When we think of fair projects, we usually think of steers, hogs, or poultry. One Wapakoneta teen shares her experience excelling somewhere else: Special Interests.
WAPAKONETA, OH (WLIO) - When we think of fair projects, we usually think of steers, hogs, or poultry. One Wapakoneta teen shares her experience excelling somewhere else: Special Interests.
In the fall, she will be heading to the Ohio State Wooster Campus to study animal sciences.
In her seven years competing in both the county and state fairs, Wapakoneta High School graduate Natalie Bacon has earned over 40 awards for a wide variety of projects. This year, she won ribbons for her ducks, quilting, and clothing design work. She hopes to show others that the fair can be about more than just livestock.
"A lot of people don't realize the wide variety and range of projects that you can actually take and are surprised by all the different types of projects there are out there. I mean, there's a ton that are definitely different, but the strangest one I've done is trapping muskrats, where I had to actually trap one, skin it, and show the judges. It was really interesting," she explained.
In her seven years competing in both the county and state fairs, Wapakoneta High School graduate Natalie Bacon has earned over 40 awards for a wide variety of projects.
This year, Bacon was the president of her 4-H club. As a mentor, she focused on showing the younger kids how many different opportunities are available to them and helped them work on life skills like interviewing. She even inspired her sister to join, who won the 4th place ribbon for her own ducks this year.
"I thought, well she's doing ducks; I want to do ducks, and I like animals as much as she does. She helped build the cage, and she taught me how to hold the ducks and do other things like change the water and feeding them the right way," explained Avery Bacon, who has been competing for 3 years now.
She even inspired her sister to join, who won the 4th place ribbon for her own ducks this year.
This year, Natalie also won the Outstanding 4-H'er and Clothing Achievement awards for Auglaize County, and she also won an Ohio State Fair Scholarship. In the fall, she will be heading to the Ohio State Wooster Campus to study animal sciences. She adds that her time in the Jr. Fair has made a big impact on who she is today.
"I know when taking the vet science projects, those projects have helped me solidify my decision in starting my education into being a vet, and the sewing projects it's definitely something I'm going to use for the rest of my life with those skills," Natalie said.
