Emily Lopez, 12, works on her youth garden entry at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds on Saturday with her little brother Benjamin Lopez, 7, nearby. Dozens of children were at the fair over the weekend preparing their entries and exhibits. The fair starts Tuesday.

With each little scoop of dirt she shoveled in the blazing Saturday sun, 12-year-old Emily Lopez got a little closer to wrapping up her final entry in the fair, a youth garden in the Floriculture Department.

The Watsonville girl has three ducks and two chickens at the fair, and she painted a picture that hangs in the Fine Arts Building. She also has a collection of used gift cards in the Crosetti Building. Her brother Benjamin Lopez, 7, entered a table setting as part of a 4-H project, but he wasn’t much help once the temperature reached about 90 degrees.

Last year Lopez went with a Coppertone Theme, and this year she chose an Aloha Theme.

“They had four other themes to choose from,” she said. “But this sounded like the easiest.”

Lopez was just one of dozens of youngsters who spent the weekend getting entries ready for the Santa Cruz County Fair, which opens Tuesday.

“Saturday is all about the kids,” said Janey Leonardich, co-chair of the Floriculture Department. “If we can catch them at a young age, then they will have their stuff in the barn as an adult.”

A few flower boxes down from Lopez, Thomas Martinez and his friend Eric Wells were working on a garden with a “By the Marina” theme. It was the second year the two 14-year-olds had partnered on the project. They had been planning their garden for about a week.

“We were going to have a guy fishing off a pier, but now we’re going to make an underwater theme and put a transparent blue tarp over the garden, like it is the water, and then a boat on top of that,” said Martinez, who lives in Watsonville. “It’s hot out here, isn’t it? That’s the upside of being one of the Boy Scouts, they’re inside the barn where it’s cooler.”

Sam Culbertson, 15, was leading those Boy Scouts, Troop 642 of Aptos, as the entry’s project leader. The Scouts were also using the “By the Marina” theme. Culbertson said they were using their entry to bring awareness to the need for dune restoration, and the design included a small beach with a boardwalk leading down to the water.

Culbertson said it was a lot of fun working together to accomplish something they could be proud of. “Seeing the results of all this digging and all the planting … it’s pretty cool.”

Teenagers were running amok inside the Harvest Building. Boy Scouts, 4-H and others were hanging, nailing, lifting and building the displays that turn the big barn of a building into a virtual maze of knowledge and crafts.

Karen Williams, 18, of Scotts Valley was putting the finishing touches on the Scotts Valley 4-H booth. Still a teen, she’s a veteran fair exhibitor.

In addition to her work on the booth, she has a lamb in this year’s fair. She also has some photographs on exhibit and some hand-painted candles in the Arts and Crafts Department. Williams said that since it was her final year in 4-H, it was a bittersweet experience. Next year she will be an adult advisor to younger

4-H kids.

“I’ve been doing this since I was 9 years old,” she said. “I need to let go and let others take over. Handing off the baton … it’s kind of difficult.”

Judging from Saturday’s turnout of local youth at the fairgrounds, there should be no shortage of kids to hand it to.

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*Photos by Jon Chown*

(Published in 9/8/08 edition)

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