Dan Gross/The Gazette Kyle Walsh, 17, (front) and Isaac Militante, 15, both of Gaithersburg, haul wood chips used for animal bedding through the 4-H horse barn on Saturday at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair.

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Dan Gross/The Gazette John Wood (left) of Damascus fixes a railing with the help of Melissa Lempicki, 14, of Damascus and Mary Stojic of Bethesda on Saturday at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair.
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Dan Gross/The Gazette Charlie Hogan (center), a Damascus native living in Harford County who began showing sheep in about 1968, and Sean Aliakbar of Gaithersburg set fence posts in the commercial vendors area of the fairgrounds on volunteer setup day.
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Dan Gross/The Gazette Maria Lempicki of Damascus puts a fresh coat of paint on the floor of the horse tack shed next to the 4H horse barn on volunteer setup day, Saturday at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair.
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Greg Dohler/The Gazette Boxes of ribbons labeled by category in Joy Schwab's home in preparation for Montgomery County Agricultural Fair.
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Greg Dohler/The Gazette Joy Schwab has organized the ribbons for the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair since 1985.
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Greg Dohler/The Gazette Joy Schwab goes through on of the many boxes of ribbons that fill two rooms in her Laytonsville home in preparation for the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair. Schwab counts and labels hundreds of ribbons, which are awarded to competition winners.

Dan Gross/The Gazette Kyle Walsh, 17, (front) and Isaac Militante, 15, both of Gaithersburg, haul wood chips used for animal bedding through the 4-H horse barn on Saturday at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair.

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Clicked gallery: Montgomery County Agricultural Fair volunteer setup day

Although the gates won’t officially open for more than a week, hundreds of people gathered Saturday at the Montgomery County fairgrounds in Gaithersburg in anticipation of this year’s Agricultural Fair.

The attendees were volunteers brought in to paint fences, fix benches and complete advance preparations for the fair, which kicks off Aug. 10. The work is an example of how much effort is required each year to get the volunteer-led fair under way.

Organizers say it is a constant effort during the year, and requires about 1,000 volunteers — some putting in as many as 100 hours per year — to prepare and run it.

“Truly, it starts more than a year in advance,” said Marty Svrcek, executive director of the Montgomery County Agricultural Center Inc., the nonprofit that organizes the festivities. “Already we’ve started putting together next year’s fair.”

Svrcek said he expects attendance this year will be about the same as last year’s 220,000 for the nine-day fair, now in its 64th year.

And some of those preparations are herculean efforts.

Joy Schwab of Laytonsville is in charge of organizing ribbons for the thousands of contests, which range from national competitions comparing farm animals and homemade baked goods to local events among wannabe lawn mower racers and watermelon seed spitters.

This year’s fair has 20,000 registered contestants, and Schwab is tasked with organizing the 17,878 ribbons and banners that will go to the various winners, runners-up and participants.

The process, she said, can be a messy one, wherein she must separate, then box, sets of ribbons marked for each of the competitions. That way volunteers easily can dole them out as the competitions get started. The task will take her roughly 100 hours.

Luckily for her, the 72-year-old has nearly 30 years of experience dividing up the ribbons. That experience goes even further if one counts the time she spent dividing up her own ribbons as a child — won as a member of the Montgomery County 4-H club for her icebox cookies and sewing skills.

“I guess I’ve been involved since I was in 4-H myself,” she said.

Schwab’s passion began, she said, when she was denied entry into the various competitions at the age of 8, too young to be allowed to participate.

“I think that did it,” she said.

In recent years, her six grandchildren have been the competitors and annually take home blue ribbons in painting, baking and other contests, she said.

Similarly, Ed Hogan Sr. of Damascus is prepping The Big Cheese for operation. The grilled cheese sandwich business is run only during the fair but still manages to sell more than 9,000 of the cheesy treats each year.

Hogan said the operation requires more than two tons of Wisconsin cheddar delivered fresh and cut daily. The operation, also entirely volunteer-run, has been staged at the fair for more than 60 years.

The Big Cheese is one of few permanent structures at the fairgrounds and need to be cleaned and set up. Hogan said only experienced grillers are allowed to fry up sandwiches and it requires as many as four years of volunteering there before getting to man a spatula.

The Montgomery County Agricultural Fair is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Aug. 10.

For more information, visit www.mcagfair.com.

aruoff@gazette.net