Rain or shine, Ron Spangler of Eagle Grove has been grilling up hamburgers, hot dogs, pork patties, and barbequed rib patties at the Wright County Fair 4-H Food Stand for more than 25 years…and he loves every minute of it.
“I have fun…I like to talk to people over the fence who are walking by. People come by and make comments like ‘I know I can get a good burger here because Ron’s cooking,’ because they know I’m (behind the fence),” Spangler said with a big smile on his face.
He added that he also likes to joke around with the volunteers working inside the 4-H Food Stand when he comes in to deliver food or take a few seconds to cool off.
Spangler began his grilling duties many years ago as part of the Wright County Cattlemen. This group of beef producers (along with pork producers in earlier years) would travel around to different area fundraisers, providing the grill and the volunteers to do the cooking for a variety of worthy causes. When they first came to the Wright County Fair, Spangler said the 4-H Food Stand wasn’t as nice as it is today. In fact, there was no building at all. It used to just be a tent with wood chips thrown down for a make-shift floor. Eventually, a metal building went up. A few years back when they added air conditioning, that was a real treat for Spangler and the other grill volunteers so they could come in and cool down for a minute when things really started heating up by the grill.
“I like to grill,” said Spangler. “There are a lot of interesting people who come through at the Fair.”
He must enjoy it, otherwise he wouldn’t show up each and every morning during the Wright County Fair at 10 a.m. to light the grill and get things ready for the day. He’s only supposed to work a few hours, but most of the time he stays straight through until 8:30 p.m., or whenever it is they finally turn the grills off for the night. Of course, he’s not the only griller there, but he likes to stick around to help out and make sure there are no problems. Some of the other volunteers are from the Cattlemen group while others are 4-H dads. This year, however, he trained in one volunteer who has no connection to either, he just wanted to help. Spangler said he would love to see more people volunteer to grill as well, whether they are a man or a woman, and whether they belong to one of the above-mentioned clubs or not. If you’re interested, just give him, or any Cattlemen member a call.
Spangler said he and the others volunteer their time grilling at Wright County Fair food stand for the sake of the 4-Hers.
“How many of us have been in 4-H ourselves or had kids in 4-H…it’s kind of payback for those years,” said Spangler.
But this year, the Wright County Cattlemen gave back even more than just the use of their grill, time, and talents. They also donated all of the beef burgers and pork burgers they grilled in order for the Wright County 4-H organization to make more of a profit. In the first two days alone of the Fair they prepared roughly 900 burgers. On Saturday and Sunday, the grillers prepared 85 pork chops. They traditionally only serve this yummy treat on Saturday in conjunction with the Hog Show, but they figured why not add one more day this year. It was a success.
In total, Spangler and the other grillers prepared more than 300 pork burgers and 1200 beef burgers for the 4-H Food Stand. Add that to the hot dogs, Maidrites, pork rib sandwiches, barbeque pork, pies, sundays, chips, and more…that’s a lot of food that comes in and out of the temporary restaurant – and it’s all for the benefit of the local 4-H youth.
“I really enjoy being out there and helping out the 4-H program,” said Spangler of his week spent at the Fair. “What I enjoy most is seeing and meeting new people, grilling good food for people to enjoy, and showing people what the Wright County Cattlemen are all about.”
