Today is the last day of the Kansas State Fair! If you haven’t had a chance to travel to this showcase of Kansas talent, put it on your bucket list for next year. If you are heading that direction, your first stop should be 4-H Centennial Hall located in the northwest corner of the state fairgrounds.
The photography division has a prominent space in the 4-H Hall - right down the middle. Photography has the largest number of exhibits at the state fair with nearly 2,000 exhibits. Anna Frizell’s photo was chosen to be on exhibit at Rocks Springs Ranch 4-H Center for the next year. Sarah Hammeke and Logan Evers had photos selected for use in Kansas 4-H Foundation publications. BreAnn Anshutz’s photo was chosen to be in a Traveling Photo Collection. Members receiving blue ribbon ratings were Kayleigh Bitter, Karly Brungardt, Molly Kaiser, Morgan Kaiser, Hannah Mauler, McKenna Mauler, Sarah Niederee, Ryan Niles, Brinttain Noah, Desmond Noah, Kaitlyn Rodie, and Kirk Reisner, Athena VanderMeer, Cody Wondra and Kaitlyn Wondra. Red ribbons were awarded to Jacenda Gilbert, Payton Mauler, Kallie Peterson, Tiffany Schneider, Parker Smith, and Alexa Straub.
Another very large department is foods and nutrition with over 1,200 exhibits. Kayleigh Bitter, Kristi DeWerff, Anna Frizell Robert Frizell, Brice Kaiser, Kallie Peterson and Betsy Snell received purple ribbons on foods. Receiving blues were Cal Kaiser, Molly Kaiser, Paige Koehn, Audrey Likes, Nicole Likes, Emma Reif and Kirk Reisner. Kayleigh Bitter and Sarah Hammeke received a red rating.
 In Clothing and Textiles, the purple ribbon winners were BrayLynn Anshutz, Anna Frizell and Parker Smith. Karly Brungardt, Morgan Kaiser and Alexa Straub received blue ribbons.
The Fiber Arts department combines crocheting, knitting, quilting and needle arts in one division. Alexa Straub and Parker Smith both received blue ratings.
Kayleigh Bitter and Kristi DeWerff both received purple ribbons on their Home Environment notebooks.
In the vegetable division, Logan Evers received blue on his cherry tomatoes. In crops, Logan received purple ratings on a gallon jar of Hard Red Winter wheat and on a soybean bundle. Logan also received a purple on his forestry notebook. Kyle Blakeslee received a blue on his wheat variety plot display.
Luke Wondra received a purple on his rocketry exhibit and Austin VanderMeer received a blue. Dalton Dicks received a red on his promotional shooting sports poster.
4-H Banners exhibited at the Kansas State Fair were designed by 4-H members in Busy Buzzers, Ellinwood Energizers and TLC Twisters 4-H clubs.
The second weekend of the state fair is a busy one for 4-H members and results from the livestock shows, dog show, fashion revue and judging contests will be shared next week.
Berny Unruh is the 4-H and youth development agent in Barton County. She is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and can be reached at 620-793-1910 or at bunruh@ksu.edu.