It's mid-July, hot and humid and you don't even have to look at the calendar to realize it's Fair Week in Greene County.

The Greene County 4-H and Open Class Fair opens Saturday morning at the fairgrounds -- located one mile east of Switz City -- and runs through July 18.

A complete schedule of events was published in a special section that was circulated in our Friday paper. Watch the newspaper and Web site -- www.gcdailyworld.com -- all next week for a series of special stories.

I will admit that the fair is different from a lot of your traditional fairs and festivals.

And that's no accident.

Organizers for years have successfully sought to make it a "farm" or a "youth" fair geared toward the young 4-H member projects.

It's held in conjunction with the Open Class Fair -- which is for adults who showcase craft, art, photography, floral, needlepoint, gardening and food preservation and other projects.

That means if you like amusement rides and carnival mid-way, you probably are going to come away from this particular fair a little disappointed because there won't be any of those things.

4-H is a youth organization administered by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with the mission of "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development."

The name -- 4-H -- represents four personal development areas of focus for the organization: Head, heart, hands, and health.

The organization serves more than 6.5 million members in the United States, from ages 5 to 19 in approximately 90,000 clubs.

This includes nearly 1,000 Greene County youngsters. Those numbers make 4-H the largest single youth organization in this county.

The goal of 4-H is to develop citizenship, leadership, and life skills of youth through experiential learning programs. Though typically thought of as an agriculturally focused organization as a result of its history, 4-H today focuses on citizenship, healthy living, and science, engineering and technology programs.

4-H is one of the good and commendable programs that touches our youth in a direct educational way with lasting benefits. It's one that deserves our support.

The Greene County Fair is geared toward 4-H Club and Open Class projects from the Cooperative Extension Homemakers clubs.

The fair is put on by a loyal group of hardworking volunteers with guidance from the staff and employees of the Greene County Extension Service and the 4-H Council of Greene County.

Fair Week is the time of year when many of these volunteers take a week off from their regular jobs and donate their time to the youth of this county as club and project leaders as well as barn and event chairmen.

If you drive past the fairgrounds this week you will see a campground of RVs and trailers -- which house the 4-Hers, their parents and many of the volunteers.

This week is a time to showcase the hard work of those youngsters who have raised a variety of quality livestock and animals.

There will be a wide variety of beef cattle, dairy cattle, meat goats, dairy goats, hogs, poultry and fowl, rabbits and sheep in the barns.

It's a time to walk the fairgrounds and go in the barns and see and smell the good things about rural America first hand in your own backyard.

Visit the horse and pony shows and see some of the area's best equestrian animals and riders in competition.

It's a time for the 4-H members, who have developed life skills and hand-crafted projects from a list of nearly 100 possibilities, to compete and be judged and learn along the way.

It's a time to enjoy some delicious food -- like grilled ribeye steaks, corn on the cob, fish sandwiches, tacos in a bag, snow cones, cotton candy, corn dogs, funnel cakes and the like.

It's a time for the yearly Demolition Derby, tractor and truck pulls, baby contest, the Little Miss and Mr. competition and the pedal tractor pull.

It's the time to come out and enjoy the alway-hilarious Hog Wrestling and a new event this year called Ranch Rodeo.

Fair week is also a time to visit the commercial building and browse by the tables and displays set up the commercial vendors and pick up some of the freebies that will be given away.

Don't forget to stop by the Greene County Daily World/Shopper booth and say hello.

Yes, there is more to the Greene County Fair than just animals and farm stuff.

See you at the fair.

Nick is the assistant editor for the Greene County Daily World. He can be reached by telephone at 847-4487 or 1-800-947-4487 or by e-mail at schneider.nick@gmail.com or nschneider@gcdailyworld.com .