My guest today is Janet Ingle. Janet is the president of the Middle Park Fair and Rodeo that is going on right now until August 11th. We talk about everything that's going on this week. It is a packed week with so many fun and interesting things happening at the fairgrounds in Kremlin, so sit back and enjoy my interview with Janet.

Good afternoon.

Janet, how are you? I am great. Thank you for having me. You bet I know you're on your way to Kremlin, to the Middle Park Fair and Rodeo that's starting.

Yes, yes, we start tomorrow. Well, actually fair started on last Saturday with the dog show, but tomorrow we have the open horse show and then the 4-H horse show on Sunday, and then we start checking in animals and it really begins.

It really begins, and it is a solid week of things going on.

Yes, it is. From livestock shows to barrel races, to rodeos, we got it all going on.

You got it all going on Well, I think. The Middle Park, Rodeo and Fair. It's been a tradition in this county since 1912. That's crazy.

This is our 108th fair. They skipped a few years during the wars I think it was World War II, but 108 years.

Wow, and how did you get involved with the fair and rodeo?

You know, I had been involved with the High Country Stampede Rodeo in Fraser for 30 years the High Country Stampede Rodeo in Fraser for 30 years and they came to me and asked me if I could run the Open Horse Show and that was, oh my gosh, I think that was 2012. And I just kind of started doing that. Then I was on the board for a while. I stepped away, was back on the board, served as president for a couple years, stepped away and three years ago came back on and serve as the president now.

Well, thank you for doing it. I know it's a lot of work.

It's a lot of work and we are all volunteers of work and we are all volunteers. For many years it was a professional rodeo cowboys association sanctioned rodeo. Now for the probably the last, I don't know 12 or so years it's been a Colorado professional rodeo association sanctioned rodeo. And the main difference? Think of it this way it's like baseball You've got the major leagues and then you've got semi-pro. Cpra is a semi-pro. They have a finals at the end of the year, but these are still some top top cowboys and cowgirls.

Janet, what's your favorite part of the rodeo?

for me, it would have to be the barrel race, since that's what I did for many years yeah, I can see that, and you were good yeah, and I like um the breakaway roping, steer wrestling.

You know a lot of those timed events yeah, so it looks like a lot of the main thing with the dance and all that stuff is happening on Friday night.

Yes, we've got match horse races and with match horse races in the Ranch Rodeo, and with each of those we have the big Calcuttas. We've got some music going on, a little concert, a street dance. Afterwards We've got a DJ for that. So it's just a fun night.

It's going to be fun. So tell me the importance of the 4-H program within the fair and rodeo.

Well, 4-h, which stands for Head, heart, health and Hands, is a youth program that is nationwide and these kids have they do projects. Now, they're animal projects, you know bees, sheep, goats, swine. But there are also projects for non-agricultural ones, such as rockets, leather work, cake decorating, art, things like that. And 4-H is a great program. It teaches kids responsibility, it teaches them public speaking. It just gives them some great life skills. After they're done with 4-H, many of these kids are able to go on to college and attend college debt-free. They're very big into doing scholarships, the kids that sell their animals at the junior livestock sale which takes place on Saturday. The money they use, you know, goes to defray the costs of raising those animals, but it's also money that goes towards their college expenses. And a lot of our kids have gone on to go through college absolutely debt-free. That's incredible.

I didn't know that about that program. It's pretty neat. Yes, is there a fee to get into the fairgrounds?

The only time that we have a fee is on Sunday for the CPI rodeo. That starts at one o'clock and it's $5. Other than that, all of our events are free. We've got some vendors that are there. We've got an open youth show for kids to participate in that don't have animals. We've got Airbound is there. They have their big water ball feature. We've got food vendors. Just got a lot of stuff going on can go through and see some of those 4-H projects that I talked about, as well as crafts and art projects done by local, grand and Summit County residents.

It's just something that families, residents of Grand County, visitors all need to come and just check it out in Kremlin.

And here's something that most people don't know. It's called the Middle Park Fair and Rodeo, which Middle Park encompasses both Grand and Summit Counties, so we have kids going at the fair that are from Summit County.

You know, I don't think I knew that I always love this podcast because I always get some little tidbit.

Yeah, Jackson County is North Park and we're Middle Park.

Well, janet, I really appreciate your time. I know this is a busy week for you and you need to get to the fairgrounds as soon as possible, so I really appreciate you taking the time.

Thank you for having us be a part of this and come see us at the fair.

I will. I will make sure that I come by this week.

All right.

Okay, thank you, you take care you.