2020 Results: https://fairentry.com/Fair/Results/14850

Thank you for your support and dedication to the 4-H youth in St. Joseph County. Due to prevention measures for the COVID-19 pandemic, the St. Joseph County Grange Fair decided to cancel the Grange Fair for 2020. In addition, Michigan State University has suspended all 4-H face-to-face activities until further notice. With these mandates in place, we have decided to provide the St. Joseph County 4-H youth with a virtual alternative to showcase their project animals for 2020. This allowed the youth to upload pictures and videos of their projects and still participate in a 4-H event to complete their 4-H year. We will not however be having a 4-H livestock auction. Donors will NOT be obtaining any animals through this process. We understand that this is hard on the youth who have worked tirelessly with their animals to provide you, donors and buyers, with quality animals to support the youth. With this in mind, we are going to offer you an option to still support the youth who participate in the virtual showcase.

The virtual showcase will be open for you to view/“add-on” September 20-23, 2020. You will need to create then log-in to your account. Once you are logged in, you will need to select the auction to be able to view the 4-H members that are participating in the “auction”. Here you will be able to use the “add-on” button and support the youth that you might have as if we were having the livestock auction. Note: Please only use the “add-on” portion of the page, not the bid portion as no animals are being sold. The “add-on” is a sum of money donated by an individual, business, agency or organization to the youth seller. The donor is not interested in buying the youth’s livestock; however, they do wish to donate a sum or money to the youth to acknowledge their hard work and efforts put forth in their project. Please understand that if you would like to own the animal, you will need to contact the 4-H member direct and it will be a private treaty sale. The “add-on” option is for those who want to donate to the 4-H member and not own the animal. For more information on how to donate to a youth, please see: https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/4-h-virtual-auction-add-ons

Payment: Donations (add-on) payments can be paid by credit card or check. Checks should be made out to “SJC 4-H Livestock Association” and mailed to the MSU Extension office at 612 East Main Street, Centreville, MI 49032. There will be an added 4% charge for credit card transactions. All payments are due by October 9, 2020. Invoices not paid by October 9, 2020 will be subjected to late fees.

For more resources on registering and making a donation on our virtual platform, go to the Potential Buyers page on the Michigan State University Extension Virtual Learning Showcase & Auctions website (http://canr.msu.edu/virtual-showcase). There is a short video tutorial also that you can find at https://fairentry.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051558713-Quick-Video-for-Online-Auction-Buyers-bids-and-payments.

We appreciate all of our past and future donors and buyers for your continued support of the St. Joseph County 4-H Youth. If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact Eva Beeker at beekere@msu.edu.