Locals earn WAF awards for hard work keeping St. Croix County Fair going strong and beautiful

Awards — Area residents Cindy Van Dyk, Rita Palewicz, and Dennis Hurtis were recent recipients of Wisconsin Association of Fairs awards for their hardwork on behalf of the St. Croix County Fair.   —photo submitted

By Missy Klatt

As previously reported in the Tribune Press Reporter (January 25 edition), the St. Croix County fair received some awards at the annual Wisconsin Association of Fairs Convention in January of this year. Namely, Rita Palewicz and Dennis (Denny) Hurtis of Glenwood City received the District two, VIP award, given to a non-fair board member  and Cindy Van Dyk of New Richmond received the Outstanding Fair Person Award, given to a fair board member being active 12 years or less also for District two.

District two is made up of 18 different fairs in the northwestern part of Wisconsin. Both Rita and Denny, and Cindy were nominated by Gail Maier the president of the St. Croix County Fair and a recipient of the Hall of Fame award (a fair board member being active more than 12 years) at last year’s convention.

In her nomination letters Gail has high praise for all three and the work that they do and obviously the judges agreed. However, their involvement with the St. Croix County fair goes way back.

Rita and Denny

For Rita who grew up in the Glenwood City area, she first became involved with the fair as a 4-Her. Back then her main projects were knitting and baking. Later she got into plants and one year she had a beautiful jasmine plant that she showed in open class. At the time Wayne Peterson was judging and she did really well. That Rita says was the start of her showing plants at the fair.

Currently besides all of her up-keep of the fairgrounds, Rita is the Superintendent of the Plants and Flowers division in open class at the fair. This year will mark her tenth year in that role. Rita would like to encourage anyone who wants to enter to do so, “the more the merrier” as she says.

The main reason she and Denny were nominated for this award was all their work taking care of the fairgrounds. Rita first started in 1998 or 99. At that time Dick Sullwold was the president of the St. Croix County Fair and Rita’s dad, Bob Palewicz, helped Dick with tractor shows and other things down at the grounds and he asked Bob if he knew anyone that wanted to mow lawns, thus began the start of Rita’s tenure as grounds keeper. When Denny first started dating Rita she didn’t have much free time so the only way to spend time with her was to help her when she was taking care of the fairgrounds. That’s how he got involved.

Now a days Denny does most of the mowing which he has extended to past the horse area and barns while Rita does the mowing around the buildings. They only have to trim if there is an event down there. All in all there are 40 acres to take care of. Denny also does all the maintenance on the equipment, building maintenance, and repairs. He also prepares the arenas if there are horse shows.

During fair time his job takes on some other aspects. For many years Rita and Denny cleaned the bathrooms at the fair. They don’t do that anymore, however Denny is in charge of getting all the supplies for the bathrooms, i.e. cleaning supplies, paper etc. and he makes sure they are stocked.

As for other things he does at the fair, the following is from Gail’s nomination letter: “During the Fair, Dennis helps behind the scenes with security, moving bleachers, helps with parking, takes care of evening security lighting, and is ‘on call’ for whatever else needs to be done! He organizes and participates in our Flag Raising Ceremony, as well as coordinates our Salute to Veterans program. As our resident ‘Jack of all Trades’, Dennis if instrumental in making sure our grounds and facilities are in tip top condition all year long.”

Rita’s love of plants has also benefited fair goers with the pretty flower pots around the grounds that Rita plants and takes care of. Wayne Peterson used to do the pots but now it’s Rita with donations from Bobolink Nursery. Bobolink donates all the pots and flowers. Along about the beginning of June, Amy Dopkins, owner of Bobolink tells Rita to take what she wants as far as flowers are concerned. “I can go in the greenhouse and that’s just like Christmas” enthuses Rita. Rita states that the flower donations themselves amount to about $2,500. While Rita does most of the planting herself she has at times had help and this year she says she already has someone volunteering to help her plant this year.

The next project is keeping them all alive and watered. Before the fair she keeps all the pots together so she doesn’t have to run all over the fairgrounds but during the fair it takes considerably longer as they are spread out everywhere. When the fair is over her job isn’t done as she keeps them nice all summer so they can be used at the rodeo and any other event at the fairgrounds.

Although it’s a lot of work, Rita enjoys it remarking, “I love seeing things grow.”

As Gail wrote in her nomination letter: “Rita is passionate about plants!! She volunteers her time and talents to take care of all the flora areas on the grounds, including weeding, mulching, and watering. Before the fair, she fills and maintains over 30 containers and window boxes with donated plants and her TLC provides gorgeous displays that enhance the beautification of the grounds. Each year Rita embraces the fair theme by creating unique designs with clever arrangements that are placed in buildings and around the grounds and she even coordinates her outfits to match! Rita also generously donates the Best of Show Trophy for Open Class Flowers.”

In regards to receiving the award, Rita simply states with a smile, “I was pleasantly surprised.”

Cindy

Cindy who grew up showing at the Washburn County Fair as a 4-Her, has been showing in the open class at the St. Croix County Fair for over 30 years. It was her mother-in-law that first got her to exhibit in the open class. 

Her sons, Peter and Brian showed briefly in 4-H and FFA but she said it just wasn’t in their blood. However she states that her husband’s family is very involved in 4-H. Although her boys didn’t stick with showing and exhibiting they still help out at the fair. Peter who lives in Kentucky takes his vacation during fair week and helps Cindy set things up in open class. He also says that it gives him a chance to see a lot of extended family at the fair.

Before joining the board in 2011, Cindy was on the open class committee and for a couple of years she was the Home Furnishings superintendent for the open class. That she said kind of rolled into the board so to speak. She said she was approached to be on the board as they needed a new treasurer.

Besides being the treasurer, in 2016 Cindy also had a second job on the board as the Entry Specialist. Gail writes in her nomination letter: “Cindy spends countless hours handling EVERYTHING related to entries, judges, tags, ribbons, judging results, premiums and premium book changes, all year end reports, and everything in between.”

During the fair Cindy can be found in the office every day, pretty much all day. She comments that there is a lot of paper work to keep the fair rolling and there are always phones to answer. She actually doesn’t get to see a lot of the fair because she is in the office so much that she relies on looking at photos to see all that has happened. She has even taken to staying overnight in her son’s camper at the fair so she doesn’t have the extra travel time of driving back and forth to the fair. This works out well since she is the treasurer and she needs to stay late for all the gate receipts. She is also able to open the office earlier in the morning.

Cindy notes that her husband, Bill, helps her a lot. “I couldn’t do it without him.”

Gail also wrote the following about Cindy: “As an Open Class committee member always passionate about Quilts, Cindy helped develop a better way to display those beautiful creations. After a visit from State Fair Coordinator Bob Williams, Cindy designed and created table skirting for the entire Open Class building! Upon the retirement of Gayle Sullwold, Cindy took on the position of Open Class Chair in 2015-2016. Still a committee member, each year Cindy donates a trophy for Home Furnishings Best of Show.”

Although Rita and Denny were told ahead of time that they had won the award (they needed to get them down to the convention) for Cindy it was a total surprise when they called her name. “I had no idea.” Not even her husband knew, seems they called one of her sons to get some information and he kept the secret.

Fair 2023

The theme for this year’s fair which runs from July 19-24 is “Barn in the USA”. Rita and Cindy would like to encourage everyone to enter something in the fair. You don’t have to live in St. Croix County to show at the fair. If you live in a neighboring county you are also welcome to show. 

However, if you would like to serve on the board of the fair, you are required to live in the county. If you meet that qualification you can be nominated at the annual meeting which just happens to be taking place on this Thursday, February 9 at the Extension Office in Baldwin. Nominations are taken from the floor. It should also be noted that everyone is always welcome to attend the fair board meetings which take place on the second Thursday of each month at the Extension Office. 

For more information on the St. Croix County Fair visit their website at: stcroixcofair.com or check out their facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/stcroixfair