Monday, June 29, 2015

Poultry Days overcomes weather’s curve balls for another successful festival


Poultry Days wrapped a successful “Take Me Out to the Poultry Days Festival” on Sunday despite the weather throwing several curve balls. The familiar question is, “What was the number of dinners sold?” While the record of 26,101 remains elusive, dinner sales did increase from 24,780 to 25,200. Storms on Friday afternoon and late Sunday put a damper on volume but couldn’t hold the festival back from breaking 2014 numbers. Attendance was so high that after the World Famous Barbecue Chicken sold out many other vendors began selling out of food as well. The weekend was a blur of activity with entertainment, contests, and displays. The switch to Kissel Brothers Rides and their greatly reduced ride prices was very successful pulling in large crowds to the midway. The Social Tent aka The Coop continued to serve canned beer and saw increased attendance with many taking advantage of the expanded seating near the tent. First-time visitors and vendors were surprised at the large numbers in attendance and are eager to return to the Chicken City celebration next year.

Rhylan Broerman is this year’s Little Miss Poultry Days while Averi Ahrns of Yorkshire was first runner up and Caleigh Stebbins of Greenville was the second runner up. Rhylan is the daughter of Nick & Amber Broerman and lives in Yorkshire. Christa Puthoff of Versailles (daughter of Steve and Marlene Puthoff) became the 2015 Miss Chick and was sponsored by St. Denis Youth Ministry. Christa is a 2015 Versailles graduate and a member of the State Champion Basketball and Volleyball teams as well as active in St. Denis Church, FFA, student council, 4-H and National Honor Society. She will be attending The University of Findlay in the fall where she will be studying nursing and playing basketball. First runner up, Taylor Stover, daughter of Eric and Julie Stover, was sponsored by Pohl Trucking and second runner up, Rachel Osterloh, daughter of Luke and Sharon Osterloh, was sponsored by Versailles FFA. Expect to see more of Christa, Taylor, Rachel and Rhylan as they represent Poultry Days over the next year. The Miss Chick Pageant was sponsored by Second National Bank while The Versailles Savings & Loan sponsored Little Miss Poultry Days.

Bob and Kathy Frey were the Honorary Parade Marshals of the Grand Parade which saw increased participation to over 125 units. The Antique Car & Tractor Display and Parade saw strong participation despite the chance of storms early Sunday and enjoyed the new location at Versailles High School. Grand Parade Awards were: Junior Civic Award- Versailles Busy Beavers, Senior Civic Award - Minster Oktoberfest, Commercial Award - Midmark, Theme Award - The Winery at Versailles, Queen’s Award - Brilliant Beginnings, Mayor’s Trophy - YMCA of Darke County - Gymnastics Team and Chairman’s Choice - Kaup’s Pharmacy. One of the parade favorites was the Midmark float which was pulled by a replica of the 1968 El Camino that retired CEO Jim Eiting used to make early medical sales.


The Michigan based “Breasts & Thighs” team won the 34th Annual Poultry Days Ultimate Tournament making this their third championship at Poultry Days. Not only did ultimate teams from throughout the country compete and have fun they also raised $9,500 for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society with their Cool Hand Luke Egg Eating Contest. The winner ate 25 hardboiled eggs and was a member of the Unexpected Fowl team from Texas. Fifty-nine teams with nearly as many members present as the total population of Versailles competed, including teams from Montana, Texas, and Toronto, Canada.

Under YOLO’s leadership registration for the 5K increased to 508 with another 100 participating in the Fun Run making it one of Darke County’s largest 5Ks. Libby Long of Covington won the women’s division for the second consecutive year with a time of 18:22.2, while Kyle Bowman of Troy won the men’s division with a time of 16:05.4. Top team finishers were Team Addie Girl, Team YOLO, and Tigers in Training. For more results go to www.yoloorg.com. The 3rd annual SuperFit results were: LouAnn Henderson of Wyoming won 1st place in the women’s 45+, John Thiebeau of Versailles won 1st place in the men’s 45+, Angel Shiverdecker of Arcanum won 1st place for women 35-44, Travis Beeson of Columbus won 1st place for men 35-44, Brandon Wirrig of Bradford won 1st place for men 18-34 for the third year in a row, and Matt Kelch of Versailles won 1st place for men 25-34. Cornhole Tournament Champions were: Thomas Braughton of West Alexandra, Ohio and Johnny Haworth of Lewisburg, Ohio, 2nd Place went to Travis Jess of Piqua and Ray Monnin of Houston and 3rd Place went to Rob Rodriques of Versailles and Jamie Fisherback of Huber Heights.

The Darke County Photography Show held their County Photography Show for the third year at Poultry Days drawing photographers from throughout the surrounding area. Best of Show went to Ruth McDaniel, Student Best of Show went to Taylor Davis and the Presidential award went to Noah Sealscott. The student 12 and Up winner was Taylor Davis, Photo Journalism First Place was Jeannie Grosch, Architecture First Place was Jeannie Grosch, People First Place was Tiffanie Mora and Unclassified First Place was Tiffanie Mora.

The Poultry Days Flower Show was overflowing with flowers again this year and as always well managed by the Versailles Garden Club. Winners for 2015 were: Leona Monnin won Best of Show for her delphinium. Alan Monnin won Best of Show for his red rose, Hybrid Tea "Liebensgauber". The Best of Show in the Artistic Arrangements was won by Alan Monnin for his entry in "Having a Ball" featuring alliums and a well-used ball glove.

In the Two on Two Basketball Tournament for Boys 10-11, 1st place went to “Takeover” (Jaydon Litten and Layne Sarver), 2nd place went to “Blue Flames” (Joe Ruhenkamp and Ben Ruhenkamp). For Boys 12-13, 1st place went to “Loramie Elite” (Adam Deweese and Nick Brandewie), 2nd place went to “Flyin T’s” (Reece Stammen and Issac Barga). For boys 14-17, 1st place went to “Talls and Smalls” (Kyle Pothast and Carter May), 2nd place went to “Splash Bros” (Blake Holthous and Mason Dapore). For Men 18-30, 1st place went to “4th Place” (Jacob Wenning and Chad Winner) and 2nd place went to “Thunder Mid Flight” (Justin Ahrens and Ryan Knapke).

Winners of the Free Kiddie Tractor Pull sponsored by US Bank were: 3-4 Year Olds: 1st Place, Jayden Delancey of Grove Hill; 2nd Place, Ryder Brown of Versailles; 3rd Place, Damien Whittaker of Russia. 5-6 Year Olds: 1st Place, Gavin Breeze of Versailles; 2nd Place, Landyn Knapke of Versailles; 3rd Place, Kourtney Jenkinson of Versailles. 7-8 Year Olds: 1st Place, Owen Demange of Versailles; 2nd Place, Cade Bergman of Yorkshire; 3rd Place, Andrew Lyons of Versailles. These powerhouses pulled up to 350 pounds to earn their trophies!

The best of the show winners in the Cake show were chosen by our judges for height, texture, and flavor. Best of Show Winners were: Girls – Shyanne Oliver. Women – Natalie Oliver.
Girls Flavored – Kaia Kruckenberg. Chocolate – Madilyn Kelch. Boys – Ben Gehret. Men – Josh Munroe. Sr Women – Leona Monnin. Adult Flavored – Katelyn Goettemoeller. Best of Show in the Egg Events were: White Eggs – Elana Oliver, Brown Eggs – Edward DeLoye, Unusual Eggs – Kyle Miller. Adult Dyed Egg Art – Mary Miller, Adult Egg Art – Kristy Miller. Youth Dyed Egg Art – Mackenzie Bohman. Youth Egg Art – Katelyn Delzeith.

It’s a long wait for the next festival but there is little rest for the board which is already making notes for how to improve the festival. Their monthly meetings resume in August as they continue to advance the festival and find a way to beat that chicken sales record. We want to thank our partners and volunteers along with everyone who visited the festival and invite you to visit Versailles again on June 10, 11 and 12th, 2016 for the 65th annual Poultry Days. For more information go to www.versaillespoultrydays.com.

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