The annual fair is a must participate for the family, and this year Cathy said the Best in Class wins were “exciting, they have a lot of fun doing it. It makes the fair a lot more fun for them to see their entries” and get ideas from other competitors.Cathy noted that the first year children are allowed to enter fair competitions is the summer before they become kindergarten students, so Laura and Elizabeth are already fair veterans. Such early and continued participation “makes it very fun” for the girls, who hang all the ribbons they win on the wall in their rooms. “They have quite a lot of ribbons,” Cathy said with a laugh.Some years there are more entries than others, and this year was notable for the high number of competitions the Fernandez girls entered collectively. “They really like the table settings and the baking... they get very creative with the table setting. It’s fun, they come up with a theme and have a lot of fun pulling all the pieces together,” while the adults are kept far away to allow the children to express their own creativity.The family attended the fair opening day “to see how everyone did and then to see the Demolition Derby,” and attended Monday through Sunday for Elizabeth’s market animal project.It’s easy to see where the girls got their enthusiasm for fair competition: “When I was a kid I did baked goods, drawings and collections,” and Cathy noted of the latter, “My mom would say ‘Let’s see what you have’ and have us pull it all together. We always enjoyed it a lot; I had very fond memories” of preparing for and being in fair competitions.Cathy said that the rare times the family is out of town the girls’ projects are left with her father, and “He enters them for us.”There assuredly are more fair entries in the future for the Fernandez girls, and that includes 2-year-old Robin. “Robin will be entering in the next couple of years,” as soon as she meets the minimum age requirement, said Cathy.
Blue Ribbon week: Fernandez girls take top prizes at Ventura County Fair
August 15, 2008
Santa Paula News
It was a blue ribbon week for the daughters of Cathy and City of Santa Paula Vice Mayor Ralph Fernandez, as the girls came home from the 133rd Annual Ventura County Fair with a slew of awards in a variety of categories close to the three youngsters’ hearts.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesIt was a blue ribbon week for the daughters of Cathy and City of Santa Paula Vice Mayor Ralph Fernandez, as the girls came home from the 133rd Annual Ventura County Fair with a slew of awards in a variety of categories close to the three youngsters’ hearts.The girls - Julia who will be entering 1st grade at Bedell School the fall, Laura who will be a Bedell School 4th grader and Elizabeth who will be a Isbell Middle School 7th grader - “won a lot of things, but they entered a lot of things” and, said Cathy, “really had a good time.”Julia took a 1st Place for her brownies and a 2nd Place for her table setting.“She entered some drawings - a yellow school bus is one of them, I know - and got first and seconds on those.”Laura, said Cathy, took “1st Place for her short story, as well as another top Blue Ribbon prize for her solar system model. “In brownies she took 1st Place, and she entered a couple of photographs,” taken on the family’s vacation to Colorado, and “she got first and seconds for those,” and a 3rd Place for her table setting.Elizabeth, a Briggs 4-H Club member, showed her market goat, aside from earning a 2nd Place for her table setting, Best of Class Short Story, and “quite a few first places for photographs” and a 2nd Place win for a drawing. “Elizabeth also entered the Kids, Crops and Cameras” countywide photograph competition and took 1st Place and Best in Division with her photo of the famous Red Barn at Faulkner Farm.