Alva Review-Courier -

The Woods County Fair brought fellowship and fun to the residents of the area. It brought ribbons and success for Freedom students involved in art classes at Freedom, or involved in FACS, 4H, FCCLA or FFA.

Art and FACS teacher Darci Immell had some of her students work on projects in her classes and enter them in the fair. She required students in all her classes to work on two projects of their choice to enter. Elementary through high school students who take a class with Immell had the chance to enter art, photography and cooking projects. "I let the students choose whatever they wanted to do, and then we figure out how to do them together," Immell said.

Many of the students in Immells classes, 4H and FCCLA succeeded with cooking, as they were able to cook right in Immell's classroom using the school's FACS classroom utilities. Every student who entered a baked good placed.

Sophomore Maddison Rhodes won first place with her peanut brittle and fudge, eighth grader Ally Nusser won first place for her peanut butter cookies, sophomore Ariana White won first place for her peanut butter filled cookies, eighth grader Maddie Kirkpatrick placed third with her layered cookie and seventh grader Landon Cook placed third with his homemade chocolate chip cookies that he entered through 4-H. "I try to enter things through 4-H because those were the projects that could go to state," Immell said.

One unique entry the students had a chance to work on and enter was wood burning projects. First-place winners in this category were eighth grader Ally Nusser, senior Cade Kennedy and sophomore Dreama Jones. According to Immell, the school was able to buy the wood burning kits from Wal-Mart, and students were able to work on the projects in her classroom. Students burned designs of their choice on the pieces of wood by drawing their design on the wood and then burning over that drawing with a wood burning tool.

Other students had art entries such as paintings, jewelry, duct tape projects and photography. Sophomore Jaci Weber won first place with her homemade fanny pack and third place with her painting with a first place frame made by Levi Weber. Sophomore Kaitlynn Rhodes won second with her painting and third with a duct tape backpack. Ariana White placed second for a stuffed teddy bear that she made. Sophomore Peyton Kirkpatrick took home a grand champion ribbon with her handmade jewelry and her sister Maddie Kirkpatrick won third with a piece of her jewelry.

Sisters Reagan and Shay Wilson took home many ribbons with paintings they worked on in Immell's class. Reagan won second place with her painting. Shay took home second and third place ribbons with two of her paintings. Shay also won second place with her duct tape wallet. In addition, Shay entered a painting through 4-H which had the opportunity to be displayed at the Oklahoma State Fair in the past week.

In photography entered by the art class and 4-H, Peyton Kirkpatrick won first, second and third places with her photography, and Maddie Kirkpatrick won third. Jaci Weber also received a second place ribbon with one photo she entered in the category.

Sixth, seventh and eighth graders (from left) Ally Nusser, Shay Wilson and Gavin Rhodes hold up their winning county fair projects.

"Every year I am so impressed with their creativity and how hard they work, especially since it is the beginning of the school year," Immell said.

FFA members entered the Woods County Fair livestock judging contest with Kaitlynn Rhodes winning second in her team, Jaci Weber winning third and Payton Kirkpatrick winning fifth in that team as well. Many FFA members also took home winning titles in showing, like senior Summer Ralston who won reserve champion heifer, Peyton Kirkpatrick who won Reserve Crossbred steer and junior Lindsey Weber who took home reserve grand steer.

Seniors Myles Nixon and Lance Bolar entered horseshoe figures through FFA where Nixon took home first place and Champion Senior Horseshoe Figure Sweepstakes, Levi Weber took home second place with his welding project, and Bolar took home 3rd and 4th place ribbons with his bottle holder welding project.