Foundation helps behind the scene

The Sanders County Fair gets revenue from people camping, renting the grounds and buildings, vendors and taxes, but there's also a group of people whose sole purpose is to help monetarily with the fairgrounds, and last week they were back in action in an effort to make the fairgrounds a better place.

The Sanders County Fair Foundation, a nonprofit organization that began a dozen years ago, was kept busy running the beer garden for the four-day fair. At last year's fair, the foundation sales totaled $27,536 and after the fair's standard direct payment of 20% of sales and the expenses, the booth had 30% in profit, which in turn goes to the fair for various projects, said Kathy Gregg, the foundation's treasurer.

"We just paid the down payment on improvements to the stalls in the carnival bathrooms, so there'll be some labor costs on that when it's completed. Working with the fair manager and fair board, we'd like to continue to improve the Christmas display and whatever other needs are identified," said Gregg, who added that the restroom project is estimated to be more than $12,500. The main mission behind the Fair Foundation is to support the fairgrounds and the people who use it, according to Heidi Kirkwood, the foundation's vice president since 2018. "What's great about the foundation is that all the money it raises goes directly back into the fairgrounds, which means it can be used for many different purposes and projects that might not be covered by the county budget," she said.

Mike Hashisaki created the Fair Foundation in 2011 while he was the fair manager. He said the foundation is a very important entity that greatly benefits the fairgrounds. "We had a county commissioner who did not want the fair to succeed and did everything to impact the fair's annual budget by cutting it to bare bones," said Hashisaki. He said he talked with the fair commission about the money concerns and came up with a plan to get additional money needed without commissioner input or approval. "The new beer garden and building was one item, the bathroom with showers on the 4-H midway, new roofing on the pavilion as well as new stoves and equipment in the pavilion kitchen were big ticket items that the fair could not afford through its annual budget," said Hashisaki, who retired in 2015 after 25 years as manager, and who continues as one of a handful of foundation board members.

Between 2016 and last year the foundation has donated nearly $58,000 to various fairgrounds projects, including just over $3,000 for improvements to the beer garden, which in turn helps them raise more money for the fairgrounds. One of the largest donations from the foundation was $11,500 for upgrading the pavilion restrooms.

Gregg said the organization spent $8,562 on flags and flagpoles, $1,905 on a holding tank, $900 for hot water tanks, $699 on the fair website, gave $20,287 directly to the fair board and provided $10,770 for Christmas lights and decorations, a program started by Hashisaki while he was the fair manager in the early 1990s. Gregg said the organization would like to invest more money into the Christmas decorations program, which didn't happen for a few years after Hashisaki retired until the Fair Foundation and board brought it back in 2019 with some help from local donors.

The Fair Foundation manned the beer garden from 2009 to 2012. From 2013 to 2015, it was operated by members of the VFW Post 3596 in Plains as part of the Sanders County Concessions Group, a conglomerate of nonprofit organizations. The VFW did it until 2016, when the foundation took it over permanently. It is the group's only fundraiser, although it takes donations.

"The fairgrounds and the entire county definitely benefit from the Fair Foundation. Money spent in the beer garden gets put to use for all of us," said Gregg. "Many people have made donations from time to time and particularly in the pre beer booth years, but it has become the mainstay at this point. I don't do much but I'm sure proud of all they do," she said. "To me, that's the neat thing about us doing the beer booth. It makes a nice chunk of change to be used for crises and extras that don't necessarily fit into the fair's budget."