ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Members of the Belmont County Jr. Fair Board met with the Belmont County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday to discuss the upcoming Belmont County Fair, running from September 1-7.

Belmont County Jr. Fair Board coordinator Amber Cawthorne said that she is looking forward to the fair and is excited for the new rabbit cages that the children showing their rabbits can use.

She added that the board is incredibly grateful for inmates at the Belmont County Correctional Institution who recently spent time collecting trash from the fairgrounds.

Jr. Fair Board member Paisley Secrest said that the board meets once a month to discuss various projects, planning strategies for the fair, events the fair should have, scheduling for each barn showcasing animals, and other items.

“This year we’re going to have alpacas and llamas and that’s new for us,” she said.

Secrest added that the board is broken into committees and departments during its meetings.

“There’s about a handful of us in each committee and department. Our departments are each barn, like we’ll have the swine barn in their committee, and they’ll plan out how their show is going to run,” Secrest said.

She added that to be a part of the Jr. Fair Board you have to be involved in programs such as 4-H, Future Farmers of America, Girl Scouts or Scouting America.

Cawthorne said that the Jr. Fair Board currently has 36 members. Commissioner Jerry Echemann asked Cawthorne if most of those 36 children are from St. Clairsville, Barnesville, and Union Local Schools or if any students from schools that are in the east of the county are involved.

She said that almost all of its members are from Barnesville and Union Local Schools.

“I have three members from Shadyside, two from St. Clairsville, and one from Bellaire,” Cawthorne said.

Commissioner J.P. Dutton asked if most of the board members were from Union Local and Barnesville because much of the farmland is on the west side of the county.

Cawthorne confirmed but added that Galavich and Belmont County 4-H educator Megan Blanchard and 4-H Program Assistant Sarah Galavich regularly go to the schools on the Ohio River front and inform the students about the 4-H and the Jr. Fair Board in hopes of recruiting more students.

“We give them information to take home and highlight all of the great things that the program has to offer,” Galavich said. “There is more to 4-H than just the fair and livestock animals. So we try to promote more of the still projects to the youth, because they might not have the land or the facilities to hold livestock, but that doesn’t mean that they have any less of a place to be in 4-H or at the fair or on Jr. Fair Board.”

She added that students can still be involved in 4-H and still be a great asset to the fair even if they don’t have the ability to be involved in the livestock side of 4-H.

4-H currently has over 250 still projects for students to pick from which offer students a wide variety of chances to showcase their talents.

From cake decorating to genealogy the options are virtually endless, because Blanchard added that if a student doesn’t find a still project they’re interested in they also have the option to create a project about anything that they’re interested in.

“If you’re interested in anything, rockets, cats, bugs, rocks, sewing, and if there’s not something for you. We have a self determined project where you literally write the book yourself,” Blanchard said.