fair. \u201cCorn dogs and elephant ears,\u201d McGarvey said.<\/p>\n

McGarvey\u2019s wife, Jen, said her favorite part is family time.<\/p>\n

Their two children had different answers.<\/p>\n

Eight-year-old JJ McGarvey said the Babyland Barn is his favorite part of the fair. \u201cThey had baby kittens that were wrestling,\u201d JJ said.<\/p>\n

One particular ride is a favorite of 8-year-old Grace McGarvey: \u201cThe Dragon (Wagon) roller coaster,\u201d Grace said.<\/p>\n

As for 5-year-old Drew McGarvey, his favorite thing is the games. \u201cI won a tiger last year!\u201d Drew said.<\/p>\n

Andrew Vaughn of Delphos brought his 6-year-old son Andrew to the fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy watching my son ride the rides,\u201d Vaughn said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like going on rides, and I like the funhouse,\u201d the younger Vaughn said.<\/p>\n

Chester Cary of Lima spends time at the Van Wert County Fair every year with his grandchildren: 10-year-old Makaylah Zimmerman, and 7-year-old Zander Zimmerman of Van Wert.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fun family fair, an old-time family fair,\u201d Cary said.<\/p>\n

Mike Saint made the 90-minute drive from Wabash, Indiana, to bring his grandchildren to the fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a good variety of rides here,\u201d Saint said.<\/p>\n

Sabrina Ricker of Van Wert said her favorite part of the Van Wert County Fair was the former band show. Now, it\u2019s the cheerleading competition.<\/p>\n

Her 8-year-old daughter, Aubrey, was part of this year\u2019s cheer competition and said she had fun. \u201cI like the Dragon (Wagon) roller coaster,\u201d Aubrey added.<\/p>\n

Five-year-old Jenna Ricker thought about it, and said \u201cwinning prizes\u201d is her favorite part of the fair.<\/p>\n

Aubrey and Jenna\u2019s father, Jeff Ricker, really enjoyed last year\u2019s show by the Charlie Daniels band. This year, it\u2019s the food.<\/p>\n

\u201cCheese curds,\u201d Ricker said.<\/p>\n

Ellie Norton of Van Wert brought her two children to the fair, and said she just enjoys being with her family.<\/p>\n

Both of the children, 4-year-old Zachary Norton and 7-year-old Connor Norton, said their favorite part of the Van Wert County Fair is the games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won a fish!\u201d Connor said.<\/p>\n

Connor also explained how something he now enjoys was something he didn\u2019t like before: elephant ears.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, I thought it was a real elephant ear,\u201d Connor said.<\/p>\n

After his mother told him it didn\u2019t really come from an elephant, \u201cit was good the second time,\u201d Connor explained.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, while the fair is now officially over, today is payback time for Junior Fair livestock exhibitors for the many hours spent feeding, grooming, and cleaning up after their animals.<\/p>\n

The Junior Fair Livestock Auction begins at 9 this morning with the symbolic sale of a gallon of milk that provides a reward for dairy exhibitors who don\u2019t sell their animals, and will likely last well into the afternoon as community businesses and organizations bid on animals that could end up on somebody\u2019s dinner table just weeks after they were led around a show arena.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL & DAVE MOSIER\/Van Wert independent Although the 160th edition of the Van Wert County Fair is officially over, fairgoers had plenty of opinions on what was their favorite part of this year\u2019s fair. Along with the Junior Fair events, there seems to be a common theme at the fair: food, family, and fun.\u00a0Those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 20:38:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79603\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}