A 4-year-old girl from Australia was able to get a hands-on view of Kansas livestock Friday at the Barton County Fair. She was invited to feed a marshmallow to a pig named Jerry.
Katie Messmore is the daughter of Karin Messmore, who is the niece of Dean and Mary Anne Stoskopf of Hoisington. While visiting relatives in Kansas, the Messmores took time to enjoy the fair.
The Messmores are “city people,” but enjoyed the rural experience, Karin sad. “In Australia, we fed an elephant apples, but we haven’t fed a pig a marshmallow before.”
Mary Anne Stoskopf said this isn’t the firsttime they’ve taken their Australian relatives to the Barton County Fair. Originally form Kansas, “Karin and her brother were both in 4-H,” as was the Stofkopf family before the children grew up.
Fair Board President Charles Atkinson said it isn’t unusual to get guests from far away, from time to time. “We had a family that found our website and drove down from Wisconsin for this,” he said.
Today is the final day of the Barton County Fair.
“We were excited about the new things added this year – the helicopter rides and the ATV races were a big success,” Atkinson said. We also had some good concerts this year.”
See page 2A for a schedule of today’s fair events.