Message from the Fair Association
President
Please allow me the opportunity to welcome you to the
59th edition of the DeSoto County Fair. The DeSoto County Fair is
operated by the DeSoto County Fair Association, which has a Board
of Directors and an Executive Committee. This committee includes
the President, President-Elect, Treasurer and Secretary and
handles the numerous functions of the
Association.
Our main focus is the
Youth of DeSoto County. It should be noted that the DeSoto County
Fair Association has no paid employees. Therefore, all funds
raised go into maintaining our fairgrounds, producing the yearly
fair, and the awarding of ten $1,000.00 scholarships to deserving
DeSoto County High School Graduates.
Our Fair consists of
pageants for the young ladies and talent shows for the youth
and adults. In the barn, beef, swine, rabbit, poultry and goats
are exhibited and judged. Beef and swine are sold at auction to
benefit our exhibiting youth. Your support in this area is
important, as many of our youth use the proceeds from the sale of
their animals to build an educational fund. Sales often exceed
$200,000.00 in revenue for our youth. Our exhibit building
provides space for the 4-H exhibitors and students to show off
their projects and earn awards.
The Fair supports our
High School students by allowing them to handle our parking
concession. Then we donate the proceeds to them to support their
functions.
Last year we initiated a
sponsorship program to enhance our ability to continue to support
our youth through the scholarships we grant. We hope that in the
future sponsorships will fund most of the cost of running the
fair, leaving even more of our earnings to be used for
scholarships and other means of support to our
youth.
We are grateful to our
2011 sponsors - DeSoto Memorial Hospital, Mosaic, The GEO Group
and Home Owners Supply. Help us say thank you to them by
supporting their businesses. We are looking forward to their
sponsorship for the 2012 Fair and we need and welcome any new
sponsors. In addition to keeping up our commitment to ten
scholarships, we need to raise funds for future land acquisition
should the Rodeo relocate to the Turner Center. We plan to remain
at our present location and would like to purchase the Rodeo
property. We need your help to make this happen. We welcome
individual as well as corporate sponsors.
We
are busy planning our next County Fair and
Livestock show to be held January
19 - 29, 2012. We hope to see you
there!
