By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
“If you believe in a project, it’s amazing how benevolent this community is.”
Those were the words of the 2013 Crawford County Fair Supporter of the Year, Roger Miller. He was speaking, of course, about the wonderful “new building” at the fairgrounds, which is warming up for its second year of use. Mike Hoffman, who was supporter of the year last year, and Miller helped spearhead the fundraising campaign for the building back in 2010.
“We needed a building desperately, the old hog barn was unsafe and the goat building was condemned,” Miller said.
They raised funds through livestock sales and extremely generous backing from the community. The Timken Foundation donated $100,000 and the Bucyrus Area Community Foundation (BACF) chipped in with $50,000. The total cost of the project has reached about $440,000 with the addition of the livestock pens to the facility for hogs, goats, and alpacas.
Miller is a local boy, having graduated from Wynford High School in 1981. John Mizick started his accounting firm in 1972, and in 1991 Roger Miller joined him to make it Mizick-Miller. They have offices in Bucyrus and Upper Sandusky.
Miller also serves as a treasurer for the BACF. Part of his job in that capacity is to promote that idea that this new building is not strictly for use during fair time. “We want this building used,” Miller said, “We want to bring people to the Bucyrus Community.
Miller said that that last point was a very important factor for both the BACF and Timken Foundations to contribute to the project. They wanted to see that the money they were donating was going into a community strengthening project, during fair season, of course, but also all year round.
During Fair Week the building hosts the aforementioned goats, hogs, and alpacas, as well as the Grand Champion Sale and the Junior Livestock Sale. Outside of fair week their plan is to have gun shows, boat shows, performances, anything they can do to make good, community use out of the building.
They have been generating some funds by selling signage in the building. For $250 a year businesses, individuals, supporters etc. may advertise in the new building. They currently have 30 signs hanging and Roger believes there is room for about 13 more. Of the money generated by this project, half goes to a building fund maintained by the BACF and the other half goes to the senior fair board to help with whatever needs are current. If Roger gets his 13 more, the money generated from the signs will exceed $10,000 a year.
Roger has had three children participate in 4-H and at the Fair. His youngest, Alec, will be showing hogs this year and will have a final appearance next summer.
“4-H is such a great program and we wanted to make an impact,” Miller stated, “We’re just about done with 4-H and I hope it’s in a better place than when we started.” It is that kind of “pay-it-forward” mentality that has also led Roger to participate in the building of the little league fields at Aumiller Park in the early 2000’s and participating on the hog and building committees.
“I make my living off the community and I just wanted to give back.”
Miller also paid tribute to those on the committee who played a significant role in the making the new fair building a reality. They are: Mike Hall, Mike Hoffman, Travis Koshnick, Ron Ollis, Mark Quinn, Jeff Schiefer, Doug Weisenauer, and Kristy Widman.