The Montezuma County Fair 4-H program this year will honor a 4-H leader who lost her battle to cancer this past spring.
Sissy Dennison served as leader of the Battlerock 4-H Club for 17 years, said Tonya Yates, 4-H Program Coordinator.
This years fair was dedicated to Dennison because of her dedication and past work with the 4-H program.
Yates said she does not remember the fair being dedicated to anyone in the past.
She touched a lot of hearts, Yates said.
There will be a Black and Yellow Day on Thursday as well as a rabbit show, Yates said, mentioning they were Dennisons two favorite colors and that she loved being a leader in the 4-H rabbit category.
Also on Friday is Tough Enough To Wear Pink in support of breast cancer awareness. The Wranglers 4-H Club raises funds to pay for local women to receive an annual mammogram with no cost to them. Yates said the breast cancer awareness support is something that has been done the last several years.
Yates said there was still a lot of work with last-minute details to ensure all of the animals were weighed.
Wednesday is when all of the animals will be weighed in and tagged, she said. They will be at the fairgrounds on Wednesday for the public to come and see.
The poultry and rabbit show will start at 8 a.m. on Thursday.
Yates said some of the 240 4-H members have worked all year to prepare for the fair, mentioning beef cattle needs to be weighed and tagged by Feb. 1 and the work involving raising pigs, sheep and lambs for the fair usually has to begin around March or April.
While the fair does not officially start until Wednesday, the general entries were judged on Monday. Those entries include rocketry, photography, scrapbooking, ceramics, cooking, food preservation, woodworking and heritage arts among others.
The livestock will be judged beginning Wednesday with the goat and lamb show, Thursday is the rabbit, poultry, alpaca and beef show and Friday morning is the swine show.
Yates said there is a livestock demonstration today (Tuesday) in the morning that would be followed by the goat market on Wednesday morning and a lamb show in the afternoon.
On Thursday at 5 p.m., the fair will have its beef show and on Friday at 8 a.m. the swine show will take place.
Yates said once the swine show is complete, the 4-H members will compete in events among themselves, including tug of war, stick man horse races, back-to-back dashes and eating jalapeños and hot peppers.
On Saturday, Yates said there will be a large animal round robin at 10 a.m. with a meet and greet for the buyers at 11:30 a.m. which will coincide with the chuckwagon.
She said the junior livestock sale will begin at 3 p.m. next Saturday.
michaelm@cortezjournal.com