As fairgoers enter Gate 1 of Nevada County Fairgrounds, many stop at the little corrugated metal building with the sign, “Guest Services” looking for directions.
Smiling volunteers wearing blue-shirts are ready to provide customer service and answer questions to the 20,000-plus people that come through the fair gates daily. They field questions about bus schedules, events, exhibits and point people to bathrooms and ATM machines. This year, 40 volunteers are signed up to donate their time.
“We are the ambassadors of the fair,” said Volunteer Angel Holbrook. This is her first year volunteering, but for years she would serve as a seasonal worker directing traffic by flashlight.
She and the other volunteers flip through the fair’s pocket guide book to look up event times and a map of the grounds to help visitors navigate to exhibits, food booths and entertainment. They even walk people to their destinations to help fairgoers feel at ease. If they don’t know the answer they find someone who does.
“We get to figure it all out together. When you walk in and you don’t know anything, it’s a big scary place. But when you make an interaction with a human at the beginning, that’s like, oh, I’m welcome,” said Holbrook, a sixth generation Nevada County resident who has always participated in the fair, since the days of her youth.
“I wanted to be a part of the fair because I love it. I used to dance here and do little shows. It was always what you looked forward to growing up,” she said.
The Guest Services shack also serves as the Lost and Found. Sitting on a back table are pairs of sunglasses and readers, wallets, a purple and green dragon stuffy, one small girl’s black shoe, a Disneyland cap and even an 8th Grade Diploma. The items turned in to Lost and Found are posted to Facebook daily. All but one of 30 phones turned in so far this year had been returned to their owners.
Besides answering questions at the Guest Services building, volunteers provide ushering services for the grandstand events such as the Rodeo, Monster Trucks and Rough Truck Challenge. They even offer to take photographs of visitors with “Flo” the Clown.
Volunteers spent a day training on the Saturday before the fair opened. In return for their volunteerism they get a free fair and parking pass. Each volunteer works a minimum of four-hour shifts, while some rock star volunteers commit to all five days.
“People that work multiple days are very knowledgeable about the fair,” said Christian Gutt, the Guest Services Event and Volunteer Coordinator. This is his second year working for the Nevada County Fair.
This is Jeff Waters first year volunteering for the fair.
“[Volunteering] gives me something to do and it’s a good thing to contribute to the community,” said Waters. When he’s not working, he loves the food, especially the corn dogs and the tacos.
On Friday afternoon, Jennifer Nygren had just started her first shift. She signed up to help out the community, and like Angel, she grew up in Nevada County. A mother of five and grandmother of four, she wants to make volunteering an annual tradition and hopes to inspire her kids to become volunteers, too.
She says her work at Pride Industries, driving young adults to volunteer at Habitat for Humanity to build their consumer service resumes led her to volunteer her time at the County Fair.
Marianna Stockton has lived in Nevada County 26 years and has fond memories of bringing her children to the fair when they were little. Now that they are grown, she still enjoys the fair, especially “Birdman” and his collection of wild condors and raptors.
A lifelong volunteer, she has been involved with Soroptimists, schools, started a Neighborhood Watch program and a Firewise Group in her neighborhood She has even volunteered as a birth doula.
“This is my first year. I’m volunteering every day. I want to give back to this beautiful community,” she said.
Teresa Hedges is volunteering for a second year at the fair. Born and raised in Grass Valley, she and her siblings grew up volunteering with her parents at the St. Patrick’s Catholic Church.
“That’s something that mom and dad really instilled in us,” she said. Later she would participate in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life and the Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s, among other organizations.
As a volunteer at the fair, Hedges takes her job to the next level and goes out of her way to help people, even walking with them to find the funnelcake booth on Treat Street run by her alma mater, Mt. St. Mary Academy.
“It makes you feel good. It makes your heart feel good to help someone else,” she said.