The usual crowd of Wright County Fair-goers won’t get to see it this year, but the competitors in the horse show arena will sure appreciate the hard work of 4-Her Quinn Whaley when they show up to the fairgrounds today, Thursday, July 9.
Quinn, a fifth year member of the Wright Warriors 4-H Club in Eagle Grove, with the help of his dad, Bryan, has been working to replace the old announcers booth by the horse arena.
Whaley said it all began when his Mom, Allison – who has helped out at the fair with the horse show in the past, noticed how deteriorated the steps had become. She suggested it to Quinn as a 4-H project, and he agreed. Once the Fair Board gave him the green light, he and is dad got to work.
They started off by taking measurements to replace the steps but quickly realized there was a lot more rotting wood than the steps that needed to be replaced. The 20-year old booth was in need of major repair, so the father-son team decided since they were there, they would fix the whole thing.
Quinn admits he’s never done anything this big before, and really wasn’t even familiar with how to use power tools – but he’s learning, and that’s what 4-H is all about.
“The two most important things I’ve learned are how and when to use power tools and make sure you have the right measurements,” said Quinn.
In total, they spent more than a dozen hours working on the project, but got it finished just in times for this year’s COVID-adjusted horse show. They put the finishing touches on it this past Sunday.
“It was hard getting all the old wood off because it would fall apart…and there were so many little pieces left over…and lots of screws and nails,” said Quinn about completing the project.
Since this was a bigger project than Quinn and his family originally anticipated, and it took much longer to complete, Quinn said he will be entering this as a project for the 2021 Wright County Fair. As for this year, his fair entries are less than usual due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but he is proud to still be entering a woodworking project (he built a desk) and a 4-H promotional poster.
“Hopefully, no more improvements will be needed (to the horse announcers booth) for another 20 years,” concluded Quinn.
