Super Superintendent and Super Volunteer
The Archuleta County Fair sets aside time each year to recognize and honor several well-deserving folks who have made an impact in the Fair over the years. These are individual volunteers who step up when asked and fill much needed roles during Fair. Often, these volunteers show up year-after-year without being asked; they know what needs their attention and they get the job done. Our Fair could not function without these highly motivated, community-oriented men and women. We are pleased to recognize them today.
Super Superintendent—Kendra Hittle
Kendra Hittle has a long and varied past with the 4H and Fair having been a 4H member herself where she entered items for competition into the Exhibit Hall and earned Grand Champion for her 4H pig through the Livestock program. Her children continue in her footsteps and have spent years working on projects through 4H. She volunteers because she thinks 4H and the livestock program are such worthwhile character-building programs for the young people in our community, including her own children. They learn so many great life skills from the projects themselves, as well as from participation in public speaking, interviewing, showmanship, record-keeping, community service, and club participation that the program requires.
She volunteers in poultry and the small animal barn specifically because her own children have raised turkey and chickens for years, and she feels those projects are important for kids that may not be from ranching families or that have space limitations to have the opportunity to be involved in livestock projects, learn responsibility and animal husbandry, and to have a closer connection to agriculture. She has great memories of the relationships she has built working at the fair and hanging out in the livestock barn with other leaders and parents and 4H kids. The Saturday night Fair Dance is a favorite activity!
Kendra assisted previous Small Animal Superintendents for many years and served as the Poultry/Small Animal Superintendent for two years. This position (along with being the Poultry Leader) involves planning out and setting up the small animal portion of the livestock barn, tagging and checking animals in and out of the fair, supervising the official weigh-in of the 4-H animals, monitoring the animals and the livestock area throughout the fair, answering questions from people attending the fair, coordinating with judges and overseeing the shows, placing ribbons, helping with the auction, and helping keep all the showmen and animals in the right places at the right times.
She has been on the Livestock Committee several years, served as their Treasurer for three years, and is currently the 4-H Poultry Project leader. Her favorite area of the Fair to serve is Livestock including the shows and the Jr. Livestock Auction.
Kendra loves the mountains, the views, and feels fortunate to live in a small town connecting with people and raising her family with her husband. She enjoys gardening, skiing, and spending time with friends and family, taking walks and camping.
She thinks that besides being a fun event for people to attend, the fair is important to promote awareness of the importance of agriculture in our county and to connect people more directly to livestock, as well as to provide an opportunity for people in our community to show off their many talents (quilting, art, gardening, cooking, etc.) that often go unnoticed in our public day-to-day lives, but are important for our contentment and quality of life as a whole.
Kendra Hittle has specific knowledge, experience and a love for the youth and their animals that make her uniquely qualified and a perfect selection as our 2023 Super Superintendent.
Super Volunteer—Janet Kubelka
Janet Kubelka has served as the Quilt Program Coordinator for several years where she supervised Quilt Entry, labeling, designed the layout for hanging each quilt, and created a personal story of each quilter and the quilt to be displayed. She solicited volunteers from the Piecemakers Quilt Guild to help with these efforts. Janet is organized, detailed, and easy to work with.
Janet has been in the community for eleven years with her husband Donald and two teenagers. She enjoys the beautiful scenery, great people, and activities of Pagosa Springs. Before taking over as Quilt Coordinator in 2019 she entered quilts, paintings, and photography for judging into the Exhibit Hall. She said that is her favorite area of the Fair and enjoys going around
the Hall with her children to see everyone’s entries and find out what ribbons they won as a family. Janet feels the Fair is a great way to have the community come together and show off the wonderful things we can do. She is involved with the Pagosa Piecemakers Quilt Guild and the Pagosa Springs Community Choir. Janet is a wonderful asset to our community and to our Fair; it is for these reasons she was selected as a 2023 Super Volunteer.
Super Volunteer—Pat Sadd
Pat Sadd has been a valuable asset to the Fair for years, serving in any number of areas. She is an ambitious person and willing to take on any job that she is able. She worked in the office and has been a fixture at main gate admissions where she greets every person who comes into the fairgrounds. She is outgoing and shares information about the Fair, sells tickets, and encourages anyone who stops by.
Pat and her husband Bill originally came to Pagosa Springs to lead a Habitat for Humanity RV Group. Through St. Patrick’s
Church they helped with their food pantry and clothing drive as well as the Loaves and Fishes community lunch. They enjoyed the people, weather, vistas, birds, and animals in the area. After seeing an article in the paper asking for volunteers they jumped in and have loved being involved with the County Fair since 2015. Pat feels the Fair reinforces residents’ connection to the roots of the County, that it supports 4-H, and that it is a celebration of the basic values that are the core of real life. She encourages everyone to take a volunteer shift during Fair and experience what they did. Pat remembers her time at the Fair with great affection. She is known for the handmade ‘scrubbies’ that she leaves for each Fair Board member at the close of Fair. She and Bill, a great volunteer and a favorite Kid’s Train driver, will be missed.Pat’s can-do attitude and complete love of all-things-Fair prompted us to select her as a 2023 Super Volunteer.