Fair to feature exhibits, carnival

Kids’ eyes will light up today as the carnival rides will be at full-throttle for the first day of the Roosevelt County Fair.

County residents can begin getting on the carnival rides, starting at 5 p.m. at the Roosevelt County Fairgrounds. The Murphy Brothers Expo ,with the help of Reed Expositions, will have carnival rides Wednesday through Sunday.

Every day the carnival workers will have the rides from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., except on Saturday. On Saturday the rides will be from noon to 11 p.m.

Carnival workers continued to set up their rides on Wednesday. One carnival worker said it was his first time to Portales and likes the town.

The carnival workers were touring in Wisconsin, Racine, Monroe and Milwaukee for the Wisconsin State Fair before arriving to Portales. They will be heading out to Albuquerque for the New Mexico State Fair from Sept. 9 to Sept. 25.

The rides cost between two to four tickets and each ticket costs one dollar. Anyone can purchase an armband for $15 to get them into all of the rides. The carnival will have fun houses featuring Hollywood stars and Rugrats, a Ferris Wheel, Dragon Wagon ride, carousels, bumper cars, swings and trains.

The carnival will also have the Super Loop roller-coaster ride high in the air during the fair. The ride, which is between 50-55 feet high, has shoulder restraints and during the ride the train will stop, go in reverse, and speed in both directions.

New Mexico Christian Children’s Home staff members will put together a pork-chop breakfast at $5 a plate from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in the Jake Lopez Building. Charles Anderson, executive director of the New Mexico Christian Children’s Home, said this will be the seventh annual pork-chop breakfast.

Anderson said mostly staff members cook, prepare and serve the breakfast because many of the children at the home are busy with projects for the fair. He said most of the New Mexico Christian Children’s Home children have livestock to show at the fair and some have arts and crafts.

“We have 22 kids who have something entered in the fair,” Anderson said. He said there are 58 children total from the NMCCH. “It’s (fair) always a highlight each year for them. They spend lots of time working on their projects. They spend time exercising and feeding their animals.”

Anderson said the breakfast helps raise money for the children’s home, which is financed through church members and private individuals. For the most part, though, the event helps create awareness about the New Mexico Christian Children’s Home.

Jana Roberts, Roosevelt County Fair board president, said one of the big draws at the fair is the Kid’s Pig Chase, which will take place today at 4 p.m. in the show arena. People who want to register their children who are eight years old or younger can do it before 4 p.m.

“It’s a lot of good fun, but you can’t call it good, clean fun,” Roberts joked, because many of the children get dirt on their clothes while trying to capture the pig. “Some of the kids get right in there and some of them are timid.”

The chases are separated by each age group: Eight, seven, six, five and four years and younger. Roberts said the event draws not only the parents of the participants but others because it’s exciting and entertaining.