It may seem like fun and games when homemade ice cream is being served and children compete in sack races on Aug. 11 through 13 at the Vinland Fair.

But community members have spent several months working to prepare for the 98th Annual Vinland Fair and that will include this weekend.

“The fair is a big part of the community, and the only way we can do it is if the community is involved,” said Vinland Fair board member Mike Eckman.

Fair board members are inviting area residents to help prepare the Vinland Fairgrounds for the event. Work begins at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

Residents will mow, clean the grounds, move furniture and clean the exhibit building and livestock barn.

Area residents also are invited to help set up the exhibit hall for fair events at 6:30 a.m. on Monday.

“It’s kind of gratifying once it’s all done,” said fair board member Nora Cleland. “When you go in, you wonder how you’ll do it and get it all done. But it looks quite attractive when it is done.”

The Vinland Fair Begins Thursday as Vinland resident Kathy Wilson cuts some of the nine different kinds of homemade pie that will be for sale. Community members are working together to pull off the town's 98th annual fair.

Entries for the Vinland Fair exhibit show will be accepted from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Aug. 11. The only exception is livestock, which must be in place by 11 a.m. Aug. 13.

Cleland said the fair would include all the usual events – the horseshoe pitch, the flower show, the tractor pull and the old-fashioned games among other things. But she said the fair has some new additions this year.

Community members are encouraged to bring photos and news clippings from past Vinland Fairs between 9 a.m. and noon on Aug. 12 and Aug. 13 to the Vinland Elementary School.

“We’re trying to prepare for our centennial, which is two years away,” Cleland said. She also said people would have the opportunity to tell stories about past fairs.

The other new event, Cleland said, is the heavy truck pull, which will be at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 12.

Eckman said the heavy truck pull is similar to a tractor pull.

“I heard people had some interest in it last year,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll get a good crowd for it.”