Generosity can be infectious at times and it should never be overlooked. Jackson County is assisting Siskiyou County as much as possible with Northern California wildfires, but they decided to help out again in another way.
From August 8 to August 14, the Siskiyou Golden Fair 4H and FFA livestock auctions will take place at the Jackson County Expo. Jackson County Expo Director, Helen Baker reached out to Cliff Munson, Siskiyou Golden Fairgrounds CEO and offered a lending hand.
“In order to put the infrastructure in place closer to them they would have to have community volunteers and those volunteers are already stressed,” Baker said. “So it was easier for them to come to a place where there was already infrastructure in place, our volunteers are also more than willing to come out to help.”
Although the Siskiyou County Junior Livestock Auction will not have a carnival and other fair activities, they did not want to have another year without the culminating 4H event for the children who have already suffered a lot with a pandemic and continual fires each summer.
“There will be an overwhelming amount of support for these kids and really quite honestly we got the documentation at the state level to allow us to do this, to go up there and come back. It’s just an extra 45-minute ride basically or an hour ride,” Munson said.
The volunteers and staff at The Expo are still working on ways to make this experience welcoming, exciting and as loving as they can be for the families and students, they know what it’s like dealing with fires and they want to support them with open arms.
“I would say for them everything is going to be different, for us it might not seem all that different in terms of our facility but the way we reach out and the way we surround these families and these kids will definitely be very different,” Baker said.
According to Baker, this experience will help lay the foundation on what to do in a crisis during fire season and how events can be held across state lines if needed.
“Jackson County is really an extension of our life... it really is just like home for us and we're overwhelmed with the amount of support that we’re getting,” Munson said.