Washington County ranks #1 in state 4-H enrollments

WASHINGTON — Washington County Fair Board President Kurt Dallmeyer said Tuesday that the area’s 4-H enrollment was the highest of any county in Iowa going into 2024, with a whopping 397 4-H’ers registered by the end of the enrollment period last August.

The next closest was Woodbury County with 372 registrations. The difference of 25 people is made impressive by the gap in populations between the communities: Woodbury County’s population, according to the 2020 census, is 105,941. Washington County’s is less than a quarter of that: just 22,565.

“We’re very happy about that, it shows that we have a very good partnership with the extension, we provide the grounds and they provide the kids,” Dallmeyer said in a meeting with the Washington County Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning. “It’s something that we should be proud of here in Washington.”

The achievement rides the high of other records set at the Washington County Fair in 2023, including one-day and weeklong attendance records for the event, where weather was neither rainy nor scorching hot — a rarity for midsummer in Southeast Iowa.

Dallmeyer said the fair board planned to keep ramping things up in 2024, with new acts scheduled including a live kids’ cooking show, a kickoff concert and a “tiger experience,” among others.

“We look for those things that you just don’t see anywhere except when you go to a good old fair,” he said.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com