Floodwaters can't stop Fonda Fair
Spirited effort to clear damage preserves 170-year-old tradition
Bonnie Peck, 4-H Extension educator for Fulton and Montgomery Counties, cleans a garbage can that had been in the recently flooded Cooperative Extension Building at the Fonda Fair during Tropical Storm Irene, just a few hours before the 5 pm start of the annual fair on Thursday Sept. 1, 2011, in Fonda, NY. Peck said that several exhibits in the non animal building were destroyed, including some that had earned Best in Show ribbons in photography and fine arts. Many volunteers helped clean up the fairgrounds from the flood damage inflicted by the storm. The fair was shortened by two days as a result. (Philip Kamrass / Times Union) By CAROL DEMARE Staff writer
Friday, September 2, 2011
FONDA -- For 170 years, the Fonda Fair has gone on as scheduled, attracting those from the surrounding farm communities as well as outsiders who come for the food, the rides, the entertainment and even the monster trucks.
This year, Tropical Storm Irene and the Mohawk River got in the way, delaying the opening by two days. But even the onslaught of floodwaters couldn't make this popular fair a wash-out.
Fair-goers and exhibitors alike -- all of them fair lovers, of course -- came to the rescue. They cleaned the 60-plus acres of the Montgomery County fairgrounds over more than two days, doing what amounted to grunt work.
On Thursday, as he drove around the property in a golf cart, past the numerous amusement park rides, the cotton candy stands, the barns with the livestock and horses, the junk cars that the monster trucks would go to work on, the huge arena where Kellie Pickler will perform Saturday night, no one could be prouder of how it all came together than fair president Richard Kennedy. Officially, the gates opened Thursday at 5 p.m., and the fair will run through Monday. The seven-day event originally was scheduled to open Tuesday.
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Floodwaters-can-t-stop-Fonda-Fair-2151935.php#ixzz1WshrfZq9
This year, Tropical Storm Irene and the Mohawk River got in the way, delaying the opening by two days. But even the onslaught of floodwaters couldn't make this popular fair a wash-out.
Fair-goers and exhibitors alike -- all of them fair lovers, of course -- came to the rescue. They cleaned the 60-plus acres of the Montgomery County fairgrounds over more than two days, doing what amounted to grunt work.
On Thursday, as he drove around the property in a golf cart, past the numerous amusement park rides, the cotton candy stands, the barns with the livestock and horses, the junk cars that the monster trucks would go to work on, the huge arena where Kellie Pickler will perform Saturday night, no one could be prouder of how it all came together than fair president Richard Kennedy. Officially, the gates opened Thursday at 5 p.m., and the fair will run through Monday. The seven-day event originally was scheduled to open Tuesday.
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Floodwaters-can-t-stop-Fonda-Fair-2151935.php#ixzz1WshrfZq9
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