Coryell County Youth Fair wraps up with auction

By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press

Yet another Coryell County Youth Fair is now in the record books, with 207 kids from all over Coryell County making it to the live auction last Saturday night at the Gatesville Civic Center. 
The Youth Fair kicked off with Home Economics entries brought in on Monday to be judged Tuesday, and with the livestock judging commencing on Tuesday. This year saw hundreds of students from different FFAs and 4H clubs across the county enter for a chance to place high enough to earn a ribbon and perhaps a belt buckle. Those who placed sixth and up on their animals or Reserve Champion and Grand Champion with their Home Economics projects made it to Saturday’s Auction, where proud supporters- friends and family and local businesses alike- crowded into the main room of the Gatesville Civic Center. 
There were 62 exhibitors from Copperas Cove this year, with 15 making it to the auction, to include five from the Five Hills 4-H Club and 10 from the Copperas Cove FFA chapter. 
The Copperas Cove Buyers’ Club actively bought youth projects for $12,086 to include the add-ons going back to every single Copperas Cove kid, and Copperas Cove kids saw more than $20,000 spent on their Home Economics and Livestock projects this year. 
The 17th kiddo of the evening and the first from Copperas Cove was Lana Ledger, a sixth-grader with Five Hills 4-H, who earned $1,300 for her Grand Champion Broiler (Chicken) from A&S Underground. 
Her brother Lane Ledger, also with Five Hills 4-H, in eighth grade, was the 28th person to make auction, with his Reserve Grand Champion Turkey, which earned $1,300 from A&S Underground as well. 
Lane said he had been involved in 4-H for about four years. Taking care of the animals every year is a lot of work, he added. 
“You have to take care of the animal for a long time, and you have to go out there every single day to just check on them, so it’s time consuming, but it’s worth it in the end,” Lane said. “[Making auction] it’s like your hard work is finally paid off, so it’s satisfactory.”
Trinity Aulabaugh, an eighth grader with Copperas Cove FFA, made it to auction with her 6th place Dark OPB swine, which sold for $800. She was the final Copperas Cove kid in the show, and number 203 of 207. 
“With the pigs, it’s really rewarding because you put so much work and so much effort into the animals and finally pays off when you place and then when you go to auction because normally, pigs go for like $600 to $1,000,” Aulabaugh said. “It’s hard work, so you really get that reward at the end when you get that money for your next animal.”
Auction night tends to be a big night for the high school seniors, with most supporting businesses or Buyer’s Clubs offering something called an “add-on” as a show of support and appreciation for the student’s hard work. This year, Copperas Cove only had one senior make it to the auction: CCHS senior Naysa Anzaldua, who is also the president of the CCHS FFA Chapter this year. 
Anzaldua joined FFA during her freshman year of high school and has been showing rabbits ever since. She made the auction last year with her Grand Champion 4-Class Group 1 rabbit. This year, she entered several Home Economics Projects along with her rabbit. Her rabbit earned 3rd place for Junior Buck- Mini Lop category. Her painting placed 5th, and her pie placed 6th. Her bread placed 4th. Her cookies placed 4th. Her yard art placed 3rd. Her leatherwork earrings placed 2nd. Her refinished table placed 1st. The piece that got her to auction, however, was her chocolate fudge, which earned Reserve Grand Champion. 
Anzaldua said that this was her first time every making fudge, so she was surprised but happy to win. 
“I’m really happy to make auction this year, especially considering it’s my senior year,” Anzaldua said. “I think it makes it to where your hard work pays off, and it’s a good feeling just to know that the work you have put up is resulting in something, I guess.”
Anzaldua plans to attend Texas A&M University in the fall where she will major in either business or agricultural communications and minor in the other. 
“I don’t really know what I want to do, and I know business is really general, but I really developed a passion for agriculture over the past four years, so I know I kind of want to do something, and so it’s just kind of figuring out what exactly that is,” Anzaldua said. 
She added that her time in FFA has helped her tremendously. 
“I think that my leadership skills, my public speaking skills, everything like that has increased so much,” Anzaldua said. “My freshman year, I was so shy, and now I can kind of go and talk to people. I think it has a lot of benefits. There’s a lot of scholarships. I’ve been an officer for the past three years since my sophomore year, so I think that helps a lot to just getting out there. You make a lot of connections.”
Anzaldua said that she would encourage someone to participate in the Youth Fair and in FFA, even if it was not in agriculture. 
“It’s just a good organization, a good community to get into,” Anzaldua said. “Something we always talk about as officers is not everyone in FFA is going to go into agriculture, but you benefit tremendously from just being a part of such an amazing organization and such an amazing group of people.”