Sandwich Fair Times 2026final - Flipbook - Page 26
Planning and Planting
Spring, summer, and fall, a Leland High
School student’s work enhances appearances at the fairgrounds. Lewis Anderson
tends to seven movable planters and the
circle flower bed. It’s his Supervised Agricultural Experience for FFA. The 17-year
old started the project in eighth grade and
has help from his mom, dad, and brother.
so now he’s working on the national.
plant right in front of a really short plant
Like the plants, Lewis’s project is dor- so that it might restrict some light or airmant in winter. Come spring, his family flow and make it harder for the shorter
orders seeds and starts planting. Petunias one to be both living and seen.”
and cannas come up easiest. Cannas grow
from a bulb-like mass called a rhizome.
“Those, you just kind of pop in the ground
and they multiply. They grow really easi“We plant petunias. We plant snapdrag- ly.” But he doesn’t want things too easy.
ons. Sometimes we plant peppers and “Something like snapdragons, those are a
little harder to grow and they can be a little more finicky at times.”
Lewis benefits greatly by understanding
plants diversity,. “I use some of the easier
ones to take up more space but use some
of the harder ones to put in more pops of
color or change things up.” He’s also mindful of what things will look like months
later. “We don’t want to plant a really tall
eggplants to provide more variety of foliage inside the planters,” he says. “There
are many di昀昀erent things and ways just to
provide more color and to keep things interesting.”
Lewis says his family spends a couple
hours every week maintaining the garden
bed and planters throughout the growing
season. There’s always weeding to do. “We
also deal with bugs a lot too, especially
now getting into the season. It’s hot. It’s
wet. There’s definitely still some standing
water in places, so bugs are breeding and
they’re definitely around. So making sure
that we’re keeping the foliage and the
leaves on the plant really nice is definitely
a battle we’re facing.”
The National FFA Organization, originally
named Future Farmers of America, encourages students to earn degrees at the state
and national levels through local projects.
Lewis achieved the statewide recognition,
If you like what you see in the planters
and flower bed, please take only pictures.
A plant nursery, a gardener friend, or a student in FFA can help you start your own
plants.
Still in the Running:
Horses at the Sandwich Fair
A long-running decline in
horse racing in Illinois could
have you wondering if the
sport is on its last legs. It’s
down to one day at the Sandwich Fair when it used to go
for two. Many families that
used to race horses don’t anymore.
the horse racing community,
those parts of the fairgrounds
go to cattle and poultry now.
Dudzik believes the commitment required for horse
racing is too much for many
people today. It costs a lot to
care for and transport a horse
from race to race. “By the
time you travel, you figure in
your gas, all that stu昀昀, I mean,
you’ve got to make money
every time you go.” Shrinking
prizes make it less viable.
options: travel much longer
to race, relocate to be closer
to the races, or join the exodus from the sport. Dudzik
thought it over a昀琀er his father died 15 years ago. “People
would be forced to move their
families out of state, which
means taking their kids out
of school here and then put
them in a new school. That’s
something that I looked at
heavily. I didn’t want to move
my family out of state.”
customers to riverboat casinos, electronic gambling parlors, online platforms, and
even state lotteries. Other
states have managed the shi昀琀
better. Illinois allows racinos-casinos at race tracks--now.
Yet, the sport is still withering
here.
To be clear, betting is NOT
part of the Sandwich Fair
horse racing experience. But
when year-round tracks close,
fewer racers remain to go to
Dudzik says horse racing still once-per-year events.
It’s also hard to take a break.
thrives
in Kentucky, Indiana,
Dudzik wants to support the
Dudzik compares horse racing
and
Ohio.
He
says
it’s
doing
sport as long as he can keep a
to dairy farming in that you
okay
in
New
Jersey.
Why
not
foot in it. “I just continue to
have to look a昀琀er the animals
“I actually did train out at every day of the year. Their Illinois? It might have to do like to keep it going as long as
Sandwich Fairgrounds, and needs don’t take weekends or with something not allowed we can, as long as there is still
that’s where from the time holidays. Going on vacation at county fairs. The Chicago a track there that we can use.
I was five years old, I can re- means arranging for some- Tribune’s Chicago Magazine And I still want to provide for
member going out there all one else to feed and exercise reported last year, indus- the people that are still in the
try experts blame expanded races. You know, I care about
the way up until ten or twelve them for the duration.
gambling opportunities.
those people that are still goyears ago when I got out of
As Illinois-based horse racIllinois race tracks that are ing at it.”
it”. He recalls stalls there and ers have gotten out of it,
horses running every day. race tracks have closed. The sustained year-round to a
But with less demand from families still in it had tough large degree by bettors lose
Sandwich Fair Race Coordinator Jerry Dudzik is a
fourth generation horse racer. His great-grandfather
did it. Dudzik and his father
raced horses together. He
has retired from the sport
and doesn’t have children or
grandchildren who are into it.
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2026 Sandwich Fair Times
© Nelson Publishing, Inc.
