The show must go on.
Sadly, this year, that means the Spring Youth Fair must go on without its beloved “fair father” Lee Coumbs, the former Centralia mayor and reliable community volunteer who help found and foster the event. Coumbs died of cancer last year. He was 82.
Nevertheless, Lewis County’s Spring Youth Fair is set to open at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds at 5 p.m. Friday, May 2, with an unveiling at 6 p.m. of a new sign above the Expo Hall officially dedicating the building to the memory of Coumbs and his many years of service.
Over the weekend, fair-goers will be able to view a range of living and still exhibits, enjoy activities for children, like the bouncy house in the floral building, and explore a variety of local food vendors.
Animal exhibits include pigs, cows, sheep, goats and rabbits, along with dogs.
As part of its still life exhibits, the fair will have displays for photography; elementary, junior and senior art; crafts and hobbies; and more. The fair is still accepting entries for the still life departments, but they will close at the end of the day Tuesday, April 29.
As if this year's fair wasn't already special enough with the unveiling of the Expo Hall dedication, it's also expected to have a big turnout.
According to Ashley Hamilton, who is the new Spring Youth Fair leader, entries for many of the animal departments filled up earlier than expected and other departments had more entries than in recent years.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the fair had received 75 dairy cow entries, 15 more rabbits than the year before and had closed entries for beef cows, sheep and goats.
While the fair is all set to have a great year, Hamilton admits it has been a challenge doing it without Coumbs, who helped start the fair in the 1980s and maintained a major role in its organization ever since.
“Losing Lee, we are losing thousands of hours of volunteer work,” Hamilton said.
“There’s so many things that we have found that Lee just took care of it, and we had no idea.”
Hamilton said it became clear this year just how much Coumbs did for the program that many others had never had to think about. Those tasks ranged from small things like where to put a garbage can to bigger concerns like raking in donation dollars from local businesses.
In order to make sure the fair didn't miss anything this year, the fair’s board members sat down to think of every little amenity or feature they had seen at the fair and made a list of what they needed.
“What are those silly little things that you just walked into your barn and found?” Hamilton said. “You didn't ask for chairs, but you had 20 chairs. You know, you didn't think that you needed to have this. You didn't think that you needed to have cleaning supplies, or you didn't think that you needed to come in and have glass cleaner there to wash the glass of the display cases.”
And that doesn't even get to the hours and hours of work Coumbs would contribute to getting the fairgrounds in shape each spring, whether it was painting, mowing, cleaning or wrangling other volunteers to help in the efforts.
To catch up on the jobs Coumbs usually took care of, the fair has organized a volunteer work day for Sunday, April 27.
For the event, they invited local 4-H and FFA clubs, along with other local organizations, to get to work and “love on the fair,” as Hamilton says.
The group will focus on setting up all of the barns for vendors and other attendees as well as doing some pressure washing and painting to make sure the space looks good for the summer.
The fair will be open from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Admission and parking is free on Friday, but parking will cost $5 Saturday and Sunday along with the cost of admission, which is $5 for adults and children over 13 and $4 for children ages 6 to 12.
Children 5 years old and under get in free.
For more information on the Spring Youth Fair, visit https://www.springyouthfair.org.
