SIDNEY — Kid’s Day at the Shelby County Fair brought in hundreds of kids and their families, despite rain and cooler temperatures during the festivities on Thursday.
Tim Everett, a member of the Shelby County Agricultural Society and of the Kids’ Day committee, estimated more than 600 kids were in the entertainment tent for a show by comedy hypnotist Mike Bishop and a toy raffle.
“It seems like it gets bigger every year,” he said. “Where have all these kids been hiding?”
Everett has been working with the fair for more than 20 years and said other counties have modeled their kids days’ entertainment after the Shelby County festivities. This year, Buckeye Ford sponsored the raffle, which featured 260 toys, which included dolls, boomerangs, balloons, Play Doh, balls, bubbles, Frisbees, water guns and many other items, all purchased from Walmart.
Wendy’s supported the event with an appearance of Wendy and coupons for free Frosties. Ronald McDonald also appeared, and gave away over 500 ice cream coupons.
The show kicked off with magic tricks and jokes by Bishop, who brought Levi Hoying, 9, son of Greg and Amy Hoying, of McCartyville, and Miah Huelskamp, 10, daughter of Jessica and Ed Huelskamp, of Fairlawn, to the stage to help with the tricks and jokes. Both kids received balloon animals as part of the show.
At the end of the event, six bikes were also raffled. The bikes were won by La Raynee Kessler, 10; Elienn Moore, 6; Deacon Sailor, 3; Amanda Roush, 8; David Burden, 14; and Ashtin Bowman, 8.
Kessler was excited to win. “At first I thought I wasn’t going to win anything,” she said. “But now it’s like Christmas.”
Danielle Holthaus, of Sidney, came to the fair with her husband and two children, who both won toys in the raffle. She said she brought them out despite the rain to share with them a bit of her childhood, particularly her two-year-old son, Lucas.
“It’s something I grew up doing and want to share it with them, especially now that my son is older,” she said. “(My husband and I) were in 4-H, and we mostly come out for the livestock shows.”
A kiddie tractor pull took place, Thursday, at 2:30 p.m.
