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As State Fair Ends, So Does an Adventure for Those Who Work There
Twelve days of non-stop work comes to an end
By Lauren Maxwell
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PALMER - The Alaska State Fair wraps up on Monday evening with plenty of vendors, staff members and volunteers ready to call it quits for another year. Most will tell you it has been a fun 12 days but also exhausting.
Denali Creampuffs is one of the food booths with a line that never quits. Workers there say it’s all about getting into a rhythm to get the job done and that the time goes by fast when there is a line.
Just about anyone with a booth at the fair will tell you that 12 days is a long time to be going non-stop.
At the Palmer Elks Rat Race Booth it takes 144 volunteers to man the booth for the full run of the fair.
“You really don’t want to get up in the morning after you leave here at midnight or 1 a.m., but once you get here it’s all for a good cause,” says Elk member Don Erbey.
The club donates all the money they collect to local charities in the Valley.
There are plenty of people who work to keep the fair running smoothly and the grounds looking lovely, and many of them are at it well before the fair starts and long after it ends. Vendors have another week to take down their booths. Groundskeepers will work through October to put the fair’s many gardens to bed.
