Wheat Land Communities' Fair set to start September with fun

Aug. 23—RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities' Fair begins next week, running from Aug. 28 through Sept. 1. This year's theme is "Moooving Forward Together," in keeping with the fair's agricultural focus and small hometown scale.

"We try to offer free activities for the families joining us," said Lori Williams, a member of the fair board. "(There are) the train rides and the arts and crafts. Our Lego barn is back by popular demand, and the traditional bingo and capping off each night with a rodeo."

The fair starts Wednesday afternoon when the livestock and other exhibits make their first appearance. The Ralston Grange sponsors a superintendents' supper that evening. The action begins in earnest Thursday morning with various livestock showings and 4-H demonstrations, and Thursday evening the young people can shake off some of the day's dust at the Showring Shuffle youth dance.

Friday the livestock showings continue, and there are a few more activities as well. Pieces by Parrott, from Moses Lake, will host kids' crafts, and Amy's Artistic Expressions will be painting faces.

The Ritzville Community Parade will get things started Saturday morning, rolling through Ritzville's historic downtown. Big Dawg and the Howlers will perform, followed by the Be You Tiful dance recital, stick horse barrel races and a fashion review.

"That's part of our 4-H program, but anyone is welcome to participate in it," Williams said. "Typically, if someone makes a garment on their own, then they are invited to kind of model it ... That's something that kind of goes back to a lot of fairs, a presentation of goods and projects that the kids (have worked on)."

Sunday starts with Cowboy Church, led by Pastor Rod Dennis of Lind Community Church. There will also be a shooting demonstration by the Western Washington Mounted Shooters, and the Cow Pie Raffle, where $10 gets a player a chance to guess where in a field a calf is going to do its business.

The Ritzville Rodeo starts at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday as well, featuring the Wild Card Trick Riders, another shooting demonstration and musician Jamie Buckley, as well as lots of bull riding, calf roping and barrel racing.

No fair is complete without a selection of food, healthy or otherwise. Offerings will include gourmet sausages from The Dog Stop, roasted chicken from the Lions Club and kraut runzas and homemade popcorn balls from the Ralston Grange.

There are a couple of things new this year, Williams said.

"Thanks to a (Washington State Department of Agriculture) Capital Improvement Grant, our central restroom building has been completely upgraded with new fixtures and ADA accessibility to both the building and the stalling areas," she said. "So, we're pretty excited that we're able to continue to make improvements on our grounds, considering we're privately owned and operated."

The other change is that the Wheat Land Communities' Fair has named two local ladies as its ambassadors, Maeve Korthuis and Alyssa Williams.

"Traditionally, it was fair royalty, and they'd go through parades and wear the crown and the sash," Williams said. "We thought we would make it more of a leadership opportunity for kids to represent the fair and go out in public and be the face of our fair, and have a small scholarship tied to it."