The idea for a school fair came to Lawrence Eberle while he was milking cows one evening on his farm north of Lone Rock, Wis.

“There was a phone in the milk house. He called me up in the house and asked me to come down to the barn — he had an idea,” recalls his wife, Eileen.

Lone Rock was one of four communities that had come together in 1960 to form a consolidated school district, known as River Valley, but the schoolchildren and their parents from Spring Green, Arena, Lone Rock and Plain were having a hard time making the adjustment to the merged school. It was Lawrence’s thinking that a school fair, which would emphasize the importance of agriculture within the district, could bring the community together and help smooth the transition.

Lawrence and Eileen contacted Vince Murphy, the high school agriculture teacher at the time, and LaVerne Sneath, the first principal at River Valley School, and worked with local 4-H clubs to put together a county fair-like event that was held on a single day on the school grounds. The event did its job, Eileen says.

“It all worked out wonderfully,” she says. “After that, the kids started saying they were from River Valley, rather than the four communities that were part of the school district.”

The first River Valley School Fair was held 61 years ago, and all these years later, it hasn’t lost the enthusiasm that was part of the earlier events. In fact, Shari Graffunder, River Valley High School agriculture instructor, says the fair continues to grow each year.

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School fair still growing

“We had a pavilion built for the animals in 2014, and we expanded it this year because our hog, beef and sheep numbers are growing,” Graffunder says. “When I started as the ag teacher 29 years ago, we had 27 animals at our fair auction. Now we’ve more than doubled that. We will have 53 hog exhibitors this year.”

Graffunder co-chairs the school fair committee along with Tim Johnson, business development director for Wick Buildings. Graffunder and Johnson work with the local FFA alumni chapter and the current high school FFA officer team to organize the event each year.

“We literally take a week off after the fair and then start talking about how we can make it better for the next year,” Graffunder says. “Hard core, the [FFA officers] and I have been working on things since April. Now we’ll go to our full-court press until fair day.”

This year’s fair will be Sept. 27.

The fair features an interactive agriculture program with about 10 stations that allow schoolchildren to learn about the various aspects of agriculture. They learn about crops, livestock, agricultural practices and various agricultural careers.

In the high school gymnasium, exhibits feature many of the categories people are familiar with at a county fair, such as crops, crafts, photography, artwork, canning, plants, and even Legos and robotics. Animal judging takes place during the day.

Lots of local talent

“We have some very talented young people in our school district, so this gives our kids an opportunity to showcase what they can do,” Graffunder says.

The agricultural component of the fair is held in conjunction with the school homecoming festivities, which include a parade, football game and dance.

Over the years, the fair — traditionally the week before World Dairy Expo — has brought in some of the best animals from Sauk, Richland and Iowa counties. The dairy show was especially competitive back in the heyday of dairy farming in the region.

Today, Graffunder says only a small percentage of the students in her agriculture classes live on commercial farms, so the school fair is perhaps more important than ever to educate nonfarm students about the importance of agriculture and how their food is produced.

Eileen says helping start the school fair was one of her husband’s proudest achievements, along with being named a Master Agriculturist by the Wisconsin Agriculturist magazine in 1977. They were married for 51 years before Lawrence died in 2002.

“He was a good man,” Eileen says of her husband. “He always cared about people.”

Eileen taught school in a one-room school for 10 years before becoming a middle school science teacher at Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Monona, Wis. She retired when she was in her late 80s after more than 40 years of teaching.

She was also a general leader of the Big Hollow Bears 4-H club for about 60 years and was inducted into the Wisconsin 4-H Hall of Fame.

Eileen was the clerk of the town of Bear Creek until she was 90 years old. She remains active in a homemakers group and other local organizations even at 93.

Community tradition continues

Eileen is pleased that leaders such as Graffunder and Johnson have stepped up to continue the many traditions that are part of the River Valley School Fair.

“I appreciate the people who have kept everything going, because without them, it would have died,” she says. “Continuing to emphasize the importance of agriculture to the economy in our school district is very important.”

Graffunder says her experience as a secretary at the Fond du Lac County Fair was one reason she was hired at River Valley 29 years ago. She knew from the outset that the school fair would be part of her job description.

“When I am there on the day of the fair, I like to take a few minutes to just stand on the hill and watch families be families,” she says. “I like to watch people celebrate, work together, and enjoy the energy and positivity. Everybody comes together for the day — it’s just a big celebration.”