The 2015 Okanogan County Fair united our communities after a devastating fire year affecting a large portion of Okanogan County. A smaller crowd from last year but you wouldn’t have known it at the Okanogan Youth Pole Climb or the PUD booth in the commercial building.

Opening day, Kids Day, over 150 children took part in this year’s Youth Pole Climb earning the Okanogan PUD Pole Climb T-Shirt. In the commercial building, PUD staff offered to Okanogan PUD customers a choice of energy efficiency products that included a box set of LED bulbs and shower heads or a smart power strip, along with several selections of information on energy conservation and PUD programs.

Kids swarmed the PUD commercial booth to obtain a coveted yellow lineman hat that was the trophy of the day. “At one point it looked like a sea of yellow throughout the fairgrounds”, commented one fairgoer. Approximately 2600+ hats were given out at this year’s County Fair.

The PUD invited the Foundation for Water Energy Education (FWEE) to demonstrate hands-on activities for Kids Day at the fair. Okanogan PUD is a member of FWEE and has this service provided as a benefit of membership. Jack Horne and Clyde Carpenter demonstrated hands-on activities for all kids. Jack’s activity titled “Don’t Close the Circuit”, challenged students to pass a wand through a field of electricity without contacting the field with the wand.  If contact was made a light would come on.   Clyde demonstrated an activity titled “Induction”.  This activity provided evidence of how electricity is generated at a level of understanding for the students.

The success of this event could not be achieved without the diligent planning of our Energy Services Coordinator, Debbie Peters and the coordination efforts for the pole climb of Mark Pritchard, Operations Manager, and his crews. Additionally, the time and support of our dedicated employees who volunteered throughout the weekend helped make, in one parent’s comment, ‘the place to be at the Okanogan County Fair’.

A special thank you to all those involved in making this event a success!