Fair’s Youth Board Is Serious About Fun

During the past three days, Dustin Gross has wiped sticky pie filling off smiling faces, struggled to get squirming toddlers on the starting line of the annual Diaper Derby and mopped up splattered egg goop.

This is the life of a Ventura County Junior Fair Board member.

“It’s been a blast,” said Gross, 20, of Santa Paula, one of about a dozen new people on the 19-member youth board this year.

Board members--who range in age from 15 to 20 and hail mostly from Santa Paula and Ojai--organize and run a series of contests aimed at young fairgoers.

Though the volunteer job is rarely glamorous or easy--during the fair, board members frequently work 10-hour days--the teenagers said they wouldn’t trade anything for the experience. They learn invaluable lessons in communication and organization and have a chance to meet people who will be their friends for life, they said.

Plus, they serve as ambassadors, roaming around the Seaside Park fairgrounds in their red shirts greeting people each day, said fair publicist Teri Raley.

“We look for good leaders and people who are generally interested in the fair,” Raley said. “They’re just the neatest bunch of kids you’ve ever seen.”

One of only five such groups in the state, the Ventura County Junior Fair Board has been around in some form for 30 years.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said Sarah Reese, 20, of Santa Paula, a student at Ventura College. She’s the youth panel’s vice president and has been on the board for four years.

“You learn a lot about personal relationships, organization and responsibility,” said Tristyne White, 16, of Ojai, who is new to the board this year.

“And it looks good on a college application,” said Karie Barnett, 16, of Santa Paula.

An infusion of fresh perspectives on the board this year is the reason behind the surge of new contests being offered, including the Junior Joke-Telling competition held Sunday for children 10 and younger, said Junior Fair Board President Chris Garmon.

The new contest was a hit with Margo Georghiou, 8, of Ventura, who took home the top prize--a trophy and a blue ribbon--for her delivery of a “Pokemon” joke she and her brother heard from a counselor at their summer camp.

“I thought I was going to get second,” she said after learning of her victory. “I was really surprised.”

Other new contests include the water balloon toss; nose ball, in which participants race to roll a ball across the stage with their nose; and the seaside scoop, the object of which is to move sand from one bucket to another, using only a spoon pressed between the teeth.

All of the contests, both old and new, have been popular, Reese said. Board members worked several hours on each one, whether it’s carting in 50 berry pies, setting up tables and chairs, or walking the fairgrounds to sign up participants.

This year’s group--about 75% of whom have been involved in 4-H or Future Farmers of America--is by all accounts the best Junior Fair Board yet.

“All of these kids have heard a lot about the Junior Fair Board over the years, and it’s something that’s very important to them,” said Lori Bowles, a board advisor.

She helps the board members organize contests and often gives them advice.

“I feel like I have 19 adopted children,” Bowles said, adding that if she had to adopt 19 kids, she would choose all of her board members. “We are so lucky to have these kids.”

The panelists also have made fans out of countless kids who have tried to win a blue ribbon tossing eggs, telling their favorite corny jokes or stuffing their mouths with pie.

One appreciative contest participant was Amanda Gharzeddie, 9, of Woodland Hills, who said she had tons of fun diving face-first into the luscious-looking dessert and emerging with her face caked in sugary purple goop.

“I liked getting it up my nose,” she said.