Livestock shows, ice cream sales bring smiles to abbreviated Franklin County Fair

Smiles, trophies and ribbons provided a slice of normalcy to an abnormal edition of the Franklin County Fair last week.

The fair returned from Tuesday, July 14 through Saturday, July 18 with the annual 4-H and FFA livestock shows. The shows were still conducted despite the cancellation of all other attractions and entertainment due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Exhibitors were allowed to bring five guests to watch the shows and were not permitted to use the livestock barns in hopes to encourage social distancing and preserve sanitation. Despite the changes, exhibitors still showed their animals with pride and earned the awards for which they’ve been striving all year.

“It was a delight,” said Barb Muilenburg, Marketing and Fundraising manager for the Franklin County Fair. “It was fantastic to see the heartbeat of our fair go on as planned in a safe way.”

She commended the exhibitors for their willingness to adapt to the changes and brave the heat in order to show their projects. She said that enthusiasm was a breath of fresh air and spread to the fair volunteers and those in attendance.

“It was good to be able to witness those smiles, the joy and laughter,” she said. “They have so much pride and determination and the strength it takes to maneuver the animals, it’s so much fun to watch.

“It was amazing,” she added. “Truly amazing.”

While most of the fair was closed to the general public, one tradition remained available to all and the public responded in spades. Marcus and Robyn Kofoot, along with a handful of volunteers, opened the fair’s old fashioned ice cream stand for drive-thru orders on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Marcus Kofoot said the original plan was to make 68 batches, but as cars lined up, more batches were made. At the end of Sunday’s sale, which sold out in just less than two hours, the stand produced 116 batches – or 464 gallons of ice cream – and not one ounce remained.

“It was great,” Kofoot said. “I knew we had something special here, but we didn’t know if people would drive hours for it like they sometimes do, but they did.

“It’s always a good feeling that what you’re doing is well received,” he added.

Kofoot said the response was so overwhelming this year that the stand sold more than half of the ice cream it does in a normal year in just 14 and a half hours of operation.

“That usually takes about 30 hours to sell,” he said.

The response translated to a major boost for the fair, as proceeds and subsequent donations benefitted improvement projects on the fairgrounds. Muilenburg said she appreciated the support of the public as well as the volunteers’ willingness to still provide some semblance of a fair tradition to customers.

“People were very appreciative of the ice cream and thankful that one of their favorite fair activities still happened,” she said. “It shows that everybody out there loves and was happy to be on the grounds during what would’ve been our fair week.”