XENIA — Sarah Young planned a fairwell dance in eighth grade and helped bring the senior powderpuff football game back to Xenia High School. So it should come as no surprise to find Young smack-dab in the middle of the action inside the Greene County Fair office.
The 2014 XHS graduate, who spent countless hours at the fair while in 4-H and FFA, loves planning events and is working at the fairgrounds this summer helping plan one of the area’s biggest gatherings — the Greene County Fair.
The 19-year-old has tapped into her 4-H and fair experience while helping fair secretary Esther Pierson, office assistant Sarah Hawkins and the rest of the staff.
“I was really big into the fair,” Young said. “A lot of it goes hand-in-hand. When people come into the office, I know what they’re talking about. It wasn’t hard for me to catch on.”
Young, just a year removed from her fair activities, is the go-to source inside the fairgrounds.
“Sarah has been a blessing to us here in the office,” Pierson said. “From the day she stepped in the door, she fit right in. She knows about the innerworkings of the fair. She’s done a phenomenal job.”
For that, Young can credit all those years spent in the barns. She was elected Junior Fair Board secretary twice, showed market hogs (winning first in class once) and always did well showing her photographs as a member of Cloverpatch 4-H Club.
Young received a state FFA degree last year, one of only a handful to achieve that in Greene County, earned a full scholarship to The Ohio State University and was the county’s recipient of the prestigious Agricultural Society scholarship.
“4-H and FFA really contributed to that,” Young said.
Young isn’t totally removed from being an active participant as she’s been able to help her brother and sister raise their pigs.
“It’s kind of still part of everything I do,” Young said. “It brings our family together.”
And she could come back try to join the senior fair board at some point. Or work another summer in the fair office.
“Anytime she can come, she’s got a job,” Pierson said. “So does my other Sarah.”
