While the San Benito County Fair is open to the public for three days the last weekend in September, it starts a lot earlier for some local residents. For a handful of students involved in Cienega 4-H, it started back in December when they purchased calves they raised into steers that they will show in two weeks.
Megan Sabbatini, a senior at San Benito High School, said she is showing a steer for the first year after three years of raising swine.
“You definitely have to take care of it and groom it every day,” she said, of the larger animal. “With pigs, you wash it now and then, and feed it.”
She said her favorite part of the fair is watching her fellow club members, other 4-H members and FFA members show their animals in the arena.
“Everyone is cheering for you and everyone has respect for you,” she said.
Taryn Wright, 9, of Spring Grove School, said she likes meeting new people at the fair. She will be showing beef and sheep.
“I love showing,” she said. “When I first go in, I get really nervous but then I say I want to do it again.”
Sarah Nino, a sophomore at Notre Dame High School, said she is raising a steer for the third time.
“One thing that is different from showing pigs or lambs is that with steers you have to check on them every one to two hours,” she said, of once they are in their stalls at the fairgrounds.
Like her fellow members, her favorite part of the fair is getting to meet other people. She said it has also helped her with her public speaking, leadership and responsibility skills.
Nino’s younger brother Brenden, 12, a sixth-grader at Chartwell in Monterey County, is preparing several projects for the fair. He picked out a pig to raise last June. He practiced guiding his pig around an arena one afternoon after school recently, along with Lauren Sabbatini, 12, of Sacred Heart School, and Morgan Lemos, 11, of Southside School.
The trio said as the fair approaches, they spend more time working with their pigs so they can control the animals in the arena when they stand before the judges.
Lemos said his favorite part of showing pigs for the last several years has been learning how to take care of the animal and how to walk it around the arena. Brenden’s favorite part is seeing all his friends, while Lauren said she enjoys when a big group is in the arena with their animals and the judges call out first and second place.
All of the students working on animal projects said the hardest part is saying goodbye to the livestock after they sell it at the fair.
For other members, they get to bring their projects back home at the end of the fair. Brenden is also submitting items to be judged in the sewing category. He made an army uniform he will wear for Halloween this year, after it is judged this month. He said the costume was harder than other sewing projects he has tackled, such as a pillow or quilt.
“The costume has a lot more curves and rounded spots,” he said.
Crystel Bianchi, the sewing project leader for the group, worked with two girls on an afternoon after school as they prepped their items for the fair. Emma Hoffman, 9, of Tres Pinos School, worked on a pillow.
She said the hand sewing on the pillow was the most challenging.
Grace Gillio, 9, of Sacred Heart School, was working on a stocking project.
“It’s easier than the pillow or the bag,” she said, though she will be submitting a bag and some pillows for the judging.
Gillio is also entering a goat project, photographs, paintings and a cake.
“I like doing the photography and art, and baking,” she said.
It’s jam time
Megan Pape, a senior at San Benito High School, will be entering apricot jam and salsa in the fair this year in the canning category.
“I’ve been doing it a couple years with my mom,” she said. “It’s just me and her – something to do and something I would know how to do. It’s useful – that way if I have any extra fruit or whatever, I can use it to make jam. It’s being less wasteful and more resourceful.”
In past years, she has entered strawberry jam in the fair and knowing how to make it comes in handy because she likes it on sandwiches. She has been teaching some of the younger 4-H members the tricks she’s learned from her mom.
“It’s been nice seeing that younger people are interested in learning things that used to be so common and now it’s on the back burner,” she said, of canning.
Next year, she said she may try pickling.
Like Sarah Nino, Pape has been involved in the leadership aspect of 4-H. She has attended the statewide conferences and hopes to attend again this year.
“4-H helped me feel more confident,” she said. “I can get up in front of a group of people I don’t know and talk to them. It’s really helped me just not be afraid to share my ideas and has helped teach me to be open-minded to everyone’s ideas.”
With leadership activities, academics and sports, Pape said she mostly does her canning projects in the summer.
“I do my fair entries in the summer and they are done,” she said. “During the year I find new things, try it out and if it ends up not working as well it’s not something we have to rush to figure out before the fair.”
