Callaway Youth Expo kicks off Tuesday

FULTON SUN The eighth-annual Callaway Youth Expo will be held this week from Tuesday, July 6, through Saturday, July 10, in Auxvasse. All events will be held at the Lions Club Park, 600 E. Chestnut St., the North Callaway Middle School or within the surrounding areas.
FULTON SUN The eighth-annual Callaway Youth Expo will be held this week from Tuesday, July 6, through Saturday, July 10, in Auxvasse. All events will be held at the Lions Club Park, 600 E. Chestnut St., the North Callaway Middle School or within the surrounding areas.

The eighth-annual Callaway Youth Expo will be held this week Tuesday through Saturday in Auxvasse.

The expo is sponsored by the Callaway County 4-H and Callaway County FFA Programs. All events will be held at the Lions Club Park, 600 E. Chestnut St., North Callaway Middle School or within the surrounding areas.

"There's a couple different parts to it," said Sean Eberle, 4-H educator for Callaway, Cole and Osage counties. "It's not a traditional county fair - it's just a youth fair, so it's just 4-H, FFA, Boy Scouts (and Girl Scouts)."

The 4-H and FFA are broken down into two parts. There's the 4-H side with the exhibit building doing public speaking or demonstrations, and then the FFA side is more livestock shows which are broken down into different classes and can either be open or closed.

The event kicks off with 4-H conference judging at 4 p.m. Tuesday, as well as FFA exhibit registration and ham and bacon check-in. Wednesday consists of the 4-H/FFA royalty contest, public speaking and 4-H demonstrations, the Little Mr. and Miss Contest, and the goat and sheep shows. Thursday continues with the Super Farmer Contest, Slip N' Slide Kickball, and the breeding swine, market swine and Pee-Wee shows.

Then on Friday, there's the dairy, breeding beef, market beef and bucket calf shows as well as the livestock judging contest. And the last day, Saturday, opens with the rabbit and poultry show, and then moves on to the horse show. That will be followed by the pedal tractor pull, the pie judging contest, the children's small animal show, the ever-popular livestock and ham sale, and the night ends with live music from Jillian Bryant starting at 9 p.m.

"It's a lot of fun," Eberle said. "It'll be my first fair, so I'm really excited about it."

For more information and updates, visit the Callaway Youth Expo on Facebook, www.callawayyouthexpo.com or contact Eberle at 573-642-0755.