LOCAL
A12 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAy, AuguST 14, 2019
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Fun at the Fair Camp participants perform “Baby Shark” at the Les Schwab Stage Friday
afternoon. The performance was the culmination of the camp that had run since Tuesday.
Kids take the stage at
Umatilla County Fair
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Dan Dirksen adds grilled onions to a sausage at a booth at the Umatilla County Fair.
By JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITER
Fair food booths A
fueled by families
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
A
s Umatilla County
Fair attendees roam
the booths and
barns, it is often families
who provide the fuel for
their adventure.
Children help their par-
ents serve funnel cakes, or
spouses work in tandem to
take orders and fry corn-
dogs. At the International
Foods booth, which serves
treats such as kebabs and
gyros, Louie Sbaih’s daugh-
ter Hanan Sbaih, 7, was
pushing meat and fresh veg-
etables around the grill.
“Yesterday she asked me,
‘Please Daddy, I’m bored,
can I wait on customers?’”
he said.
He said she did such a
good job that some custom-
ers returned the next day to
ask for her specifically to
make their food. He doesn’t
want her taking over his
business someday, though
— the single father is deter-
mined to make sure his
daughter does and achieves
her goal of becoming a
judge.
“My father’s a lawyer,
my brother is a lawyer, my
cousins are lawyers,” he
said. “I went to college but
didn’t finish. I want my
daughter to be not just a
lawyer but a judge, over all
of them.”
Sbiah comes up from
Las Vegas each summer to
escape the heat by working
fairs in the Pacific North-
west. This week is his first
time at the Umatilla County
Fair, and although it hasn’t
turned out to be an escape
from the heat, he said he
was thoroughly enjoying
himself.
“This is a great fair, very
well put together,” he said.
“It’s very organized, and the
staff is very helpful ... If you
ask me how I rate this fair, it
would be an A+.”
Elizabeth
Peterson
started working at her par-
ents’ Monster Foods booth
when she was 15, and is still
at it almost 20 years later.
The booth serves “mon-
strously huge” fair foods,
such as elephant ears the
size of a pizza.
Peterson, who came
down from Alaska to help
run the Umatilla County
Fair booth, said her parents
raised foster children, and it
was hard on their budget to
take large groups of children
to the fair.
“We make monster foods
so that families can try a lit-
tle bit of everything and still
afford it,” she said.
Many of the fair’s ven-
dors come from the Tri-Cit-
ies, such as Nany Scott, who
serves Filipino food at the
Taste of Manila booth.
She is originally from
the Philippines, and said she
loves cooking for other peo-
ple at the fair.
“I want them to learn of
our food and how good it
is,” she said.
While food is important
at the fair, staying hydrated
is even more essential, espe-
cially after the first two days
of the fair pushed the ther-
mometer up to triple digits
in the afternoon. Lemonade
stands are some of the busi-
est in the afternoons, as red-
faced fairgoers seek after a
tall glass of something cold
and sweet.
Michelle Hagans was
serving lemonade at the
Davis Amusement lemon-
ade stand Wednesday after-
noon, helped out by Bella,
10, who couldn’t remember
how to spell her last name.
Hagans said they hand
out a lot of water to children
and the elderly to make sure
they’re staying hydrated. As
for the lemonade, they have
strawberry and original, but
are hoping at some point to
add a watermelon option.
Some of the people hand-
ing out food at the fair aren’t
getting paid for it. The Lions
Club booth is staffed with
volunteers who donate their
time so that all of the pro-
ceeds can go to Lions Club
projects ranging from local
scholarships to the rebuild-
ing of Funland playground.
“Not only do we have the
best hamburgers, the coldest
drinks and the freshest fries,
but all the money we make
goes back into the commu-
nity,” Phil Hamm said.
s pigs rolled around
in the swine barn,
and musicians drew
crowds on the Main Stage,
a dozen or so bales of straw
provided seating for another
place where the magic hap-
pened — the Les Schwab
Stage at the Umatilla
County Fair.
It’s where Jace Otteson,
14, traded in his belt and
shoes for two used Barbie
dolls while under the spell
of hypnotist Chris Mabrey
during fair week.
“It was fun,” said
Otteson, who noted he was
a little embarrassed about
his dazed performance.
It’s also where juggler
Jeremiah Johnston tee-
tered on a wobbly wooden
board while tossing knives
and torches into the air with
ease during his act Thurs-
day night, and where com-
edy cowboy Leapin’ Louie
broke spaghetti with the
crack of a whip on Friday
afternoon.
“This is the real spaghetti
western,” he told the crowd.
But professional enter-
tainers set down their props
to make way for a lively
group of 45 kids, who
shared their performance
with the fair on Friday to
mark the end of the Fun at
the Fair Day Camp.
All week, they’d been
rehearsing a dance to the
contagiously well-known
song “Baby Shark” by Pink-
fong. As the song began,
some of the participants
seemed a little shy about
the dance. But by the end,
everyone sporting a blue
campers’ shirt had joined in.
And while the perfor-
mance was short, the days
leading up to it were action-
packed for campers. They
got a closer look at 4-H
show animals, and received
up-close performances from
Leapin’ Louie and Mz. Pearl
of Mz. Pearl’s Variety Show.
They also participated in
arts and crafts projects.
“We got to see the ani-
mals,” said Elaina Jewett, 7,
who attended the camp with
her little sister, Taylor. “And
we got a bracelet.”
This year, the camp was
open for children ages 6
through 11, and was spon-
sored by Family Health
Associates.
“We had a good group of
different ages,” said Tammy
Wagner, the camp’s director.
Wagner, whose hus-
band is on the fair board,
started the camp in 2012.
Originally, it was meant as
a place for the children of
vendors and other workers
at the fair to have fun while
their parents were working.
But it has since been opened
up to all members of the
community.
Registration for camp,
which accepts 45 kids every
year, opened in April and
filled up fast, according to
Wagner. She hopes to amp
up activities in the kid’s tent
at the fair next year.
“This is kind of my thing;
it’s my way of contributing
to the fair,” Wagner said.