Mike Wolanin | The RepublicKathy Peters sets up tables in the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church building before the start of the Bartholomew County 4-H Fair at the Bartholomew County 4-H Fairgrounds in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, June 24, 2021.
Two popular and long-established food booth traditions at the Bartholomew County 4-H Fair may be gone for good.
After maintaining a presence at the fair for 70 years, St. Peter’s Lutheran Church is the second organization to announce they will no longer preparing and providing meals and food items at the fairgrounds during this year’s event. The first nonprofit to cease their food operations at the fair was the Lion’s Club, which disbanded last year after 78 years of operation.
According to Bartholomew County Fair Board president Rick Trimpe, the church simply could not find enough volunteers to operate the food outlet during the nine-day fair, which runs from June 23 through July 1 this year.
“This has kind of put the fair in a bind,” Trimpe said. “There are a lot of 4-H kids and their families who come from the show barn to the St. Peter’s building to get breakfast.”
The church was the only food provider at the fair that offered breakfast, lunch and dinner, he said.
For most of the past 70 years, the facility used their own teens to supply most of the needed labor, St. Peter’s Executive Director Mike Hinckfoot said. But adults have stepped in over the past few years to fill in gaps left by a decline in youth volunteers, he said.
In a letter Hinckfoot wrote to the St. Peter’s board of directors, he first noted how the lives of high school students have changed.
“Summer vacations are shorter,” Hinckfoot wrote. “Families are busier, and there are longer work requirements asked of them. Overall, our volunteer availability is on the decline. ”
The money raised at the fair by the church was used to finance general mission organizations and youth ministry mission trips, Hinckfoot said.
Since St. Peter’s will no longer be a food vendor, control of the building will automatically revert to the fair board. Trimpe says they hope that another group, church or organization would be willing and capable of taking over the operations during the run of the fair.
Contact information for fair board members can be obtained through the Bartholomew County Purdue Extension office.
One reason why St. Peter’s became one of the most popular food outlets is that they served a full, nourishing dinner that includes entree, vegetable and side dish, Trimpe said.
They have long been known for serving turkey, noodles and dressing, but the fair board president said they had to discontinue that dish a few years ago because the church no longer had a capable volunteer to make the dressing and bring it to the fairgrounds.
The Lion’s Club has also maintained a long-time presence outside the grandstand that is now known as the Tony Stewart Speedway. Those who attended the big nightly attractions would frequently grab a tenderloin, hot dog, fries or onion rings at the Lion’s Club concession stand.
But after 78 years in existence, the local chapter officially disbanded on June 30, 2022. At that time, they had fewer than 10 members remaining, with an average age well over 60, former chapter president Amy Baker said last summer. Many were no longer willing or capable of putting in the long hours to work at the concession stand.
One of the Lion’s Club’s top projects involved collecting eyeglasses that could be refurbished and provided to international recipients who otherwise could not afford them.
A decline in local volunteerism can be found across the country. A 2020 study by Fidelity Charitable found that two-thirds of U.S. volunteers decreased their activity or stopped volunteering entirely after the COVID-19 began.
“It’s hard to get anyone to volunteer for anything anymore,” Trimpe said. “They’d rather just hand out some money.”
The fair board itself, which has 46 separate committees. is heavily reliant upon volunteers. Dozens are needed the month prior to the opening of the annual event for mandatory chores that include preparing livestock pens and spreading mulch.
The fair board does have the 4-H Junior leaders, as well as many adults loyal to the organization, to assist in those endeavors, fair officials said.
