GREENFIELD — Eleven-year-old Jacob Mauer didn’t leave out a single detail.
From the gravel driveway made of kitty litter to the farm field made from the soil of his family’s Knightstown farm, he made sure to let the 4-H fair judge know all about the farm diorama he created for this year’s Hancock County 4-H Fair.
Jacob was among hundreds of youths stopping by the exhibit hall at the Hancock County Fairgrounds this week, showing off projects they’d been toiling over for countless hours, sometimes over the span of several months.
Judging takes place each year inside the Sarah Burke Exhibit Hall in the days before the fair opens. This year’s fair opens today, June 18, and runs through June 25.
Judges from outside Hancock County are commissioned each year to judge the projects of local 4-H kids, awarding ribbons of varying colors to recognize each child’s achievement.
Categories run the gamut, from scrapbooking and sewing to computers and cake decorating. There’s even categories for beekeeping, gift wrapping and rocketry. There are more than 50 project categories in all.
While last year’s judging was done in a “show and go” format, with little interaction between judges and kids, this year’s judging got back to tradition, with each 4-H’er getting a chance to share their project with judges in person.
Eighteen-year-old Ben Polster was clearly proud of the century-old sewing table he painstakingly refinished this year, adding a coat of stain and a few missing pieces of hardware to the console his family recently unearthed in his great-uncle’s attic.
“This belonged to my great-grandma,” Polster said on Friday, pointing out the details on the Minnesota Model A sewing machine, which he said was patented in 1929.
Polster, who recently graduated from Greenfield-Central High School, spent the past two months bringing the once-weathered antique table back to life.
He’s been doing 4-H projects for the past 10 years, starting out baking cookies as a young kid, but the Americana category he entered this year is his favorite.
“I’m a history buff, so I like the stories these old pieces tell, and sharing that history with the judges,” he said on Tuesday. “It’s also fun making the old vintage pieces look brand new.”
Fifteen-year-old Emma Bogle combined something old and something new to create a one-of-a-kind vanity for her 4-H fair project this year.
She bought a wire cage-style light fixture and affixed it onto the top of a rustic wood palette, adding a mirror below that and a light switch and electric outlet at the bottom. She added two antique wood boxes to the bottom for storage.
“I plan to use this as a vanity in my bedroom,” said Emma, who entered the piece in the Electricity category this year.
Her dad helped her learn how to wire up the light fixture, switch and outlet herself.
“It was really cool to learn that stuff,” said Emma, a part-time home schooler who will be a sophomore at Greenfield-Central High School next year.
Learning cool stuff is what doing 4-H projects is all about, said Amber Barks, Hancock County’s extension educator for 4-H youth development.
“The kids learn a lot by doing their projects each year; then they learn even more after talking with the judges,” Barks said. “The judges are there to not only judge the projects but to provide feedback which can help kids improve from year to year.”
Brenda Brooks has been judging 4-H Fair projects in Hancock, Johnson and Boone counties for the past six years. She started judging as a way to stay involved in 4-H after being a club leader for 22 years, after her children aged out of the program.
On Tuesday, she was flipping through scrapbooks submitted by 4-H’ers, providing feedback as the young scrapbookers took turns sitting across from her at a table in the exhibit hall.
Brooks is happy to provide constructive criticism — as she did when one young girl used light ink on light paper, making it difficult to read — but she strives to build up each child as well.
“I try to include a positive comment for every negative one,” said Brooks, who lives in Anderson. “It’s nice to give them feedback and see how their projects improve year after year.”
Local 4-H leader Olivia Dickson was serving as the scrapbooking superintendent this week, overseeing the judging process. She, too, sees children improve on their projects, as well as their speaking skills.
“Getting the chance to explain their projects and interact with judges is a great way to learn communication and personal speaking skills, which are such necessary skills to have,” she said.
Jacob Mauer seemed to have no problem describing his project when he got his chance earlier this week. As he sat across from the judge, with his 2-foot-wide diorama laid out between them, he gestured and pointed to make sure not to miss a single thing.
After crushing up soil from his family‘s farm field to create the field for his project, he carefully drew straight lines through the dirt where the miniature planter was planting crops.
“You don’t see lines in that part of the field right there, because the planter hasn’t been through there yet,” he said.
He also pointed out the tiny tailpipe sticking out beneath the bumper of one of the matchbook-sized pickup trucks in the farm scene, a custom exhaust job he built himself.
“I like farming stuff and I like making custom trucks. I took the bed off this truck and glued it on a flatbed to pull the gooseneck trailer,” said Jacob, who will be a sixth-grader at Eastern Hancock Middle School in the fall.
He even added a white Lamborghini to the scene to represent his mom’s car, parked on the tiny driveway made of cat litter.
“She has a white SUV, but I used a Lamborghini instead,” said Jacob, who was awarded a blue ribbon with honors for his effort.
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A schedule of events for the Hancock County 4-H Fair, which begins today, is on Page A8.
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