Artistic composition through beautiful competition occurred at the fifth kids floral show at the Wood County Fair.
The humble beginnings of the floral competition that started with just a few kids grew to about 40 kids this year.
With a packed space of kids and adults, it was surprising quiet and all the kids listened and followed instructions.
The instructors were conditioned to the kids’ excitement as they teach at Penta Career Center and had a great plan to break youngsters into groups to go to the front of the area and pick their flowers.
Penta horticulturalist Jody Germann and aide Teri Swaisgood both have worked the fairs at Wood, Lucas and Sandusky counties, getting kids excited about horticulture and creative floral design.
They also educated kids on what the flowers were called as well as how they would grow together to make the floral design a better combination.
The sponsor Forget Me Not Farms is a local wholesaler out of Michigan that donated 90% of the flowers for the event to include a lot of roses of various colors and small sunflowers that both were a huge hit.
Kids younger than 8 made some great floral designs but the one that stood out was 7-years-old Thomas Brockbrader from Eastwood Elementary. Thomas said he just liked the look of the flowers he saw and put them where he felt they needed to be. It worked well enough for the win.
The 9-years-and-older division was won by Landen Graber at Lakota Schools.
Addison Naus, first runner-up fair queen, presented banners and posed with the winners.
