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LIMA, OH (WLIO) - The Allen County Junior fair has some growth this year and more students are seeing positive effects of taking a project to the fair. If you head down to the Junior Fair building, the one thing you are going to notice is that there are a lot of students doing a wide range of projects in Allen County. Between the Junior Fair special interest and the FFA, there are 1,300 special interest projects that went through the judging process which is higher than normal.

“Our special interest projects allow kids that don’t live on farms, or don’t have those abilities to have those animals at their house to be able to complete a 4H projects,” says Kelly Coble, Allen County Junior Fair 4H educator. “We have a ton of woodworking projects, our sewing projects, our food projects, and we have seen a lot of increasing in our natural resources projects.”

For seven years, Tyler Craig has been taking a shooting sports-related project to the fair, this year his focus was shotguns.

“Shooting sports has always been in my family and it really helps me get involved with 4H,” says Craig. “So, I can choose a project that I like to do, and I am good at and I have an interest in.”

Besides doing a project on a topic he was interested in; the whole experience helps him with other skills in the future.

“I have learned so many things,” adds Craig. “A lot of leadership qualities, public speaking, interviews, I have met a lot of new people who I would have never met.”

“They are doing a project that is in their interest, and they get to work on that over the summer, and they get to show judges what they completed and they are really excited to showcase those projects for the public,” adds Coble. “I think they are getting that benefit of having responsibility to do something over the summer while they are not in school.”

So, if you stop out at the fair this week, don't forget to stop by and see what some of the Allen County students are up to.

Copyright 2022 by Lima Communications Corporation. All rights reserved.

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