Sisters Lacey and Holly Vesecky with chicken are preparing for a week of 4-H activities at the Douglas County Fair. It will be the last 4-H fair for the 19-year-old Lacey, on the left with a duck she will show at the fair.

Lacey Vesecky has had a busy summer, but she won’t let that make her unprepared for the livestock arena at this week’s Douglas County Fair.

“That doesn’t happen with Vesecky kids,” she said.

The 19-year-old Lacey is preparing for the Douglas County Fair with her 17-year-old sister Holly on the Vinland Valley farm of her parents, William and Joanna Vesecky.

The fair offers different things to different people. Some may go for the carnival, others for the live entertainment or the popular Friday night demolition derby. For the Vesecky teens, it’s all about the 4-H shows. During the coming week, the two Vinland Valley 4-H Club members will literally live at the fairgrounds in the family camper as they show their livestock, poultry and craft projects at the fair.

The two teens will be among the 378 Douglas County 4-H’ers entering about 5,000 projects in this year’s fair, said Margaret Kalb, secretary of the Douglas County Fair Board.

It will be the last 4-H fair for Lacey, who already has completed a year of college at Des Moines Area Community College. She’s home from Des Moines, Iowa, for the summer, working half a day at McFarlane Aviation in nearby Vinland and then babysitting.

“I’m working every weekday from 8 in the morning to 7 in the evening,” she said. “I’ve been preparing for the fair. If you want to have success at the fair, you have to work and prepare. It’s not easy.”

The Vesecky name will call to mind poultry to many because of the annual Kaw Valley Farm Tour stop at the neighboring farmstead of the two 4-H teens’ grandparents, John and Sharon Vesecky. Their grandparents and parents have long hosted a stop on the tour to showcase the free-range ducks, turkeys and chickens the families raise. So, it’s no surprise Lacey will be showing 12 ducks and Holly nine or 12 chickens at the fair.

Lacey has excelled beyond poultry at the fair. Last year, she won the herdsmanship award given to one 4-H’er in the sheep show who stood out in helping others. This year, she will show two sheep and three goats.

Lacey also is showing the last piece from a bedroom set she crafted from maple with cherry accents. The four pieces entered at the four previous county fairs won grand champion or reserve champion in woodworking.

“I have had a bed, dresser, mirror and one nightstand,” she said. “This year, I’m showing the other nightstand. I probably would have gotten into woodworking anyway because my granddad (John Vesecky) is a woodworker, but not as much as I am because of 4-H.”

Her woodworking background led to her assignment of building plywood cable boxes at McFarlane Aviation, Lacey said.

“They said, ‘You know what you’re doing. You can make these,'” she said.

Her grandmother, Sharon, owner of Quilters Paradise in Baldwin City, also provided project inspiration, Lacey said.

“I’ll enter a small quilt and a wall hanging,” she said.

Holly, who is working as a lifeguard this summer at the Eudora Aquatic Center, said she didn’t have time to finish her quilt. Nonetheless, the family, which includes 21-year-old brother Dalton, believes in preparation for the show ring, Lacey and Holly said. They’ve put in hours of work with the goats and sheep they will show, and Lacey is helping the children she babysits work with their goats.

Still, unexpected things can happen in the arena.

“A couple of years ago, I passed out in the show ring because I got too hot,” Lacey said. “I don’t remember how I did in the show. I don’t remember the rest of the night, really. For the rest of the fair, I had to stay inside. That was hard.”

That fainting spell happened in one of the old show rings that are now gone with the completion before last year’s fair of nearly $8 million in fairground upgrades. Lacey said she misses the old livestock barns where different animals were in separate buildings but also enjoys the community atmosphere of the Open Air Pavilion that now holds many different kinds of livestock during fair week. It and its adjoining large show ring arena are also cooled by large fans, she said.

The arena is also the site of the Saturday auction of projects and livestock, during which 4-H’ers can get rewarded for their work but often say sad goodbyes to their farm animals.

“I’ll auction off a lamb, unless I win and take her to state,” Lacey said. “I will return home for the State Fair.”

Lacey, who is eligible for 4-H competition this year because her 19th birthday was after Jan. 1, will miss the fair in 2019. She is studying to be a veterinarian technician at Des Moines Area Community College and plans to serve an internship next summer.

“I really want to work with exotic animals,” she said. “My plan is to work at a zoo. Penguins and monkeys. Those are my things.”