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It takes a lot of people doing their best to make the Mower County run as smooth as it does, and two of the hardest workers behind the scenes were honored during the opening ceremonies of the Mower County Fair on Tuesday afternoon.

Julie Grass and Kim Glover were named Fair Persons of the Year to kick off the festivities, and the honor was a long time coming for each of them, as they have put in many hours at the Mower County Fairgrounds.

Grass and Glover work with inputting data into computers so results for the open shows are tabulated and the winners are paid out. Glover said the job has gotten less stressful ever since they installed a new system that writes just one check for all of the winnings to each participant instead of handing out multiple checks to each winner.

“We actually started this program when I was on the board 20 years ago,” Glover said. “It’s been interesting and it’s been a lot easier to write one check instead of many checks for each kid.”

Grass said it felt nice to be honored and she also appreciates all of the work that other workers do behind the scenes.

“People don’t really realize all of the people who do things behind the scenes,” Grass said. “It’s nice that we have this to recognize all of the work they do.”

Even after years and years of being at the Mower County Fair, Glover still looks forward to spending time at the great Austin get together.

“I grew up with the fair forever and ever,” Glover said. “I used to show at the fair myself.”