Being a Grand Champion is great feeling

By GREG SMART

gsmart@tcnewsnet.com

DAYTON — There’s noth­ing like being a grand cham­pion junior fair win­ner at the Ohio State Fair. 4-H exhibitor Emily Myers has expe­ri­enced that thrill as she claimed the grand cham­pion in meat chick­ens last year at the Ohio State Fair.

“Being in the sale of cham­pi­ons was def­i­nitely a once-in-a-lifetime expe­ri­ence, with all the inter­views and then of course shar­ing the glory with all the peo­ple that made this possible—mostly my dad, who prob­a­bly deserves the tro­phy the same, if not more than me and then there was Betty Wingerter who has been an advi­sor of mine for as long as I can remem­ber. With­out them, I would not be the per­son I am today.”

Mey­ers said that achiev­ing the goal of a grand cham­pion pen of mar­ket chick­ens didn’t take an extra­or­di­nary amount of work or a draw of luck like many peo­ple would think.

“It took patience and dili­gence and then cre­ativ­ity to come up with things that many other peo­ple wouldn’t think of doing,” she said. “It was because of this that I believe that I and my fam­ily achieved this goal.”

Scott Seim, a 2012 grad­u­ate of Twin Val­ley South High School, who lives in New Lebanon, has shown chick­ens at the junior fair at the Ohio State Fair. In 2008, he had the grand cham­pion meat pen of chickens.

“That really was a spe­cial honor for me,” he said. “I was cer­tainly amazed by that, being my first year up there.”

He said he learned how nice the Ohio State Fair is and how well the exhibitors present their ani­mals and cited the great fair staff.

For Scott and Shan­non Clark, 4-H truly resulted in a long last­ing rela­tion­ship. Scott of Cov­ing­ton and Shan­non of Arcanum met at the Dark County Fair in 1989 as they were both exhibit­ing cat­tle. They mar­ried in 1993. Shan­non Clark was asked what 4-H means to her family.

“To us, it was a fam­ily affair,” she said. “My husband’s fam­ily is show­ing cat­tle in Miami County for prob­a­bly 50 years or bet­ter. It was always a fun time for us to meet new peo­ple and build long last­ing friendships.”

Their chil­dren, Madi­son, a senior at Cov­ing­ton High School and Tyler, a junior, have shown at the Ohio State Fair as part of the Frisky Crit­ters 4-H Club. Tyler will be exhibit­ing hogs at the Ohio State Fair this year while Madi­son will show cattle.

“I think 4-H is a good thing because it teaches you respon­si­bil­i­ties and it gets you ready for life in the real world and what you’re going to expe­ri­ence as you get older,” said Madi­son Clark.

Madi­son Clark has had the third over­all and fourth over­all steer in the junior fair at the Ohio State Fair. She has been the out­stand­ing mar­ket beef exhibitor in her age divi­sion for at least three years. She said the Ohio State Fair gives her an oppor­tu­nity to see the results of her hard work from the entire summer.

Posted by Tina Murdock on Aug 9 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.