Fair board president: Success of fair is because of community
By Becky Uehling
Grant Tribune-Sentinel
Perkins County Fair Board President Kasey Kroeker is quick to tell you, to pull off an event like the week-long Perkins County Fair, which concluded on Saturday, July 23, is a lot a work. He gives tremendous credit to his board and volunteers for what they do all year and during the fair. However, despite all of the work the fair board does, there is an essential group that, without their support, the fair would be nothing, and Kasey knows it. That group is the community at large, especially the sponsors.
“Our sponsors are awesome! Our buyers are awesome! Our volunteers are awesome! We could not do what we are doing just with our board members,” he said “It is beyond amazing the help we get financially. People do not realize what it takes to put the fair on,” he said.
2022 is a Success
Kroeker is pleased with how the 2022 fair went. Of course, there were a few hiccups. The heat was challenging, and a scheduling error by the pedal tractor pull venue forced the board to change that event from the advertised day of Saturday to Friday, which was frustrating, Kroeker said.
“There was nothing we could do about that. It was either we held it on Friday, or we didn’t have it at all,” he said.
Moving all of the activities a day ahead also contributed to the week running smoother, in his opinion, saying it gave everyone a little more time and room to get things accomplished.
Each event was well attended, he said. The livestock sale numbers were outstanding; the ranch rodeo had 18 teams, and had approximately 850-900 in attendance, he said. The bounce houses were well attended, BlackHawk had a great crowd, and many other the activities and other vendors that were available were busy.
2023 in the works
Kroeker said he and the board are already working on next year’s agenda and updates to the grounds. One update will be to create a handicap platform and ramp out in front of the grand stands.
As for the attractions and shows, he said the board has some great ideas, including the Saturday show, but they are not ready to publicize them just yet.
“Put it this way, it’s going to be good,” he said.
The Perkins County Fair Board consists of the following: President, Kroeker; Vice President, Derek Wilson; Treasurer, Shawn Tjaden; Secretary, Patsy Kroeker; Board Members, Russell Lee, Dan Lee, Kevin Lee, Tom Foster, Elliott Peterson and Samantha Goff. Associate Members, Kylie Croup, Seth Burge, Mitch Reimers, Lonnie Kuenning, Trevor Johnson, Jeff Dilsaver and John Sauers.
Kroeker said the board will always consider other associate members or anyone who wants to volunteer. For more information, get ahold of Kroeker or any board member.