HEMPSTEAD, Texas – Susan Shollar has seen this before, but she’s still amazed.
During the junior livestock and exhibition auction at this year’s Waller County Fair and Rodeo, donors spent $1,469,500 on the animals and other exhibits over the course of the Oct. 5 sale at the fairgrounds in Hempstead.
“It’s amazing to me, because it is right behind our record year,” said Susan Shollar, chairwoman of the Waller County Fair Board’s auction committee. “Our best year was $1,483,000 in 2022. Last year we went down a little bit, but we popped up this year.
“The best part, though, is that we used to have just a handful of people that pretty much carried the auction. That has spread out unbelievably over the past three years. We’ve gotten so many supporters from the area that have begun giving that it’s taken a little bit of the load off our longtime, faithful supporters in what they’ve spent with us. Our auction is growing like crazy.”
It’s a positive step for the longtime exhibition, which just wrapped its 80th year. The growth in the county fair has been exponential, and the rewards are passed along to the community and for the next generation of leaders.
“These new businesses from our area wanted to be involved as much as they can,” Shollar said. “Without all these donors, the ones that have been with us for so long and the new ones who have come in, we wouldn’t have the fair and rodeo. The kids would not receive compensation for their projects without them. We couldn’t do anything without them.
“We do rentals because we are a privately owned entity, so we have to maintain this fairgrounds all year. However, we couldn’t do those rentals and we couldn’t get the renters we do without the supporters who have, in the past few years, really helped us have a premier facility. Without the buyers, the kids wouldn’t sell their projects. They use this money on next year’s project and for school.”
The fair and rodeo is about providing an agriculture-based event together that provides fun for members of the communities and beyond, but the mission is about supporting the youth of Waller County and raising money and awareness for the future.
The biggest seller during the auction was a pig that went for $40,000. There were other animals that went for $30,000 or more, and that money goes toward the exhibitors that showed those animals. Those same donors, though, have been a major force behind the upgrades that have made the fairgrounds a premier facility in southeast Texas.
“When I started with the fair board 15 years ago, the fairgrounds was pretty much like it was when I was in high school and showed there,” she said. “I am so proud to be part of what has been done over the last few years. We’ve done some great things with this facility, and this year we had a free kids’ day, where any kid 12 and under could come, and we had all kinds of activities.
“A lot of those people couldn’t come without being able to have a day like that.”
The prospects for the future are still bright.
“I work in those elite boxes at the rodeo arena, and our donors are the people that helped us build the arena as it is now,” Shollar said. “Everybody wants to be involved. I had two people come up to me during the rodeo and ask how to get involved. It’s just great to see.”