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Calf, lamb dressing competitions a unique contest

By Anessa Myers For The 3 min read

One of the most unique contests at the Fayette County Fair is the annual Calf and Lamb Dressing competitions as children dress their animals in all kinds of costumes. But there’s an important element to the contest that many people may not be aware of. Judging the event was Cheri Grubbs, who asked each child to speak about their animals and their years in 4-H.

“What we try to do is to get them some experience in public speaking,” said Grubbs. “This contest gives them a different activity to do instead of raising and grooming the animals. It lets them have a creative side in 4-H.”

Bill Gallagher ran the event and believes that it does indeed give the children a chance to progress in their public speaking ability among other things.

“Basically before we started having the 4-H Olympics, we had these dressing contests to get the kids involved,” said Gallagher. “We have good participation every year. We just like to get them to talk a little bit about their animals and how they dressed them up.”

In each of the calf and lamb contests, there were two categories: prettiest and funniest.

This year, there were two contestants for each of the categories in the calf part of the competition.

Katie Diamond dressed her calf up as a fairy, while Shelby Hawkins’ calf was the #1 Steelers Fan. Diamond took first place, and Hawkins won second for her calf.

In the funniest category, Bill Cowher showed up as Emily Diamond’s calf. Olivia Brown chose to dress her calf up as Bedtime Stories for Children.

Bill Cowher won first place, and Olivia Brown’s calf, who likes to eat bread, took second place.

In the lamb competition, there were more contestants.

The prettiest category had four participants, while the funniest had five.

Brandon Pritts, Courtney Shumar, Sarah Steyer, and Ashley Gillock were the contestants in the prettiest category. Their lambs were named Queen for a Day, Going to Bed, Cowgirl, and Fair Princess.

Ashley Gillock’s lamb named Betty won first place as the Fair Princess.

“It looked like fun dressing the animals up,” said Gillock, 9, of Belle Vernon whose first year in 4-H was this year. “We were thinking of a couple things to dress the lamb up as the night before the Fair Queen contest and decide on the fair princess.”

Cowgirl and Queen for a Day took second and third place in the prettiest lamb competition.

Last but not least, the funniest lamb contestants were Jeffrey Shumar, Emily Kurilla, Nicole Ainsley, Angela Becker, and Caitlyn Steyer. Prevailing in first was Caitlyn Steyer’s Beach Bum, as Angela Becker’s Undercover Identity and Nicole Ainsley’s Pony Rides at the Fayette County Fair followed in second and third places. Other participants of the funniest category dressed their lambs up as Hillbilly Going to the Beach and an Artist.

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