OTTAWA, Ohio (WLIO) — Fair week is always busy, but for teens on the Junior Fair Board, it means early mornings, late nights and a lot of hard work. Still, they say it’s worth the effort.
“Fair board is all about getting along with people that you might not know, you might not get along with. And it's just all about making friends,” said Keelie Langhals, the 2025 Putnam County Junior Fair queen.
“Being on the fair board is about learning responsibility for every single show. Learning leadership, talking on the mic, calling out class names. Taking leadership of the group, you learn lots of different skills that you feel like you would have never learned anywhere else other than Fair Board.”
Junior Fair King Issac Wrasman didn’t expect to win the title, but like Langhals, he’s stepped into a leadership role that pushes him out of his comfort zone.
“It was very shocking, because I'm only going to be a senior and usually a graduating senior gets it,” Wrasman said. “But it's a fun time and I enjoy it.”
He said Junior Fair has taught him responsibility, patience, and teamwork.
“You learn a lot of teamwork and how to work with other people. Being on Junior Fair Board, you get placed with 30-plus other people, and then you have to learn to work with them throughout fair week and all the months leading up to fair week.”
Jason Hedrick, an OSU Extension area leader who has worked with 4-H youth for years, said what happens behind the scenes at Junior Fair is just as important as what happens in the show ring.
“A lot of people don't see our members stepping up to do a lot of the work behind the scenes. Junior Fair Board is announcing shows, they're helping our exhibitors move animals from one space to another, there's a lot of information sharing in our barn,” Hedrick said. “It's building a sense of community. It's building an opportunity for those kids to see what it means to give back to their communities. And we hope to see the benefits of that in our county. And, you know, we do that through 4-H and FFA projects here.”
Whether it’s organizing shows or learning to work with others, the Junior Fair gives young people a hands-on way to grow their leadership skills.
