Entertainment Explosion Is “A Horse of a Different Color”

Each year during the Thurston County Fair, patrons are invited to vote on the mascot for the next year. Last August the winner for 2010 was a carousel horse. Since funds were tight to even have a fair, let alone decorate, the very creative Fair Board approved selling plain wood carousel horses to 4-H clubs, FFA etc. groups. The idea was to let the kids participating in the fair publicize their group and provide decorations at the same time. (There's more than one way to skin a cat.) Pre-cut horses were mounted on four or six foot poles and sold for $20 or $25 with a choice of locations numbered and indicated on a map of the fair grounds. HERE'S THE KICKER. The (55 to 85 year old) members of EE consider themselves just overgrown kids. How better to connect ourselves with many of the children we help through the Big Shoe benefit show, than by buying a horse? So we did just that, and it was displayed in the Upper Arena opposite the Food Court. It was on the corner near the Benoschek (4-H Still Life) Building. If you didn’t see our beautiful Appaloosa, created by Helene Pearch, look in the same place every year. Since EE has taken responsibility for that flower garden, we have permission to display the carousel horse every year if we wish. It’s just a reminder that EE’s commitment to kids, especially the marginalized ones, is year around - not just in February. Those are EE’s TRUE COLORS.