Best Annual Community Event
When opening up the Best of the Boro magazine, one thing you can bet on is that the Kiwanis Ogeechee Fair will be selected as the Best Annual Community Event – the annual fair has won the category every year since its addition to the awards ballot.
In its 62nd year, the week-long agricultural fair draws thousands from the region, serving seven local counties in 4-H, FFA and agricultural competitions. Proceeds from the Fair are distributed to numerous local charities and causes, returning tens of thousands of dollars back into the community each year.
Enjoying a long-term partnership with Amusements of America, which provides the midway filled with rides and games, the Statesboro Kiwanis Club spends the entire year in preparation for the next Fair, starting the day after the previous Fair closes down.
The 2024 Fair, which ran Oct. 14-Oct. 19, featured a wide array of entertainment, fun, midway rides and educational and agricultural exhibits.
The Fair includes commercial exhibits, livestock shows, arts and crafts, contests for baked goods, jams and jellies, crops and more. Students compete in projects for 4-H and FFA, and the Heritage Village features two rows of local vendors, as well as historical exhibits such as an old general store, honey producers, a grist mill, farm equipment of days gone by and the Aldrich House and farmstead.
And, of course, the Pancake House.
Best Civic Organization
Similar to the Fair being named Best Community Event, the Kiwanis Club of Statesboro has been selected as Best Civic Organization every year since that category was added, as well.
You might say that the event and the club are pretty well known in the Statesboro community.
And Statesboro is better for it. The Kiwanis Club gives back into the community in so many meaningful ways.
“The Kiwanis Club of Statesboro distinguishes itself in Bulloch County through our commitment to supporting children across various organizations, projects, and programs,” said Becky Sanders, Marketing Committee member.
Recently, the club created “Project Eaglet.” As Sanders explained, it’s a partnership with the Bulloch County school system and Georgia Southern University to create educational opportunities for 1st-5th graders, who visit five outreach centers on the university campus.
The club boasts 145 members, and that membership turns into a mighty workforce during Kiwanis Fair week and Kiwanis Rodeo week, raising money for over 200 organizations in the seven-county area served by the club – Bulloch, Screven, Jenkins, Tattnall, Evans, Candler and Bryan. In fact, the club donated over $200,000 to those communities in 2023.