This year is especially big for Makayla. She’s already a veteran at showing horses, but this year she’s also serving as the inaugural FFA Queen. The National FFA Organization is a youth organization that uses agricultural education to help teach leadership and personal skills. Makayla is deeply involved with FFA, and ran for the title of queen last month.
“It’s really fun that I’m able to show people that don’t know what FFA is what it’s about,” Makayla said. “If I’m walking around the fairgrounds, they’ll be like, ‘Oh, FFA how are you a queen for that? What do you do with that? So I can just explain that to people. I love talking about FFA. It’s really done a lot for me.”
Makayla’s role as FFA Queen isn’t the only new thing for the Krazl family this time around at the fair. Over the past year, Zack and Makayla have also been learning how to take care of goats and are bringing their own to the Sunday and Wednesday goat shows.
“Its fun with my sister there because sometimes we’ll like run together, and the goats will chase us,” Zack said.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
A love of fairs runs in the Krazl family. Dave and Sherri Krazl both grew up showing animals in their local fairs. Sherri’s family was involved with the Clark County Fair, and Dave showed his animals at the Butler County Fair. The couple met at Wilmington College before relocating to Trenton when Makayla started school.
For Sherri, fairs have always been family events. She said she grew up at the Clark County Fair in Springfield and remembers her mom’s sister coming in from Boston each year to camp with them for the week.
Sherri said she and Dave got their kids involved in fair life early on. When Zack and Makayla were each old enough, they got involved in 4-H, a nonprofit organization that helps kids do hands-on projects both in school and at after-school events. The organization’s name stands for head, heart, hands and health, which represent the four qualities of clear thinking, loyalty, service and better living.
Makayla and Zack each joined as Cloverbuds at age 5 before they were eligible to start showing animals themselves at age 9. As they got older, Sherri says they gradually became more independent in their projects.
“One of the biggest benefits of 4-H and FFA is just them learning life skills — how to care for other creatures, learn about winning, learn about losing, learn about responsibilities, working together,” Sherri said.
The family has also bonded through the projects. Sherri said Zack wouldn’t have tried to take on the goats this year on his own, but because his sister did, they worked together to raise them.
“Zack will feed in the morning, [and Makayla] will feed at night. Usually when they’re working with their goats, they’re doing it together,” Sherri said. “Most of the time, we’re down there just to offer encouragement or support.”
This year, Zack is showing his garden tractor as a special project. He bought the 50-year-old tractor from a show last year, and now he uses it around the family’s property.
“I have a small trailer,” Zack said. “I get all the big branches and trash. I also drive around. It doesn’t have a mower deck, so I can’t really mow with it, but I still can do a lot of work that you do with a normal tractor.”
While Makayla is taking on new responsibilities as FFA Queen, Zack is excited for his promotion to snow cone manager at the Krazl family camper. Last year, they brought a snow cone machine with their camper, and they offered free snow cones to people.
“This year, I offered to be the manager or the boss of the snow cone machine, so I’m gonna run it all,” Zack said. “I may hire a few people, and I’m also gonna make signs.”
Zack’s friends are involved in the fair, too, and sometimes they’ll spend a night at the camper. Zack said his friend Carter shows horses with him, and his friend Jameson has been helping him with the goats and offering advice this year.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Makayla remembers one year when the horse show was rained out. Instead of letting the weather ruin the fun, though, she and her friends decided to have wheelbarrow races.
“Other clubs sort of joined in and were watching us, and we’ve tried to keep the tradition going,” Makayla said. “So [now] we’ll just randomly have wheelbarrow races. Last year, the moms were racing, pushing their kids in wheelbarrows, and that was really fun.”
As a parent, Sherri said the fair is a good experience to watch her kids grow.
“It’s really fun to see the kids lifting each other up and supporting each other and becoming more and more involved and sort of maturing into people that care about other people, care about the animals,” Sherri said. “It’s a huge community of supporters.”
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