Quest for a Blue Ribbon Can Also Be Labor of Love

Phyllis Kramer and Cheryl Fiebelkorn are as different as apple pies and afghans, but they share a common bond: They love blue ribbons.

They are among nearly 6,000 residents of all ages who enter everything from cinnamon bread to acrylic paintings to beer stein collections each year at the Ventura County Fair in hopes of taking home a coveted top prize.

Kramer, 58, works as an elementary school crossing guard in Ventura when she isn’t crocheting baby blankets or creating masterpieces of needlepoint in preparation for the fair. She has been entering her handiwork for 27 years and has amassed more than 500 ribbons.

“It gets in your blood,” said Kramer, who has 50 items on display this year. She will start working on next year’s entries as soon as this fair ends Aug. 13.

Fiebelkorn, 33, has a 5-year-old daughter and another child due in two months. A self-described “Deadhead,” she lives in Newbury Park and runs the Going to the Dogs grooming business. She has entered 93 items in this year’s baked goods division.

“I had pregnancy hormones working on my side this year,” Fiebelkorn joked.

Kramer won 12 blue ribbons, 19 red ribbons and five white ribbons in the clothing and textiles category. Fiebelkorn won 44 first-place prizes, 20 second-place and eight third-place awards in baked goods.

Both are contenders for the highly competitive sweepstakes award in their respective divisions within the fair’s Creative Living department. The honor, which should be announced early next week, comes with a plaque and major bragging rights.

This year, the Ventura County Fair will award 18,000 ribbons and 250 trophies for exhibit entries, said Teri Raley, fair publicist.

Judges for the exhibits are volunteers who usually have expertise in the area they are critiquing.

For example, Sharon Clarke of Oxnard, who sews quilts for a living, judges the fair’s quilting competition. She knows that many people take the competition seriously.

“I think a lot of people are trying very hard to make nice quilts, and they need someone to look at it and give them some feedback,” she said.

First-, second- and third-place prizes for all entries include a cash award--albeit a small one. Last year, fair officials wrote 2,500 premium checks, the vast majority for less than $5, Raley said.

“Obviously, they’re not doing it for the money,” she said.

For Kramer, the hobby started when she was 12 after her grandmother taught her how to crochet.

“It seemed so interesting to see a piece of yarn turn into something,” she said.

She was selling the items at her church gift shop when her sister-in-law told her about her entry in a Santa Maria fair. Hundreds of afghans, baby blankets and blue ribbons later, Kramer is hooked.

“It gives you a good feeling to see your items there and hear what other people have to say about it,” she said. “One year I didn’t enter anything and it felt like I was not really a part of it.”

Community pride is what motivates 17-year-old Delilah Kasting of Ojai, who entered 20 pieces, including paintings, baked goods and table settings in the Youth Expo department.

She won several blue ribbons, although she hasn’t yet totaled them, and is anxious to hear the sweepstakes results next week.

“I won [sweepstakes] two years when I was younger,” she said. “I just like to show the community what I can do, and it’s fun to participate.”

Kramer already owns seven sweepstakes plaques, and she is hoping for another first place this year because her primary rival in clothing and textiles, Linda Kapigian, took it last year. Entrants can only win a first-place sweepstakes award every other year.

Fiebelkorn’s obsession had humble beginnings. Four years ago, she was baking her 30th apple pie of the summer (the apple tree was particularly plentiful that season) when she decided to see if the County Fair still had baked goods contests. She found out the deadline was the very next day, so she stayed up late baking the best pie she could. She entered it, and it won first place in the apple pie category.

“That got me addicted because I felt like queen for a day,” she said.

She has upped her quantity steadily each year, but a second place in the sweepstakes contest last year motivated her to bake like a madwoman this year.

“I know next year with a 6-year-old and a 10-month-old, it will be a lot tougher to enter sweepstakes,” she said. “But I know even though I can’t, I probably will, which is why I need to win it this year.”

Her feat--she baked more than 500 cookies, muffins, pies and breads in a 30-day period--required 75 pounds of flour, 50 pounds of sugar, 25 pounds of butter, at least 10 dozen eggs, about $300 and countless midnight trips to the supermarket.

And she feverishly whipped up six new batches of cookies after her dog, Splash, helped himself to the treats--36 cookies--late last week. Luckily, she said, she has help with the leftovers.

“All my friends have gained at least five pounds this summer,” she said. “And I can’t even look at another cookie.”

The County Fair continues today with the opening of the carnival and midway. Scheduling conflicts delayed the carnival opening for the first two days of the fair, and attendance reflected the absence. About 8,150 people passed through the turnstiles opening day Wednesday--down about 41% from last year’s 13,803, Raley said.