When you come to the Erie County Fair be sure to stop at the Military corridor. This year they brought in a black hawk helicopter. You can actually go inside the helicopter and sit in the cockpit. Sargent First Class Brandon Zimmer, US Army National Guard says they flew the helicopter in on August 4th before all the other equipment and rides came in so they could land safely. There are multiple models and tasks that the black hawk can complete. Some of the tasks the U.S. National Guard uses the black hawk for are natural disasters, like this medivac that they will use to pull wounded people and stranded people out. It also has a hoist that will lower down a body and get people off of roofs during flooding situations, literally flying into dangerous situations to save people. You can also check out some of the other vehicles they have there like the Humvee and excavator
Security at the fair starts at the gate. Walt Mackney, director of security for the fair says, “The things we want people to know when they come to the Erie County Fairgrounds is for example, we don’t allow any weapons onto the fairgrounds. The other thing we look for, because this is a family atmosphere, is no clothing with any type of vulgarity or suggestive language on it and the third and one of the most important things is please leave your pets at home. We have a very strict policy regarding service animals and most people will bring an emotional support animal which is not a support animal.” He goes on to say, “When we have to turn them away at the gate they frequently take the animal back and put them in the car and on a day like today, with the heat being what it is, not a good idea.” Walt says they have a staff of about 150 security officers including armed and unarmed and mounted security officers who are constantly patrolling the grounds. One thing you can do when you come to the fair is, take advantage of a photo opp. At every gate you can have a picture taken of your kids. If you are separated from your child that picture will show what gate you came in, your child looks like and what they are wearing. Walt says when asking parents the first thing they forget is everything and currently they have a system in place called, I Am Responding, which is keyed into all the phones of security officers on the grounds and what they can do is transmit that picture to every member of their security staff and they can transmit it to gates, grounds, wherever they need to.
This year at the fair you can take your kids to Little Hands on the Farm. Kids follow a path and gets to see what is like to milk a cow and brush a sheep (not real), select an egg and measure to see what size it is and then they plant seeds in the vegetable garden. When they are done they get a TOPS dollar where they can pick out something to eat or drink from the grocery store.
Mercedes talks with Aubrey Gerhardt. She is a 4H scholarship winner. She works with pigs and says she also has sheep, goats and beef cattle that will be coming in. Aubrey says she has been showing pigs since she was in kindergarten and has been in 4H for the last ten years showing market pigs and eleven years showing breeding. When asked what 4H stands for Aubrey says, head, heart, hands, health. Today she is teaching Mercedes how to properly walk a pig.
Taste testing time at the fair. Today Mercedes and Emily are trying some mouth-watering cookies from the Cookie Barn. Shannon Dehn from the Cookie Barn says everyday they make fresh chocolate chip cookies as well as a specialty cookie. You can find them near Slade Park trackside.
For more information about the fair go to ec.fair.org.
