Category: News Feeds

July 29, 2010:

Games, competitions, workshops and craft projects abound at this year’s fair. 

Kids can learn how to make popsicle stick bombs and kites at the Kids’ Stage or jump around in a new, larger bounce house. Adults can race in a half-marathon, become a high-striker or try a bungee run jump. Bingo, horseshoes and a fisherman’s rodeo also are on tap.

Melee fighting will be on display Saturday at the Horse Arena. Members of the Shire of Earngyld will demonstrate medieval fighting using shields, swords, staves and other weaponry. 

“It’s a recruiting tool for us,” said Nate Webb, the only Haines resident in the Juneau-based shire, a chapter in the international Society for Creative Anachronisms. “I’d like to get a group in Haines going.”

In addition to fighting, the group educates people on medieval history and culture.

For the fleet of foot, the Haines Hustle starts at 8 a.m. Saturday. There is a trail half marathon, a five-kilometer and ten-kilometer race. The races leave from Dalton City.

July 25, 2013

Your dog needn’t be lovable to win a prize in the fair’s Most Lovable Dog Contest. There are also awards for Best in Parade, Most Alaskan, Biggest Dog, Smallest Dog, Best Trick, Lookalike with Owner, Only a Mother Could Love, and Best Dressed. “Last year’s Best-Dressed went to a dog dressed as a sheriff and its owner dressed as a prisoner,” said coordinator Steve Vick of Haines Animal Rescue Kennel. “It was a riot.”

All participants must meet at the firehall at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday to register their dogs for the contest and to walk in the parade. “We ask to have leashes on all dogs during the parade,” said Vick.

Random spectators will serve as judges in the parade category. Immediately after the parade, dogs and their owners continue to Tlingit Park for the remainder of the contest, judged by out-of-towners.

Three visitors to town are asked to serve as judges. “We want to keep the contest fair,” Vick said. The three top finalists in Best Trick, Look-alike, and Best Dressed advance to the Main Stage in the fairgrounds at 1 p.m. where the audience will choose champions. 

Prizes offered include dog food, dog biscuits and cash prizes. Volunteers equipped with “pooper-scoopers” and extra leashes will assist the owners. 

August 7, 2003

Haines’ young equestrians will show off their riding skills beginning Thursday at the 33rd annual Southeast Alaska State Fair Horse Show.

Organizer Jeanette Heinrich said the three-day event won’t include any Juneau or Whitehorse participants, but that’s OK. 

“We kind of prefer it that way. This is more fun; it’s kind of a learning show; there’s less tension. It will be a little bit bigger than last year.”

Heinrich said up to 18 riders are expected to turn out for Thursday’s 4-H show, which involves Western and English saddle events. 

This year’s show will be judged by Annie Mabry of Anchorage. Mabry is renowned as a teaching judge, and is fresh off a stint as coach of the United States Special Olympics equestrian team that just returned from competition in Ireland. 

On Friday, the show opens to all comers in peewee, junior, intermediate and advanced divisions. The competition includes Western and English equitation, in which the riders’ performances are judged, and pleasure events, in which the horses’ performances are evaluated. 

August 10, 2000

Athletes are gearing up for the annual Sam Donajkowski Memorial Triathlon. 

The event usually draws about 10 individual competitors and 12 teams, said coordinator Ellen Larson. “We have a good turnout. We recommend that if someone hasn’t been working out that they sign up with a team,” she said. 

The course involves swimming one-third mile, biking 14 miles on the Haines Highway, and running three miles around town. Teams of three as well as individuals can compete. “Some teams do all the segments with just two people,” Larson said. 

“We have a whole spectrum of competitors: People who are out to have a good time and get a little recreational exercise and people who are serious athletes and everything in between,” Larson said. Youth teams sometimes split the bike segment between two competitors to make the leg more kid-friendly, she said. 

Master’s divisions are available for more serious competitors, and single-sex and mixed teams have their own categories as well. “Basically there are categories for everyone,” Larson said. 

Coordinator Chip Lende said he expects a competitive race this year. “Especially in the women’s race. There are a lot more women in town who are athletes. I think the women’s race is the one that’s going to be exciting to watch,” he said.

Larson said the event typically is laid-back and fun. “It’s great the way everyone cheers each other on.”

July 21, 2005

Workers at the fairgrounds like to say the fair’s new Ferris wheel is “just like a bicycle wheel on a fork.”

But for most of the summer, it’s been even less than that: piles of cable, rods, brackets and wheels stacked up under Payson’s Pavilion, recognizable as a carnival ride only by its ten, two-seater gondolas. The workers, busy last week grinding and painting some of its hundreds of pieces, are confident they can assemble its iron skeleton.

The 40-foot amusement came second-hand and without instructions, so they’re working from photos of it in one piece.

“Most of it’s common sense – plus some group thinking,” said Benjamin Feldman, undaunted by a two-week deadline to get the ride up and going. “We still have 12 days.”

The wheel came from Juneau mechanic Dave Grafton who bought it online and hauled it to Alaska from western Pennsylvania about five years ago. Powering it with a backhoe, Grafton brought the wheel to Haines for the fair in 2000 and also operated it at Juneau’s Gold Rush Days celebration and in front of a department store. He sold it to buy a simulated roller coaster.

Grafton said the wheel was built in 1976. He bought it looking for an amusement that people of all ages could enjoy and said he expects it will fit in well with the old-fashioned amusements at the Haines fair. “I’m glad to see it’s going to have a good home. It needs a place where it can stay set up.”

The post This Week in Fair History appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

On the Saturday before the opening of the Southeast Alaska State Fair, McPherson Barn was brimming with activity. 

Drills and saws ran simultaneously as volunteers worked to build pens for animals that had not yet arrived. 

Tommy Thompson and another man assembled railing for a pig-racing track that would take the speedy swine on a route around the duck and chicken enclosures. It’s sure to prompt a flash of frantic activity and feathers for the crowd, said Thompson, with a grin. 

As they worked, Greg Podsiki, the barn manager, walked up with lunch for himself and another volunteer. This year, Podsiki has breathed new life into the Fair’s barn which for years saw a shrinking number of animals.

Podsiki took it upon himself to start up a new 4-H chapter in the Chilkat Valley, and revitalize the Fair’s animal offerings. 

“Last year when I came, my daughter had nine chickens here and that’s all that there was in the whole fair,” he said. 

Podsiki said the animals were always his favorite part of fairs when he was growing up. 

Twenty years ago when he managed the Chilkat Valley’s fair barn for a few years, he said it was often packed. 

“We had a cow from Whitehorse, we had all sorts of animals,” he said. 

This year, his children asked him to take it over again – which he agreed to do on the condition that they help him with the project. 

“I haven’t seen them here yet,” he quipped. “My grandson was here.” 

Looking out over the barn, Podsiki said he could not have gotten everything together for this year were it not for the army of volunteers who came out to help him and the people who donated money. So far, he’s brought in $6,250 to help with the effort of transporting, feeding and watering the animals during the week. 

The cavernous barn is filled with pens for ducks, geese, chickens, pigs, and rabbits. There’s a turkey pen at one end that will hold 10 young turkeys and one large male turkey, two pens for goats and two enclosures ready for horses coming up from Juneau on Thursday.

“It’s going to be a full barn,” said Podsiki, who intends to park a trailer at one end and sleep with the animals to make sure there is no trouble with bears. Though, he doesn’t remember that’s been a problem in the past. 

“I feel very responsible for these animals,” he said. 

One motivation for Podsiki’s renewed interest in the barn is that he believes a fair should be about agriculture in the area. He said as the timing of the fair has moved earlier into the summer, it’s hard for people to show off their crops and food they’ve processed because it hasn’t been done yet. He also said people should get the chance to have a close encounter with livestock. 

It’s not really a petting zoo, but Podsiki said if it were up to him, it would be a chance for everyone to get the chance to touch some of the animals on display. 

“Sniff a horse, see what a horse smells like. Scratch a pig’s belly. Hold the chickens,” he said. 

In addition to the pig races, Podsiki said there will be first-, second- and third-place awards given for the animals. 

That’s something former fair manager Joanne Waterman said used to drive people to bring their animals, art and exhibits to the fair.

“Locally, there’s a level of competition about it,” she said. “There used to be a lot of bragging rights in all of the exhibits. The Fair used to put out a cookbook and it was all the winning recipes and stuff that got to be in the cookbook.  

“Nellie Dale was really proud of her canned salmon. She won every year. People would say, ‘Oh, I gotta beat Nellie,” Waterman said. 

Neither Waterman nor Podsiki could identify why the number of animals at the fair has declined.

Waterman said she remembers a gradual decline during her tenure in the late 1980s. 

And, she said, what Podsiki is doing is a huge job. 

“Trying to find somebody who’s willing to devote, you know, a month and a half to get the barn ready and to drum up the people to bring their animals in. It’s a huge job,” she said. “I admire that so much about him because I know what it takes.” 

Podsiki said there are fewer people raising livestock in the Chilkat Valley now, but when he started calling around he was surprised by the number of people in the upper valley who had some to offer. 

Ultimately,  he’s hoping children who come to this year’s fair and see the animals will be motivated to join his new 4-H chapter, which could lead to even more animals in the future. 

The post New manager promises packed barn for this year’s fair appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

They may not be the most athletic animals in the barn, but four pigs from Klawock are going to race in a long track around McPherson Barn for the first time in years at the Southeast Alaska State Fair. 

Barn manager Greg Podsiki tracked down the four short-haired Kunekune  pigs and had them flown up to town last month. 

“I called all over the state and Canada. But if I was going to get them out of Canada it would have cost me $2,000,” he said. “These pigs cost me $250. But we got a free flight.” 

Then, he consulted with a few professional pig racers, one from Florida and one from Illinois, to figure out how to get them prepared for at least two races a day they’ll perform Thursday through Saturday. 

“They’re supposed to be 12 weeks old, they are a year old,” he said. 

So, training started as soon as they arrived in the Chilkat Valley. He started with a bell and cookies. 

“They love Oreos,” he said. 

Podsiki rings the bell, and calls “piggy piggy piggy.” Then he runs the track along with them, though they’re smart enough to have taken off and run the course without him a few times once he rang the bell. 

He’s been drilling them to run three or four practice sessions a day. 

There will be no formal betting on this year’s races, though Podsiki recently learned that the fair used to sell tickets for the races as as a split-the-pot fundraiser. 

The post Racing pigs are back at this year’s fair  appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.