Called Talent Team, this group of local performers, ranging in age from five to 27, performed three times a day at the Boundary Fair. Normally practicing once a week at the Springs of Living Water church, this group learned their show for the fair in four days, according to producer/director Nancy Genys. She and her husband are selling their home here, but she says the group will continue to practice and perform. “In three years, we plan to come back like the Missoula Children’s Theater,” said Genys, who has a track record with the group’s performances that began in 1992 with their first sponsor, the University of Idaho at Moscow, and has gone on to perform in many counties in Europe and Asia as well as Australia, New Zealand and all over the United States. Talent Team is a 501-C3 nonprofit organization, and Genys leads the nonprofit volunteer effort.
By Mike Weland
Some sugar, a little water, heat and a wee bit else and it doesn’t matter what you call it: spun sugar, candy floss, gossamer, cotton wool, fairy floss … cotton candy, what you have spells F-A- I-R. The Bonners Ferry Eagles keep the tradition alive.
Faster than most thought possible, this year’s Boundary County Fair is careening to an abrupt end, and with it the beginning of the end of summer. August 31 begin Labor Day weekend, September 3 the first day of the school year. For 104 years now the Boundary County Fair has been both a celebration of our talent and industry at wresting bounty from a land that never gives of it easily and a tick mark reminder for us to stock up, button down and be prepared for the dark and cold of winter, the floods of spring.
This year, I heard our fair called “quaint,” but “not a real fair.” I beg to differ … there is no more “real” a fair than Boundary County’s. It’s the place that for a century and four years brought scattered and far-flung family and friends to town at the same time, to talk about what’s gone well, to mourn together the lives and loves lost, to reconnect with neighbors you depended on, whether you liked one another or not. Our fair is a handshake, an affirmation … a thank you.
The glitzy big town extravaganzas that pass for fairs among many these days are sleight of hand, legal robbery … the very antithesis of the adverb, “fair – “marked by impartiality and honesty : free from self-interest, prejudice, or favoritism.”
When you see a blue ribbon at a fair such as Boundary County’s, you are usually safe in assuming it was earned — skilled judges not of your community will so attest, based not on name or social status, but on what has value … what you’ve produced by the work of your hand, the sweat of your brow … by your learning and your wit.
That is fair. And that’s what makes ours among the fairest of fairs.
Look, Mom! Puppies!I scream, you scream … ICE CREAM!With equipment, antennas and a power source they set up, visitors to the Boundary Amateur Radio Club booth can talk to local radio operators, truckers on our highways or even to the crew on the International Space Station! Want to know the current status of just about any plane in the air? Stop by for a visit. Want to be part of the team that, in emergencies, can communicate with the rest of the world when all else fails? They’d be happy to tell you more!
Splish splash!Kathryn Larson might actually be campaigning this week for a seat in the Idaho House, but you can’t tell me she isn’t having fun at the Boundary County Fair at the same time! Stop by her booth to enter to win some sweet prizes!This cute young lady, attired to fit the fair, will probably have a life-long soft spot in her heart for firefighters thanks to connections made at the 2024 Boundary County Fair!There hasn’t been so much fun and excitement at the fairgrounds since the Kootenai Valley Sportsman Association played up Mike Gondek’s “melk” at the Gun & Horn Show a few years ago! Be sure to stop by their booth for the chance to win a genuine .22 caliber/105mm howitzer over and under rifle-gun calibrated just for those elusive North Idaho legends! During season, they work for sasquatch, too.Festive face painting!Hard to fathom, I know, but it appears people really can hold opposing points of view and remain good neighbors. It may even (gasp!) safe to assume even friendships are possible! Who’d-a-thunk?!Imagination is alive and well in Boundary County, as the parade of vegetable critters would attest … if only they could talk!
One thought on “Red, white and blue … a fair pictorial for you!”
Thanks, Mike, for highlighting the most important aspect of our county fair: community. One of my most delightful encounters was with two women from Washington State who sheepishly asked us in our Yes on 1 booth, “What is this?” I thought she meant our sign “Open Primaries” but it turned out she did not know we had a fair going on. She said she was amazed there was no entry fee. “There’s always an entry fee nowadays for fairs,” she said with delight. I suggested they stick around for the most patriotically designed act (with the Maypole) put on by our area children. They did, and afterward, she came back, extended both hands to us and told us with a tear in her eye, “That was THE best gift.”
Thanks, Mike, for highlighting the most important aspect of our county fair: community. One of my most delightful encounters was with two women from Washington State who sheepishly asked us in our Yes on 1 booth, “What is this?” I thought she meant our sign “Open Primaries” but it turned out she did not know we had a fair going on. She said she was amazed there was no entry fee. “There’s always an entry fee nowadays for fairs,” she said with delight. I suggested they stick around for the most patriotically designed act (with the Maypole) put on by our area children. They did, and afterward, she came back, extended both hands to us and told us with a tear in her eye, “That was THE best gift.”