The Big Sandy Elementary school enters art projects in the fair from Kindergarten to 6th grade. They are displayed and judged at the fair.
One of the least known displays offers up one of the best moments of the Chouteau County Fair. It is watching F. E. Miley grade-school children look for their ribbons at the School Department. Each grade having a booth. Each year, students choose 3-4 art projects to take to the fair during the school year. Teachers save these projects for them, and then go to the fairgrounds to hang and display them in June, so they are ready for judging in July. The surrounding communities get to see them on display in the School Commercial building at the Chouteau County fair in August. Students earn commission checks for every ribbon they receive. If you watch, they can hardly contain themselves when they see their item with a ribbon on it.
It's not one of those displays you'd go to look for unless you have a child leading the way, but if you sit down, and there are chairs in the building, and just wait a few minutes you'll get to see through a child's eyes why the fair exists. It is time to reflect and celebrate our rural roots. As Dewitt Jones, would say, "Celebrating what is right in the world rather than wallowing in what's wrong." Time to see friends from across the county that you seldom see unless it is a county wide event.
Some who don't understand the "why" we country people do things, could never sit and find themselves enjoying the county fair. After all it is enjoying the simpler things, like children working animals, or sometimes wrestling them. It's watching their eyes as they celebrate what they created and celebrating that someone else liked it.
