Liberty Bell High School seniors (from left) Braizlyn Barnhart, Kara McMillan, Gavin McAuliffe, Sam Kaltenbach and Mason Michelsen all took part in the Okanogan County Fair last weekend.
Valuable life lessons learned in 4-H programs
“A Prairie Home Companion” host Garrison Keillor used to close his famous weekly soliloquy about the fictional community of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, with the incantation “that’s the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.”
Whatever measure is used to define “above average,” the 50-plus youths that made up the Methow Valley contingent to the Okanogan County Fair this year far exceed that standard, especially the five high school seniors in this year’s group.
With everything going on at the fair and in their lives, it was a challenge finding time to chat with Braizlyn Barnhart, Kara McMillan, Gavin McAuliffe, Sam Kaltenbach and Mason Michelsen about their experiences growing up in the Methow Valley Cascaders 4-H program. That window opened last Sunday morning at the Agri-Plex.
Collectively, the five have attended 43 Okanogan County Fairs. By their own counts, this was Barnhart’s 12th and McMillan’s11th trips to the fair, usually held the weekend following Labor Day. Kaltenbach has participated in eight, McAuliffe six and Michelsen five.
“Our club is totally student run,” said adult club leader Hilary Kaltenbach. “Kara, Sam and Gavin are amazing. They are great leaders and the kids look up to them. They run the meetings, do the bookkeeping and keep everything on track. We’re hoping they will continue on through this 4-H year to provide that leadership role.”
No small task this year, with 4-H Club numbers now at 70 kids. Fifty-eight 4-H members brought animals to the fair this year and 51 of them entered animals in the live auctions.
Kaltenbach, McMillan and McAuliffe have been Cascaders for every one of their fair years, while Barnhart and Michelsen started out in 4-H before going independent as junior open entrants for most of their years. All five agree that fair participation has been key in their growth through their youth. Each of them are also involved in activities, with athletics and school being common denominators.
Active athletes
Three-sport athlete Kara McMillan has been playing tennis since her sophomore year and has been to state twice, finishing second in girls’ doubles last year with teammate Zephyr Woras. She also is a starter on the girls’ basketball team and one of Liberty Bell’s front line hitters/blockers in the volleyball program.
Mason Michelsen has returned to the football team for his senior year. He also starts on the basketball and baseball teams at Liberty Bell.
Wrestling is Sam Kaltenbach’s forté, having qualified for the WIAA Mat Classic each of the past two years. He has also participated in cross country and track in past years and is on the Mountain Lion football roster this year. He plans to wrestle this winter but thinks he might take the spring season off.
Braizlyn Barnhart has been playing softball each of the past four years at Liberty Bell and plans on being on the diamond again for her senior year. She is also participating in high school rodeo events as an independent athlete since Liberty Bell doesn’t have a rodeo team.
Hockey is McAuliffe’s gig. He tends goal for the Winthrop Wolverines 18U team and hopes to take that sport on to college at Montana Tech in Butte next year. He has played football and been in the Mountain Lion track program.
All are in agreement that their fair experiences have been significant in their developmental years and a part of their lives they will always carry with them.
Sam Kaltenbach cited “the value of building connections in the community.”
“Making those connections that helps with sponsorships, and also for jobs in the future, is really important,” he said.
Michelsen, who like Kaltenbach raised a pig this year, emphasized the need to learn how to make money from the sale of the animal.
“You’re responsible for the animal, so you have to take care of it,” said Michelsen. “But it’s also about learning how to operate like a business. It costs money to feed and raise it, and you want to make a bit of a profit.”
McMillan said that developing her presentation skills and confidence, along with raising, grooming and training a lamb for a good presentation at market day, make for a successful fair.
“4-H and the fair have helped me bring out the best of myself,” said McMillan, who was named as the 2025 Okanogan County Fair Queen. “It’s given me the confidence to put myself out there.”
McAuliffe values the public presentation aspect of the 4-H program. 4-H members are required to prepare a presentation on a topic of interest before a panel of judges, an audience of fellow Cascaders, parents and friends. Presentations are scored on the poise of the presenter, interest and enthusiasm for their topic and their ability to answer questions at the end of their demonstration or talk.
“You have to learn how to talk with people,” Mc Auliffe said. “I learned a lot about public speaking and preparing presentations. I feel like that will prepare me for job interviews and doing presentations later on.”
Time commitment
The county fair is not merely a showcase for animal and trainer. All five seniors have spent hundreds of hours feeding, nursing, grooming and training their lambs, steers, pigs, rabbits, birds, and goats for fair week.
“I spend at least an hour a day with my steer,” said Barnhart. “He listens to me, does what I ask him to do, lets me lay on him. I know he isn’t going to do anything to hurt me, I have that much trust in him.”
All of that work paid off for her, the steer earning her a hefty $8.50 per pound at auction on Saturday evening. The Branding Iron in Twisp outbid the rest of the crowd and provided a healthy check for Barnhart for her work.
“It’s hard to say goodbye,” Barnhart said. “But one of the things I have learned is how to say goodbye and deal with loss through all of my years. My experience with the fair has helped me deal with the tragedies and sadness of growing up on a farm and dealing with loss.”
Barnhart’s fair experience began when, she thinks, she was in first grade, showing
After graduation, Barnhart has ambitions of going to school to become a radiologist and has her eyes on the state of Alaska. But she also wants to expand her interest in rodeo, where she and Katie Surface are joining forces to be a team-roping duo.
“Most rodeo events are open to women,” noted Barnhart. “Bull riding, saddle bronc, most of it. Katie and I are practicing the team roping thing.”
Barnhart has been helping her father, JR, rebuild the event at the Methow Valley Rodeo and saw it reintroduced at the recent Labor Day event, to the delight of the crowd.
For Kara McMillan, the fair was almost the equivalent of a full-time job the year leading up to the 2025 event. She was approached in 2024 as a sophomore in high school about considering a run for 2025 Okanogan County Fair Queen.
“I was sitting at the parade of flags at the Omak Stampede with all the royalty from all the other events and thought that might be something fun to do,” she recalled. “The universe must have heard me,” McMillan said, because she got a call encouraging her to apply.
She filled out the application only after taking three days to convince her mom, Alisha McMillan, that she could handle to work. McMillan won the competition at the 2024 fair over three other contestants.
Then the work began. The appearances came with several requirements which included an adult escort (chaperone) to most everything she attended, such as service clubs, chambers of commerce, special events and even an afternoon loading cars and talking with clients at The Cove food bank in Twisp. Her travels took her all over the county.
Last year’s fair kept her moving almost constantly, handing out awards, judging special events and making appearances on the stage.
“I wasn’t really ready for all of the activity at the fair last year,” McMillan said.
Not only was she bouncing all over the grounds, but she also had to tend to the business of showing animals as well. “It was crazy, but yes, I would do it again,” McMillan said.
“If anyone were to ask me about it, I would tell them to make sure they know all that it requires,” McMillan said. “It is such a commitment. But I had little kids come up to me this year and tell me how they remembered me from last year as fair queen, so that’s really nice and makes me feel good.”
McMillan is thinking about the Willamette Valley for next year and college, narrowing down her list to Linfield University in McMinnville or Willamette University in Salem where she hopes to study nursing and play tennis at the NCAA Division III level.
All five seniors have plans beyond high school, and will take the county fair lessons with them. “I’m definitely going to miss this place,” said McAuliffe, who is headed to Montana Technical University in Butte.
“It’s taught me a lot,” said Michelsen. “It’s created a lot of memories for me. It will be weird to come back here next year and support my sister but not be participating.”
McMillan, who is rarely at a loss for words, was succinct in describing her eleven 11years at the Okanogan County Fair: “It has set me up for success.”
