Join Mercer County 4-H and the Hopewell Valley Historical Society to kick off the Mercer County 4-H Fair’s 100th anniversary festivities.
Hopewell Valley Historical Society President Larry Kidder will kick off the festivities on Thursday, June 14 at 7 p.m. in the Fish Barn at Howell Living History Farm. He’ll take participants back to the early activities that led to the creation of the Mercer County 4-H Fair.
Kidder, a historian and author, will illuminate the changing nature of agriculture that drove extensive innovations in rural life in the 20th century. In the shadow of unprecedented growth in towns and cities during the industrial revolution, a renewed focus was placed upon celebrating and maintaining farming as a viable lifestyle. The 4-H programs that we know today grew out of this movement, resulting in educational opportunities for all ages, particularly the young.
In Pleasant Valley, one of the earliest and most successful programs for young people in Mercer County developed into the Pleasant Valley Calf Club. The club’s community-wide agricultural fair in the summer was held at the rural school house in the center of the valley, at the present location of the Howell Living History Farm. The Calf Club and other youth clubs devoted to aspects of rural life became part of the growing 4-H program and the annual Mercer County 4-H Fair.
Today, the Mercer County 4-H Fair is held in central Pleasant Valley, near where those early Calf Club Fairs took place.
The 100th Mercer County 4-H Fair will be July 28-29 at Howell Farm. To find out more, visit mercer.njaes.rutgers.edu/4h/fair or contact Altaira Bejgrowicz at the Mercer County 4-H, 609-989-6833, bejgrowicz@njaes.rutgers.ed.
The event is free of charge. No reservations are needed. There is ample parking on the grounds of the Howell Living History Farm, located at 70 Woodens Lane, Lambertville. Please note that the Valley Road Bridge is currently under construction. Access to the Farm is only via Valley Road from Route 29.
(File photo from the 2014 4-H Fair.),
