Free admission surprises families

By Elise Franco

CANFIELD — The Canfield Fair board will surprise five more families with free admission.

Four families were chosen Saturday outside gates F and G for a free day at the fair by Sandie Brown and Debbie Schreiber, wives of fair board members. Five more will be pulled aside at the gates throughout the day today.

Schreiber said the pair didn’t have any real requirements for whom they would choose. They said the families could be as large as five or six people or as few as two.

She said their first crack at finding a family Saturday morning drew varied responses.

Brown said one boy they approached pointed to a group and said, “I’m with them,” before running away without their free admission. She said the next group they came across was a family of six from Cuyahoga County. It was their first time at the Canfield Fair.

“The first family we chose was apprehensive at first,” she said. “But they ended up hugging us.”

Each family chosen was given free entry to the fair, free ride wrist bands for each child and their choice of a free dinner on the fairgrounds or tickets to either the truck-and-tractor pull or the George Jones and Hank Williams Jr. concert.

Sharmayne Gay said she was shocked when Brown and Schreiber approached her and her three children Lana, 2; Bryson, 8; and Alexandra, 9.

“I wasn’t expecting that at all,” Gay, of Youngstown, said.

She said she was planning to buy ride passes for each of her kids, so she saved $60. She saved an additional $11 on admission as well as the cost of food.

“I’m planning to choose the free dinner,” she said. “I’m hungry.”

Peggy Graham of Ohioville, Pa., said she and her family come to the fair every year and are grateful to the fair board for choosing them to get in for free.

“I was surprised,” she said. “We were having a contest to see who could hold back the longest on the way in because whoever got to the gate first had to pay.”

Robin Graham, Peggy’s husband, seemed a bit skeptical at first but was happy to save in the cost of admission for his family of five.

“I’m saving $35, so it’s very nice,” he said.

Peggy Graham said this is the only vacation she and her family would be taking this summer, so it was a nice surprise.

Schreiber said they enjoy making people feel welcome at the fair.

“It’s nice to see that these people work so hard for their money, and they think the Canfield Fair is worth spending it on,” she said.

efranco@vindy.com