A year without the Centre County Grange Fair holds some silver linings for 4-H students

The fairgrounds across from Jordan Anderson’s house in Centre Hall should have been abuzz with livestock, the chatter of auctioneers, music from the grandstand, children shrieking and vendors hawking food and games.

But, as mid-August approached, they remained silent.

And that meant that the animals — dairy cows, pigs, and lambs — she had worked so hard to raise this year, animals whom for months she fed and cared for, could not be shown to judges nor sold to interested buyers making their rounds at the summer’s circuit of county fairs.

Jordan, a 17-year-old Penns Valley Area High School senior, is one of hundreds of 4-H students and regular Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair-goers affected by the fair committee’s decision to cancel the 2020 fair due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year marked the first time the fair has been canceled since 1943, when it was shortened to a one-day picnic amid gasoline and commodities shortages during World War II.

Looking out her window at Gate 4 of the fairgrounds, Jordan remembers the family picnics, the games, the time spent playing with friends and cousins late into the night. “Some of my best memories of my life were made at Grange Fair,” she said.

Like many other members of Grange Fair families, Jordan hasn’t missed a Grange Fair in her life. She attended her first when she was just six weeks old. When she was eight years old, she started showing livestock through 4-H.

It’s a tradition that also runs in 17-year-old Kylie Simpson’s family. The State College Area High School senior started showing livestock when she was eight years old, and is a member of the Centre County 4-H Beef Club. When her parents were younger, they also participated in 4-H and Future Farmers of America.

“It’s just so disappointing,” said Kylie of the fair’s cancellation. “I put so much time into it, and effort and money, and it just kind of went down the drain.”

Kylie raises beef, which is the lengthiest process of all livestock projects. It starts in November, when 4-H students select their steers, and ends in August, when they sell the animals by auction at the fair. “I have to walk them, make sure they’re good with the water, and everything that would happen at the fair,” Kylie said.

Audra Simpson, Kylie’s mom, said her daughter had really “stepped up her game” this year in raising her beef and goats. She learned to pick the best calves for rearing, and was gearing up for a competitive year.

As Kylie and Jordan would tell it, raising livestock is no walk in the park. They’ve spent months feeding and watering their animals every day, training them, walking them, grooming them and keeping track of their weight for the fair. But it doesn’t stop there. At the end of July, 4-H students send out buyers’ letters to local businesses, family friends, and past customers, personally inviting them to the sale and marketing their livestock.

With the fair canceled, all that work is for naught. Besides not being able to show the animals, they have other worries. Will they be able to find a buyer without the fair?

That’s where Mandee Bierly Eckert comes in. Her parents, Dave and Darlene Bierly, own Penns Valley Livestock in Centre Hall. The Bierlys are Grange Fair regulars, and have been in the agriculture business for over 40 years, said Eckert.

Before the Grange Fair cancellation announcement, Eckert said she and her family saw the writing on the wall. They started talking. What if they put on a livestock sale for the kids?

“We wanted to step up to the plate and help these kids, and we had the facility and the funds to do so,” Eckert said.

As soon as Grange Fair was canceled, the Bierlys announced a one-day youth livestock auction on Aug. 15 and the volunteers started rolling in. They decided not to charge commission or registration fees for sellers, and “everything from start to finish on this entire sale has been 100% volunteer,” Eckert said.

With over 100 exhibitors, 160 registered buyers and 230 animals that went across the auction block, Eckert said the sale was a success. An add-on donation collection table run by the Centre County Farm Bureau raised more than $11,000 for specific exhibitors, she said.

“Everyone just came together. Even during the sale, it just went so smooth,” Eckert said. “It was a very humbling experience, to say the least.”

The sale was a bright spot for Kylie, Jordan and their families. It gave them something to look forward to after months of turbulence and uncertainty. For Jordan, it was “something that’s kind of normal” during a year that has been anything but.

“It’s just heartbreaking because I grew up with (the fair) all my life. And the hard work that the kids put into their projects and just to not have anything,” said Angela Anderson, Jordan’s mom. “It’s not even just about the animals. It’s a reunion for so many people, too. The kids have handled it OK. Something good always comes out of something bad. Everything happens for a reason.”

And during the months of online school, canceled sports seasons, and lack of events, the animals have lent a reassuring rhythm to Kylie and Jordan’s lives.

“During COVID and all, I don’t know what she would’ve done with herself without having the barn and her animals,” Audra Simpson said. “To have that outlet, she’s been lucky. If there’s a silver lining, we’ve been very lucky to have that to do.”

But if there’s one thing that’s kept everyone going, it’s the hope that they will again descend on Centre Hall with their families, campers, tarps and sleeping bags for the 147th Grange Fair in 2021.

This story was originally published August 23, 2020 at 8:00 AM.