Lorraine Nelson has set up 4-H booths at the Stratham Fair for so long her grandchildren are now competing for ribbons.
The Hampstead resident has run the Hampstead Crazy Crafters for more than 25 years, she said. Her plan was to stop after her children graduated high school, but her family's love for 4-H just keeps going.
The Stratham Fair will feature a number of 4-H events this weekend, including tractor driving, forestry competitions, cattle shows and club booth exhibits. Children from all over Southern New Hampshire are expected to participate, according to Lynn Garland of the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension.
There also will be Grange exhibits, displays from community organizations and a baking competition for adults.
Nelson and other club leaders are in Stratham today, setting up their entries and being judged so the ribbons will be in place when the gates open tomorrow at 10 a.m. Her granddaughter, Elizabeth Caverly, is up there with her.
Elizabeth, 11, said she loves making crafts. She started 4-H at age 4 and her crafts have gotten much better since, she said with a laugh.
"We've worked all year," Elizabeth said. "We meet together once a week during the school year and we make different crafts every week."
This year, the club is showing message boards and decorations for Christmas and Halloween, she said. All of the decorations, made by five club members, will be organized into one booth display, she said.
"The only real competition is for the best exhibit," Elizabeth said. "It's very fun."
In addition to doing crafts with her grandmother, Elizabeth started sewing with her mother, Kristina, two years ago. She usually wears the skirts and dresses that she makes, but she also enters them in the Stratham Fair, she said.
There are many learning opportunities for children in 4-H and Daniel Turner has tried almost all of them. The 13-year-old Derry resident has shown his dog, Virginia, judged livestock, made educational displays — the whole gamut. This year, the young teen will go to the fair strictly as a judge.
He goes to 4-H camp every summer and attends meetings all year long. But he said the Stratham Fair is always his favorite. He called it "the 4-H fair" in the state.
"The whole fair experience, it's different every year," Daniel said. "The judging is pretty fun. You get to be firsthand with the plants and, based on what you've learned, you judge it and give it different places."
But even judges have to prepare for the fair. Daniel has been busy studying plants and animals so he can ask competitors the right questions.
"It's getting the facts down and being familiarized with everything," he said.
Daniel has moved up to the intermediate level for judging consumer, forestry, horticulture and livestock competitions. He's working his way up to reach his goal of a senior judge.
"You have to learn new things and new techniques because you go against harder competition," Daniel said.
The four H's stand for head, heart, hands and health. Daniel said he's learned important lessons that he's trying to pass on. He's recruited friends and cousins to join his club.
"Four-H is about getting you prepared for adult life," he said, "and it's pretty fun."
And 4-H preparation starts young, with Cloverbuds for children from kindergarten through third grade. Nelson's other grandchild, James, 6, is participating in the Stratham Fair in that category for the first time this year.
Instead of ribbons, the Cloverbuds get a "good job" on their projects because they can't compete until they are 9, Nelson said.
Time for the fair
What: Stratham Fair
Where: Jack Rabbit Lane off Route 33
When: Thursday through Sunday
How much: $7 for adults, $4 for children and senior citizens, free for children under 6.
