As we all know there is a lot of hype about the North Dakota State Fair. After all, it’s the biggest summer event in North Dakota and the 2025 version appears to be another success.
If you’re a kid, you love the endless hot dogs, lemonade and ice cream. If you’re a teenager, you love the carnival rides and hanging out with your friends right in the middle of all the excitement. And if you’re an adult, there’s a lot of things to love including the food choices, the concerts, the portable taverns, the farm machinery.
There’s just a whole lot for everybody to enjoy. And a lot of it is free. As an example the Ford Motor Co., had three race car simulators enjoyed by kids and adults alike. You sit in a seat of what resembles a race car, look at a screen and for five minutes you are racing down a track in the fastest car you’ve ever driven.
But there is something else going on at the North Dakota State Fair that seldom, if at all, gets any attention outside the fair itself. And that is the 4-H and FFA exhibits.
All 53 counties in North Dakota are represented with just about anything you can imagine a kid could create. Quilting, photography, woodworking, homemade doll houses, welding works of art, carpentry, vegetables, livestock, grain, dairy; just about any realm of North Dakota has been on hand.
The real message in this, however, is in the creativity of what these kids have done and are doing. As adults, we often hear stories about kids not wanting to do anything but play video games. There’s no ambition, except to play video games.
I beg to differ in a big way. The creativity of these exhibits is astounding. If you don’t believe me, go see it for yourself. My wife and I spent an entire afternoon looking at those exhibits and it gives me a lot of hope for the next generation. It’s the least we could have done given the time it took to create these projects.
As an example, a 12-year-old girl took photographs of the night sky that looked like they belonged in National Geographic. I spent an entire career of 31 years trying to capture the night sky with mixed results. And here I see a 12-year-old kid put me to shame in that respect.
There was a photograph of a kitten sitting on a fence post posing for the camera. It was a perfect portrait because the cat was white and black, the fence post was gray, the kitten’s nose was pink and blurred in the background were the color of flowers. Seasoned professionals can’t always come up with the scenario this 9-year-old girl created.
Some of the boys that won awards had to do with woodworking that could belong on any patio or in any home, they looked so good. Benches, coat racks, furniture and even art created entirely from woodworking were on display.
There were exhibits that appeared to defy gravity, there were exhibits in which you just wanted to open the bag and taste test the baked goods. There were some impressive vegetables you don’t often find at a farmers’ market and to top it off, there were numerous science experiments that would open the eyes of any college professor analyzing them.
Pop into any of the livestock barns and you’ll either find kids grooming their animals or chatting it up with other like-minded kids from across the state. Prize winning bulls, prize-winning dairy cows, hogs, sheep and even rabbits were on exhibit.
There’s more than creativity going on here. There’s a lot of pride in what these kids, from all 53 counties, have accomplished.
It’s impressive and you don’t have to pay to see any of it other than to be admitted to the fair.
Whether our youth had help from their parents, siblings, teachers or others, they are committed to doing the work and rather than giving up on a complicated project, they’ve seen it through to get it on display and to win awards at the North Dakota State Fair.
These are the kinds of kids who are growing up now in North Dakota and will lead us in the future.
