Grant County Fair ready for some Boot Stompin' Fun
Fair opens today
GRANT COUNTY - Kevin Close put the final touches on the ice machine for the Moose Lodge's booth.
It's taken a week to get the parts in to fix it, but he's finishing the project for the opening of the Grant County Fair today.
The 2008 Grant County Fair runs through Saturday at the Grant County Fairgrounds, located at 3953 Airway Drive near Moses Lake. A wide variety of entertainment and large selection of foods are part of the fair, along with the numerous competitions ranging from handcrafts to livestock.
The Moses Lake Moose Lodge is one of the 175 vendors who will be serving food and drinks to the about 70,000 visitors at the Grant County Fair.
Close said the fair booth is the Moose Lodge's largest fund-raiser for the year. The organization uses the funds to help people in the area.
"We pick a family for Christmas and we get them everything and anything they want," he said. "We're their Santa Claus."
Close said he has been attending the fair since he was a child. He's handled the operations and maintenance of the moose lodge booth for the past four or five years, after he'd volunteered to fill in for someone else.
"I have enjoyed it," he said. "We're a big group family … We've had three different generations. In the morning I'm here and we have our kids come out (to help)."
Close and the Moose Lodge represent one of the organizations helping to present the fair.
Fair board President Gary Ribail said it took a lot of people and about a year of planning to put the 2008 fair together.
"Without the volunteers and support staff there wouldn't be a fair," he said. "They're the ones that make it happen."
Some of the new attractions for this year include pony rides, a karate school and a truck pull. Also there will be a benefit concert for area National Guard soldiers leaving for Iraq.
Close said he expects it to be one of the biggest nights for the Moose Lodge booth.
"If you have a military ID you eat for free (that night)," he said. "That's our donation to the troops."
The fair has grown during the past 25 years that Ribail's been on the fair board, he said. When he started there was a part-time manager and a secretary working three days a week. Now there is a full-time manager and a staff helping coordinate the fair and events at the fairgrounds.
"It takes a lot of maintenance employees to get things done," he said. "There are a number of school groups and non-profit groups that we pay (to help.)"