Winter Carnival an ‘amazing success’

On Saturday, families from all over Big Horn County crowded the indoor arena in Basin for the Fair’s Winter Carnival, an event that raised funds for future fairgrounds improvement projects.
Fair manager Cash Duncan said about the event, “The winter festival was an amazing success and I heard lots of good things about the event as a whole. I’m not exactly sure how many people came and, unfortunately, I can’t tell by counting the money because there were a lot of generous donations made by festival goers. A rough guess is anywhere from 200 to 300 people total attended the event.”
Duncan noted that many generous 4-H parents, leaders and members put together booths. Families cooked and served food. The FFA advisors from Lovell, Greybull and Basin were there, as well as Michelle Olsen Photography, which offered free family photos.
One of the booths belonged to Big Horn Co-op. The manager of the Basin store, Matthew Cannon, along with Don Oryall and Sam Haun, passed out prizes all night. Cannon said, “We had a lot of fun. The kids all had a great time. It was awesome to see everybody turn out to support our fairgrounds. Kudos to Cash for setting the whole thing up.”
Gretchen Gasvoda, UW educator, commented, “Cash did an outstanding job of bringing the county/community together. Community members of all ages and stages of life enjoyed the winter festival. It was exciting to witness not only 4-H and FFA members supporting the event with booths, but several businesses and community members joined in the fun! The Winter Carnival provided a variety of opportunities for families to engage in, as well as partake in a delicious dinner. One consistent comment was ‘I hope this becomes a yearly event--it was fun!’”
Duncan added, “All of the booths stayed busy and by the end of the night prizes were slim. However, the new addition of a mechanical bull was a huge success, as was the face painting put on by the Bassett family, the cakewalk sponsored by 4-H families and run by Gretchen, and ‘Fishing for Treats,’ one of the two booths put on by the Paintrock FFA chapter in Basin.”
The total amount raised is not known yet, but once it is, the fair board and Duncan will plan on where the money will best be put to use “as we propel the fair/fairgrounds forward and continue to make improvements,” he said.