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Teens are busy preparing for fair

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Getting ready for the Rock County 4-H Fair

Gazette photographer Cat Szalkowski followed three teens as they prepare for the Rock County 4-H Fair.

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Editor's note: Gazette photographer Cat Szalkowski followed three teens as they prepared for the Rock County 4-H Fair, which opens Tuesday. Here is a little about each of the three.

'I spend a lot of time making sure they don't look dirty'

Cal DeWitt, 15, Clinton

Cal DeWitt treats every day like show day.

Cal, 15, a soon-to-be Clinton High School sophomore, has shown registered Holstein cows at the Rock County 4-H Fair since he was old enough to enter the ring.

Cal is his busiest leading up to and during the run of the county fair. He clips and fluffs the cows' hair and rinses the cows every morning.

"I spend a lot of time making sure they don't look dirty," he said.

Cal said showing cows is a family tradition.

"My dad showed them as a kid," he said. "I was at my grandma's one day, and she showed me one of her memory books, and I decided to do it."

Cal is excited about the fair.

"A lot of people come up and ask questions," he said. "I think it (the fair) makes people understand what goes on and how things work on a farm—especially city people."

Cal will have six Holsteins at the Rock County 4-H Fair and will take his two best Holsteins to the Wisconsin

State Fair the following week.

'I think it helps people know where their food comes from'

Jordan DeLong, 16, Bradford Township

Jordan DeLong has turned his love of showing chickens from a 4-H project to a moneymaking business.

DeLong, 16, a soon-to-be Clinton High School junior, has shown bantam chickens at the fair since he was a young boy. He also has shown pigs and participated in the woodworking and photography projects.

DeLong always has raised all of his chickens himself and recently has been hatching chicks and selling them.

"I take my best show birds, and they become my breeding stock," he said. "I put a rooster with two females—it's called a 'trio'—I let them do their thing and collect the eggs every morning and night in the winter."

DeLong said his family long has had chickens on their farm but he didn't want to show them until he had seen them at the fair.

"I think it (the fair) helps people know where their food comes from," he said. "They can come and get educated on what they're eating and what the American farm is all about."

DeLong will have six chickens at the fair, which is nothing compared to the 40 or 50 he takes to poultry shows.

He currently has the most points of youth in the state in the American Poultry Association.

'I just wanted to try everything I like, everything I'm interested in'

Ariel Stefanczyk, 14, Janesville

Ariel Stefanczyk lives and breathes 4-H—even as a girl living in the city.

Stefanczyk, 14, a soon-to-be freshman at Parker High School in Janesville, participates in more than a half-dozen projects for the fair and none involves a farm animal.

Stefanczyk this year will offer up for judging a number of cakes, muffins and cookies as well as a chicken casserole. She also will showcase a series of photos she took, a table and chairs she refurbished and a scrapbook she made.

She plans to show her two cavies, or guinea pigs, and already showed her two cats.

Stefanczyk also worked on two posters and a first-aid box for dogs for the veterinary science projects and held a birthday party and collected gifts for children at the American Family Children's Hospital in Madison for the youth leadership project.

"I just wanted to try everything I like, everything I'm interested in," she said.

Stefanczyk hopes fairgoers take time to swing through the rest of the buildings to look at the wide variety of projects local youth have spent their time researching and putting together.

"They promote 4-H a lot. They show people what youth can do," she said. "I would love to show farm animals—it would be my dream—but I can't. I do other things I enjoy."