Hey everyone! I hope you all are well… and that you’ve missed us! This is our final blog, it’s been the summer of our lives and writing for you has been a blast! Thanks for following!
Nebraska State Fair- Grand Island
Before we got to the state fair we’d heard a lot about it. What the grounds were going to be like, how things were setup, how different it would be but we also heard how great Grand Island would be. There were a few people that didn’t approve and we got an earful of that side too but when the time came to park the pickup and open the gates to the masses it was a success!
We loved the new state fair grounds. The buildings were beautiful and from what we heard from exhibitors, very functional. The overall feel of the place was a fresh start. A new beginning. Our only objection was the lack of grass. ☺ If you were there you know how windy it was and where we set up was the heart of the second dust bowl. Each day we left with a complete, head to toe, dirt skin!
Our location was perfect with the 4-H Pickup! We were parked right south of the 4-H and FFA Exhibition Building on the north end of the grounds. We caught the majority of the traffic flowing into the building and hit our best audience… 4-H supporters! Each day we were there we seemed to sell more than the day before!
We thoroughly enjoyed the state fair in Grand Island and wish it the best of luck in coming years!
Husker Harvest Days- Grand Island
After a few day break in Lincoln we headed back to the lovely town of Grand Island for the largest outdoor ag show in the world! Husker Harvest Days covers an amazing amount of ground with pickups everywhere! Every farmer in Nebraska plus some comes it seems! We decided that HHD was the only acceptable time for grown men to ride three wide in the front of a single cab pickup! ☺
We were set up with the 4-H Truck in the Midwest Ford Dealer booth on the northeast corner of the grounds in a very impressive display! We were again in a crowd full of our best customers and did great. We had Hall and Hamilton County 4-Hers helping us out too!
On Thursday when we were both there we got to drive the pickup through the masses to the NTV booth and onsite studio for an interview! We were on the noon news with Dan Jansen. We got to talk about our summer on the road and the 4-H program. We got calls when we left on our new celebrity status!
The Lucky Winner
At about 1 p.m. on Thursday after we got done with our interview we started putting the raffle tickets in the Nebraska Lottery Gold Drum and started spinning it up! We had a large group of people watching as we turned the handle and said thank you to the Midwest Ford Dealers and all the county 4-Hers that helped us over the last 3 months! We sold tickets up until 1:30 p.m. and Molly drew the winning ticket!
The winning ticket was Mr. Eric Wiota from Holt County, Atkinson, NE! Dan Jansen called the number listed on the ticket and his mom answered the phone. She was very excited but didn’t really believe us! We had to reassure her about 3 times that we were actually serious! What a surprise! She said she would call Eric and would call us back!
We later found out that Eric was a 10+ year 4-Her and is a freshman at UNL! We were sad to see the pickup go, we’d become very attached, but were happy to see it go to a great home!
Life Without a Sweet 2010 Ford F-150 to Drive Around
Well we are now back in Lincoln going to school and missing our pickup! We both feel so out of place in our cars! Molly is studying hard and working at the front desk of Burr Hall on East Campus. She is also going to work for the 4-H Foundation through the school year! Reese is also studying hard and is starting a marketing internship with Water Street Solutions. She will be starting at the GROW Nebraska Lincoln Holiday Store in Westfield Gateway Mall soon too!
We are taking time out from our busy schedules though to get together and have fun! We just went to the UNL Homecoming game together Saturday and had supper together last night! We had a great summer and each gained a GREAT friend in the process! It’s hard to adjust to not spending all our time together now!
Its been an awesome summer and advocating for 4-H was an honor!
Thank you all again! GO 4-H!
