GREENVILLE – After a long wait and thousands of dollars raised through fundraising, there will officially be a building for dogs with the aim of the 2024 Great Darke County Fair.
The Darke County 4-H Dog Committee presented the Darke County Agricultural Society with a check for $25,000 on Wednesday evening as their contribution to the new building.
This has been a long-awaited journey for the Dog Committee over the past ten years. There have been many obstacles and hurdles to get where they are with this new building. After two structure fires on the fairgrounds, there was a large delay in an updated dog barn.
“In the meantime, we continued to raise funds,” said Kathleen Ditmer, President of the Dog Committee. “This group continued to work, and work, and work. We did Dragon’s games, sold dog bones, we did a spaghetti dinner, and we sold brick pavers.”
The building may not be completed fully by fair, however it will be ready and usable for the Junior Fair and Dog Department shows. A lot of work is currently going into the building to get as far as they can with this project prior to fair.
“This is going to allow us to make our program bigger,” explained Ditmer. “There’s so much talent in our county with dogs. We’ve had kids from the county win at the Ohio State Fair multiple times.”
The Darke County Agricultural Society was extremely grateful for the contribution and look forward to completing this project. The Darke County 4-H Dog Committee continues to express gratitude and appreciation to everyone involved in this project.
