I write this letter as a former Rock County 4-H member, a former Rock County 4-H Fair board member and officer, and a passionate supporter of the 4-H program.
The Rock County 4-H Fair is special for so many reasons. I often attribute my involvement in 4-H and specifically showing animals at the Rock County 4-H fair as the single biggest influence on the success I’ve achieved in my adult life.
It is a program like no other, where kids learn life skills that cannot be taught in a classroom and learn the importance of being a community-minded citizen. The Rock County 4-H Fair was considered the Pioneer 4-H Fair in the United States since at the time of its creation, no other county fair was strictly a 4-H Fair.
From the onset of the fair in 1930, the objective of the Rock County 4-H fair was to develop leadership in the boys and girls living in Rock County. Each summer, for 94 years, 4-H members have been the hosts of the fair, greeting guests through the barns, teaching the community about their projects, building life skills and lifelong friendships. That is what the Rock County 4-H Fair is about.
The absence of alcohol at the Rock County 4-H Fair was by design. It was a choice which started at the onset of the fair and has remained the choice for 94 years.
It was a central focus of Joseph A. Craig, the father of 4-H in Rock County, a man who fundamentally shaped the 4-H program and the Rock County 4-H Fair that we know today. It has been a focus of many former board members and supporters of the program who have given their time and talents over the years. Why? Because the Rock County 4-H Fair is a youth program designed to provide learning and leadership opportunities to the youth of Rock County and alcohol provides no value to that mission.
The past three years the Rock County 4-H fair has delivered 10-year highs in attendance and substantial profit. The notion that alcohol is needed as a financial necessity is not based in fact. Alcohol is inconsistent with the mission that has stood the test of time for 94 years. The Rock County 4-H Fair is different from the others in the state of Wisconsin on purpose. This fair is uniquely about the youth.
