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During Tuesday night’s opening ceremony at the Mower County Fair, the event was held on the Fair Square’s new permanent stage.

Painted red and reminiscent of barns from the past, the new stage not only provides a needed upgrade to Fair Square, but it also represents nine long years of work by fair volunteer and former board member Renee Wangen.

“It took me nine years to get that done and that’s where the Mower County Farm Bureau Association said yes last year,” Wangen said. 

Wangen is a familiar face around the grounds of the Mower County Fair, having spent the last nine years doing whatever she needed to do to help make it what it is today. Six of those years were on the Fair Board starting in 2014. At the time, Wangen said she was the first woman to serve on the board.

After a year of getting used to the position, Wangen began zeroing in on what would become her pet project. 

“We need a new stage,” she remembered saying. “They said that’s a lot of money. I’ll figure it out. I’ll find a sponsor.”

That’s when Wangen began approaching the Farm Bureau, reaching out at least once a year to see if they would be on board while also keeping the idea fresh among those on the Fair Board.

“Kudos to everybody from the Mower County Farm Bureau Association because I was like a thorn in everybody’s side,” she said. “I would call every year. Is this year? Is this the year? Is this when we’re doing this? When they said they were doing this, I was like, ‘yes!’”

The Farm Bureau is the major financial backer of the stage, but the project also received help from the fair itself as well as Mower County in getting completed.

Once the Farm Bureau gave the nod, plans were drawn up and work began. 

“It took a collaboration to get everything going,” Wangen said.

However, that’s only part of Wangen’s involvement at the fair. Over the years she has made it a point to be involved in the community, having been a Chamber Ambassador and been involved in Spruce Up Austin among several other areas of involvement.

However, the fair is a special place for Wanger and even after years serving on the board, she has still thrown her efforts into the six-day event as a volunteer, which she transitioned into in 2020. 

“You never really retire off of anything,” Wangen said. “There are things that I do because the guys have enough on their committees that I was still willing to keep.”

On any given day, Wangen can be seen patrolling up and down the fairgrounds to continue the work of nine years.

She chips in on a variety of areas that includes landscaping, tending to the flowers on the grounds, watching over the barnyard and more.

Because she is a volunteer, she’s been able to take on jobs that would otherwise take an extended period of time to accomplish, which includes gaining the addition of more seated areas in the form of handicap accessible and colored sponsored benches throughout.

“A lot of these things I just kind of took over because I knew they were projects that weren’t going to get done quickly whereas I had the time to do it,” Wangen said, adding that she was able to rely on a lot of volunteer help in the past like from 4-Hers and FFAers.

“A lot of that I just really, really enjoy doing,” she added.

And she’s not done. Wangen said there are other places on the grounds she would like to work on, including a new shower house and maintenance area for the grounds crew.

“My father-in-law was on the fair board and it’s time,” she said. “Some of the buildings he was maintaining are still standing.”

Being a part of the fair has been more than individual projects, regardless of how big or small they were. For Wangen, it’s the general, overall theme of what the fair represents that’s been such a draw for her over the years.

“It’s like a big playground,” she said. “When the kids come and I can hand them a free ice cream cone coupon and they’re on the games, petting the animals, putting apples on the trees in the barnyard … it’s just like a big play area. Everyone can come see each other and have a good time.”

“Personally, I’ve really liked the team I work with on the Fair Board and all the sponsors we have out here,” she continued. “They are really wonderful.”