The Friends of Wayne County Fair
Each year, the group holds a barbecue in order to raise funds for the museum. Note that it's held on the usual fairgrounds, and the different vendors. The fact that numerous vendors are involved shows how this is truly a community endeavor.
The group also has an annual official golf tournament, which gets proceeds that support the upcoming museum. An activity that requires mental strength, golf serves as a way to recruit new members and build camaraderie amongst existing ones.
Most large-scale efforts cannot be achieved through the work of one person alone. Rather, it takes teamwork to get a finished product. Wooster, Ohio has seen many of its landmarks and events because of group efforts. One example of this is a full-fledged museum dedicated to the various agricultural methods Wayne County has seen, as well as the evolution of said techniques. Founded in 2013, the Friends of Wayne County Fair’s mission is seeing the long-anticipated Buckeye Agricultural Museum and Education Center come to fruition.1
The Friends of Wayne County Fair is not the first organization to attempt to bring a local agricultural museum to fruition, but it is the only group to do so successfully.2 Most of the officers have ties to the community as board members of the Wayne County Fair.3 Additionally, they have roots in agriculture, with most of them having grown up on farms.4 As a result, everyone on the team has noticed the trend of gentrification and urbanization going on not only in Wayne County proper but in the entirety of Ohio, hence the name Buckeye Agricultural Museum and Education Center.5 Thus, the group is dedicated to keeping the agricultural history, methods, and techniques alive for younger audiences.
The Friends of Wayne County Fair has gotten support from multiple sources, including memberships,6 the Wayne County Fair Board, and various fundraisers.7 As of the summer of 2017, there are more than one hundred members, all of whom contribute to the upcoming museum's growing momentum. The fundraisers, the fair, and the additional members are all crucial, as the museum is a privately-funded endeavor.8
1 Paul Locher, “Friends of Wayne Fair,” Daily Record; Wooster, Ohio, September 10, 2012, sec. A.
2 Paul Locher, “An Old Idea Gets New Life,” Daily Record; Wooster, Ohio, June 6, 2015, sec. A.
3 Paul Locher, “Group Implements Effort to Create Agiculture Museum,” Daily Record; Wooster, Ohio, February 28, 2013, sec. H.
4 Ronald Grosjean and Eleanor Barker, Interview on June 30, Audio, June 30, 2017.
5 “Ag Museum Project Moving, but Slowly,” Daily Record; Wooster, Ohio, July 16, 2016, sec. LOCAL NEWS.
6 Paul Locher, “Friends of Wayne County Fair Takes in More than $6,000 in New Memberships,” Daily Record; Wooster, Ohio, October 6, 2016, sec. LOCAL NEWS.
7 Paul Locher and Eleanor Barker, Interview on June 14 with Paul Locher, Audio, June 14, 2017.
8 Grosjean and Barker, Grosjean Interview.