Small animal livestock building campaign kicks off with big gift
The estate of Carl and Florence Maurer donated a $200,000 legacy gift toward the capital funding campaign for the proposed small animal livestock building and show arena at the Harvest Ridge Event & Expo Center. The building will host small animals at the fair and serve as storage.
Every major fundraiser can use a big kick-off donation to get the project jump-started, and the Holmes County Fair’s board got one recently when the estate of Carl and Florence Maurer donated a $200,000 legacy gift toward the building capital funding campaign for the proposed small animal livestock building and show arena at the Harvest Ridge Event & Expo Center.
On Thursday, Aug. 11 at the large arena at Harvest Ridge, the Holmes County Senior Fair board celebrated the donation of a $200,000 legacy gift with Maurer nephew Dave Maurer, longtime friend MaryAnn Sprang and fair veterinarian Dr. Eric Shaver, who chaired an exploratory committee established last fall to develop an initial plan and concept for this building.
“This gift doesn’t surprise me,” Dave Maurer said. “The fair was her thing.”
According to Kerry Taylor, Holmes County Fair board president, since the inaugural fair in 2016 at Harvest Ridge, it has always been a priority that the next major project for the Holmes County Fair would be the construction of a small animal building and arena. For the first six years of the fair at Harvest Ridge, the Humrichouser Ag Pavilion has housed most of the livestock projects — but just barely.
Taylor said due to a 20% increase in 4-H and FFA projects and limited capacity in the Ag Pavilion, the goat and llama projects for this year’s fair are residing in a tent. This new building will be the solution to that problem and create more opportunity for additional projects.
Shaver led the exploratory committee that consisted of representatives from the senior fair board and various committee volunteers. A conceptual 3-D rendering was created and is being displayed at the 2022 Holmes County Fair.
“Florence had made a commitment four years ago. Then when it was all said and done, the gift was double the original amount,” Taylor said. “It’s only been the last two years that we’ve really seen the need for the additional space with the smaller animals. The two went together, and Florence was aware that we were putting this toward this.”
Carl Shearer died tragically in a tractor accident in 1996 while Florence passed away in May of this year at the age of 103. The couple farmed 257 acres and raised hogs, sheep and beef on their farm in Lakeville, and according to Sprang, Florence was a strong fair, community and youth program supporter.
“Everything for Florence was about the fair and the kids,” Sprang said. “She would spend a lot of time in the flower-arrangement area and bake pies for the contest. Then she would give the rest to the fire department lunch stand.”
Sprang said Florence loved giving to the youth above all, which was why this donation was so important to her.
That generosity serves as a huge starting point for the fair board’s capital fundraising campaign.
“On behalf of the fair and Harvest Ridge, we are extremely pleased to receive this initial legacy gift to kick off the funding of this project,” Taylor said.
Shaver said the next steps will be discussions surrounding engineering and formal quotations for the project.
“We are excited for the capacity of additional projects this building will support and the improvements it will bring to the year-round use of the facility,” Shaver said. “We as a committee identified several needs on the grounds, and one of them was off-season storage space. That’s a huge endeavor any time these buildings are used.”
As for the in-fair usage, Shaver said the evidence for the need is in the sheer numbers of poultry and rabbit exhibits at the fair.
“We thought if there was a way we could morph those two needs into a building, so we pulled all the various committees together, looked at the square footage we needed to meet the needs of the projects of off-season storage and came up with this design that came out of several meetings,” Shaver said.
Shaver said following the shows at Harvest Ridge such as a swine show, the gates could be easily stored in the wings, freeing up space for other ventures. He said the goal is to open the building in two years, but that will rely largely on how the fundraising project goes.
Taylor said the board is now turning its attention to growing funding through donations and grants.
“To be able to kick off the project with this large of a gift is really a terrific start,” Taylor said. “Now that we have that seed planted, this committee will attempt to multiply this legacy through securing grant funding and inviting other donors into the project who want to invest in future generations of 4-H and FFA members in Holmes County.”
Preliminary estimates for the over 12,000-square-foot building and arena are estimated at over $1 million. The goal would be to have the building completed within two years.
Taylor said they have already been in discussion with State Rep. Darryl Kick, and it is their hope they can put together $500,000 through grants. The fair board has received two $500,000 grants prior to this, one for the expo building and the other for the ag building.
Updates on the building project and the fundraising campaign can be seen on the Holmes County Fair Facebook page. If anyone would like to contribute toward this campaign, email admin@harvestridge.com. For more information on Harvest Ridge, visit www.harvestridgeohio.com.