‘It’s a great experience’: North Peace Fall Fair seeking volunteers

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The North Peace Fall Fair is seeking volunteers for next month’s fair.

“It takes many hands to make the fair run, and we are asking for your help!” the fair said in a Facebook post. 

“If you can give us a couple hours throughout fair weekend, we would be incredibly grateful!” the post continued. 

According to the volunteer signup sheet, the fair is seeking volunteers for general fair setup, including tents, tables and signage; handicrafts and artwork setup; info booth volunteers; junior exhibits; talent show; log sawing; spike driving; and more. 

Pam Blaney, one of the directors of the North Peace Fall Fair Society, said the society currently has about 120 spots on its volunteer sheet, with approximately a quarter already filled.

Blaney said volunteers are important to reduce the strain on the “core group of people that do multiple jobs.”

“It’s important to have enough volunteers, so we don’t have our core group overburdened and burn out, and then they don’t want to volunteer,” she said. “Then we’re left with huge gaps of knowledge and abilities.”

Blaney also said having volunteers is “incredibly important” for the fair as one of the “largest agricultural fairs.”

According to Blaney, the fairs exhibits with canning, baking, grains and vegetables gets thousands of entries each year. 

Blaney said it takes “a lot of people” to accept entries, set up the exhibits and judge them, as well as to set up and take down the fair. 

She also discussed the criteria for volunteers.

“They have to be able to obviously get out to the fairgrounds,” she said. 

“We will train anybody to help out. There’s limited knowledge needed, and they would be working alongside someone that would know what to do and help them learn the processes,” Blaney continued. 

Blaney explained why people should volunteer for the fair.

“It’s a great experience to learn more about the agriculture in the north peace,” she said. “It’s a great way to meet your neighbours, and that is including people from town.”

Blaney said the fair is a “great way to meet people [and] have fun.” 

She also mentioned the fair is welcoming to kids.

“It’s a really good experience, and you do learn a lot about the agriculture industry,” she said. 

The 79th annual North Peace Fall Fair will take place from Aug. 14 to 16.

Admission is free for children five and under, $5 for children aged 6 to 16, $10 for adults, and $5 for seniors. 

For a full list of volunteer positions and to sign up, visit the sign-up page.