The bounty to be had!

As a kid, the final ‘hurrah’ of summer was looking forward to attending the Montgomery County Fair which is held annually over Labor Day weekend. I was a member of the Lads & Lassies 4-H club in Centerville which was led by the Mr. & Mrs. Seth Furnace who farmed on Social Row Road. Yes, Virginia, Centerville/Washington Township had 4-H clubs! Reflecting back, none of the ‘hip’ people at Centerville were in the club…… apparently, raising and showing (and eating) meat rabbits and showing flower/vegetable garden entries further cemented my ‘square peg’ high school persona……. Oh, well.

A 2010 fair Best of Show winner by Joni Duncan.

Well, 40-ahem or so years have passed and this year I am the chair for the 2011 Montgomery County Fair Flower Shows (Wednesday, August 31 and Saturday, September 3). Anyone in Montgomery County and any adjoining county may exhibit. Check out the complete flower show schedule HERE.

An informational meeting on entering the fair will be held 10 am, Monday, August 15 at Wegerzyn Gardens MetroPark .

Reservations are only required for the artistic arranging classes. Call Barbara Warner to enter those classes at 937-890-3313. Contact Susan Keck at 937-278-3154 to secure an exhibitors number and to schedule a volunteer stint as a flower show hostess.

The Montgomery County Fair Flower Show, sponsored by the Montgomery County Agricultural Society and produced by the Garden Club Federation of Dayton and Vicinity, is looking for some knowledgeable volunteers. Specifically, the Federation is looking for a few volunteers for Classification/Placement duties.

Classification personnel are one of the tools a flower show needs for quality control and plant identification. Armed with handbooks and catalogs it is their assignment to verify that the horticulture specimens entered for competition are properly identified and entered in the correct class.

Continuing with the Classification’s goals, Placement personnel further enforce the quality control and identification of the specimens being entered as they make their way to being judged by an accredited Ohio Association of Garden Clubs, Inc. flower show judge.

Classification personnel are needed for 6-9 pm Tuesday, August 30; 7-9 am Wednesday, August 31; 6-9 pm Friday, September 2 and 7-9 am Saturday, September 3.  Placement personnel are needed for the same times as above with the exception that they are needed a bit longer: 7-11 am on Wednesday and Saturday.

Those interested in volunteering to help are asked to contact the show’s Classification/Placement Chair , Jan Vomacka at 937-885-0636, for more information and shift availabilities.