In the past month, the Parker community has been awaiting the celebration of the County Fair. The annual tradition includes activities like roller skating, eating snow cones, and working assigned shifts. Instead, plans changed one week before the expected date. County Fair is, once again, taking a hiatus.

 County Fair is a long-established Parker tradition, inclusive to all grade-levels, faculty, and parents. It was scheduled to take place on October 8 from 9am to 12pm.  On Friday, October 1, Principal Dan Frank announced that the Fair would be rescheduled to the spring. 

This announcement followed a school wide email from Nurse Anne Nelson on September 28 saying that the weekly COVID-19 screening detected numerous positive cases in the Lower and Middle Schools. Subsequent contact tracing and testing revealed more cases, and the entire first grade began remote learning which will last until October 14.

Some parents and students began to question whether an all-school gathering, including parents and grandparents, was the safest course of action. 

“It is the wisest decision given that it is an entire community event,” Dean of Upper School Joe Bruno said. “The most important job of an educator is to make sure that their community is safe. And so, in good faith, we could not do this, knowing that there’s a chance that COVID-19 could spread.” 

Preparation and planning has been ongoing for weeks. Sophomore Chloe Buckley is the head of scheduling students to shifts. Buckley was “annoyed” by the announcement,  because she had spent weeks dedicating free time to plan and coordinate.

“Just to please everybody was a lot,” Buckley said. “Then, for them to tell us that it wasn’t happening–it was really frustrating.”

Sophomore Ellie Alden, one of two sophomores in charge of decor, brought up the unique aspects that were to be a part of this year’s fair. “We ordered 700 balloons, we ordered fog machines, we ordered chalk–I don’t think we’ve seen that in previous years,” Alden said. “We’re just trying to get everyone’s spirit up about the school year.”

Bigelow and sophomore grade-head Victoria Lee have been in charge of running County Fair the past several years. This year was to be their ten-year anniversary. Lee described the planning process as “serious” and this year especially, it required hard work and deliberation.  

“We met everyday, trying to figure out how to make this happen and keep the mission of the school strong and alive,” Bigelow said. “But, we also had to be smart about it, and inclusive.”

All preparation for the fair will have to be tabled until further notice. Health risks and safety modifications will be re-evaluated in the spring, when age requirements for the Pfizer vaccine are expected to be lowered.

County Fair is always run by the 10th grade, and this year, many sophomores showed interest in direct County Fair involvement even with the added complications brought by the coronavirus. 

“We have an incredible representation from the class,” sophomore grade-head Andrew Bigelow said. “Almost one third of the class volunteered to either be in the leadership or a secondary role for County Fair, so that’s huge.”

 Instead of having four County Fair heads, a task force was created that included 27 sophomores interested in running the fair. Within the task force there were separate groups, each with 1-2 leaders. 

“I thought it would be really fun,” Audrey Hunter, leader of County Fair music, said. “It’s a one time experience as a sophomore. You also work with your grade, get to know each other better, and it gives you an opportunity to get to know the whole school.”

This year is Parker’s 120th anniversary, so in celebration, the County Fair theme was “Everything Blue and White, Celebrating 120 Years!”  When the theme was initially announced, there were mixed opinions about the decision.

“It wasn’t really what we were expecting,” Hunter said. “Everyone thought County Fair wasn’t going to happen because of COVID-19, so it was a last minute thing. They just went with the simplest thing we could do to get easy decorations, and set up quickly.”

Alden felt differently about the theme. “I honestly really like it because it’s the 120-year celebration of Parker,” Alden said. “Even though the theme isn’t Jurassic Park or Candy Land, it fits perfectly for the first County Fair back.”

In 2022, Parker’s anniversary will have passed, but the selected theme is expected to remain. By that time, the Parker environment might be safe enough to resume the festivities.

“We need to make sure that we are making the right decision for our community,” Bruno said. “The first grade and the rest of the lower school are part of our community.”