Kountryside Kids 4-H Club petting zoo at Hall County Fair draws huge crowds

Kids and baby animals -- a sure winner in everybody's book.

And that's the case at the Hall County Fair this year as the Kountryside Kids 4-H Club sponsored a Petting Zoo for the second straight year.

With baby chicks, pigs, rabbits and goats to pet, it's a must-go attraction for kids of every age, such as Annie Albers, 10, of Grand Island, who was lovingly handling the baby rabbits and chicks.

It was Annie's first time visiting the Hall County Fair, and the petting zoo has her hooked for repeated visits for years to come.

"I really, really like it," Annie said about the petting zoo, "because you really get to experience all the animals."

For Annie, the baby bunnies were her favorite.

And it's also a learning experience for the 10-year-old.

"I learned that the bunnies will scratch you," she said.

Kountryside Kids 4-H leader Larry Rauert said the idea for the petting zoo originated with the club's 4-H'ers.

"Last year we had some kids who thought that there was a lot of city people that didn't know a lot about animals," Rauert said. "Questions would come up and people call animals by their wrong names."

That's when the 4-H'ers came up with a hands-on project that would teach their city cousins something about animal husbandry -- the petting zoo.

"It wasn't something that the adults came up with," Rauert said. "It was the kids."

And, Rauert said, the first year they put on the petting zoo, "It was phenomenal."

This year, the Hall County Fair board helped the club out by providing more room for the petting zoo.

This year's petting zoo is dedicated to the club's former assistant leader, Les Scholz, who died in July. Rauert said Scholz played a big role last year in helping the 4-H'ers organize the petting zoo.

And the crowds this year have been even larger, something Scholz would have been proud of.

"Last night (Thursday) the crowd was phenomenal," Rauert said. "It was wall-to-wall people in here."

The petting zoo includes baby pigs, lambs, calves, rabbits, chicks and goats. It leads right into the small animal exhibit on the east side of the red barn.

"We wanted to educate kids who didn't know so much about the farm," said Micah Rauert, a 4-H'er in the club.

Micah said last year there were as many as 90 people visiting the petting zoo at one time.

The concept was so successful that it was copied by other county fairs in Nebraska, he said.

"We want to keep it growing," Micah said. "It's a really good program that can help out in Hall County and around the area. You would be surprised about some of the questions we get."

Those questions range from how old the animals are to what kind of animals they are.

A foreign exchange student from Germany, Adreas Vetter of Offenburg, who is staying with Micah and his family this school year, liked the idea of the petting zoo and was getting some of his questions answered, also.

"It's fun," Adreas said.

He said he doesn't remember ever seeing a petting zoo in Germany.

Living on a farm with his host family, Adreas said, he's learning a lot about how farmers care for their livestock.

"It's a learning experience," he said. "It's been interesting. It seems like every day there's something new. I like seeing the animals."

Christy Burnett, Hall County 4-H program coordinator, said the petting zoo is a good example of the innovative, fun and educational programs developed by local 4-H members.

"Projects like these helps the community realize the 4-H isn't just about the cows and the pigs and the goats," Burnett said. "There are a lot of different projects 4-H'ers can do. If the community hears from these kids how much they really know about their animals, the public will know that the 4-H'ers are learning by being involved with 4-H."