When you enter the Fairbury Fairgrounds at the main Third Street gate, you will see the smiling faces of Denise and Roger Brown inside the office window.
Denise serves as secretary for the office. She admits transitions are always interesting, but things have been running smoothly this year. Denise works in the front office meeting visitors and taking entries.
“I pass those entries on to Rhonda Stoller and together we are a pretty good team,” Denise said.
This is Denise’s seventh year in the role as the late Jim Schahrer, a former fair president, asked her to do this the year before he passed away. She often answers questions over the phone and if she can’t answer them, she tries to get the information.
“I even take some of the paperwork home and do it,” Denise explained. “Over the weekend, I took home the tags they enter their projects with. I figured I could do that while I am sitting at home and put those in their envelopes.”
Denise is also responsible for all of the paperwork which heads to the state. She must put the information in alphabetical and numerical order according to department.
Roger is Denise’s right-hand man and support system – always willing to lend a helping fair hand. It comes in handy to have another body in the office when things get hectic.
“A lot of times during the judging, things need to be delivered so I just kind of hang around to keep somebody in the office,” Roger said.
Roger feels the Fairbury Fair is a great place to meet up with old friends and make new ones.
“The fair is really going very well,” he concluded.
