ROME TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- For more than three months now, 13-year-old Morgan Willis has been taking care of two goats as part of an animal project for the upcoming Lawrence County Fair. Now that the fair is almost here, she is feeling anxious about how the two animals will do at the sales on July 12.
"Things have gone better this year," said Willis, who will be in the eighth grade at Dawson-Bryant Middle School this fall. "They both made weight. I love the fair. We spend the week up there. I hang out with my friends. It's like a week of vacation."
Morgan got the two goats on March 31. This is the fourth year in a row she's taken goats to the fair. In one prior year, one of the goats didn't make weight, meaning it couldn't be sold. This year, there were no such problems, said her mother, Jami Willis.
"She put off weighing them and then when she did, I heard her say 'Praise the Lord,'" she said.
Morgan spends two or three hours in the evening and an hour in the morning with the goats she named "Ford" and "Dodge." The goats will provide her with money she's saving to buy a pickup truck in a couple of years.
The fair opens at 9 a.m. Saturday, July 5, with horse show registration followed by the 4-H Fair Horse show at 10 a.m., said Lonnie Best, county 911 director who also is a member of the 4-H horse committee. "We're looking for quite a few kids to participate," he said. "It's an open show. Three of our 4-H riders already have qualified for the state fair in Columbus."
Several hundred children from the county will be bringing steers, lambs, goats and hogs that will be sold July 12. Because it's a big election year, it could bring in some record prices for the animals, said Doug Clark, president of the Lawrence County Fair Board.
"The buyers are good about supporting the kids," Clark said earlier this week. "I look for it to be a big sale."
With record gas prices, more people could be staying closer to home and attending county fairs this year, he said.
"The fairs we've talked to are breaking records, but they've had good weather," he said. "Our attendance depends on the weather."
More than 100 camping sites have been rented for the week, Clark said.
The fair is held at the Lawrence County Fairgrounds at the intersection of Ohio 7 and Ohio 243 in Rome Township. Ticket prices have stayed the same, $7 per day or $20 for the week, he said. The cost for parking has increased to $3.
James Otto will take the stage at the grandstand at 9 p.m. Wednesday after Ashton Shepherd performs at 7:45 p.m. "I think it will be as big as Kelli Pickler last year if the weather holds out," Clark said. "The weather is always the key."
Other scheduled events for the fair include the Wolfe Creek Motocross at 8 p.m. Sunday, tractor pull at 8 p.m. Monday, Lawrence County Horse Pull at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Fat Mac Daddy performs at 7 p.m. Tuesday, the Colgate Country Showdown at 7 p.m. Thursday followed by Aaron Holly and Shawn Cabell, Bull Mania at 8 p.m. Friday and the demolition derby at 7 p.m. Saturday.
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