Lost Children's Booth Wins Fair Award
By Diane Booth Conway,
Merced County Fair Communications & Marketing Director

It can happen. Everyone is having a great time, walking around the fairgrounds, strolling through the exhibit buildings, munching on corndogs, admiring the animals and checking out the carnival rides.

Suddenly, you turn around and one of your kids or grandkids isn’t there. You’re at the Merced County Fair and a child isn’t where he or she should be. That’s where the Lost Children’s Booth comes in.

When kids are separated from their parents or other adults at the Merced County Fair there’s a place where they can hang out and have a cold drink, color a picture or play with toys while waiting to be reunited with Mom and Dad.

For more than 20 years, the Lost Children’s Booth has been that special spot for dozens and dozens of youngsters who couldn’t find their parents after going on a carnival ride or wandering through an exhibit building. Run by Mercy Medical Center, the booth in the shade of the Grandstand is where lost kids wait to be found.

Janice Wilkerson, the Mission Integration Director for Mercy Medical Center, who oversees the fair’s Lost Children’s Booth, was recently given the Western Fairs Association’s 2008 Blue Ribbon Award, the highest honor offered by the group. The Association is the non-profit trade group serving the fair industry throughout the Western United States and Canada.

Wilkerson accepted the plaque from Merced County Fair Board President Mark Erreca and Merced County Fair CEO Robin Hauck at a meeting of the Mercy Medical Center Foundation’s Heritage Club.

The Lost Children’s Booth began at the fair about 1985, according to Wilkerson’s research. Wilkerson has overseen the Lost Children’s Booth for six years, making sure all children have only happy memories of their visits to the Merced County Fair.

The Lost Children’s Booth at the fair is just one of the hospital’s community partnerships, Wilkerson said. “Mercy Medical Center has a very strong, compassionate commitment to our community. We are always willing to partner with others in the community in areas that improve the health and safety of our residents.”

Her job is to coordinate plans with fairgrounds personnel and to recruit volunteers to staff the booth. That means getting about 40 volunteers to help out at the six-day fair, with a minimum of two volunteers per shift.

 “That’s one of the things that I’m really proud of,” Wilkerson said. “I don’t have a hard time finding volunteers because our employees are so willing to give their time. Some of our volunteers have been helping out at the Lost Children’s Booth for years.”

Once all the volunteers are lined up, Wilkerson reviews a packet of training materials with them. She supervises the booth set-up and makes sure it’s well supplied with toys, crayons, and coloring books. Each day she restocks the ice chests with water and ice. Then she contacts all the volunteers to ensure they will be at the booth. “They take their commitment seriously. They are very, very supportive,” she said of her volunteers.

Once the fair is up and running, Wilkerson said the Lost Children’s Booth volunteers works closely with the Merced County Sheriff’s Department command center that’s located near the booth by the Grandstand.

As for the numbers of lost kids who end up at the booth, Wilkerson said, “You might have a night where there aren’t any lost kids. The most I’ve seen there in one night was six children.”

Wilkerson was born and raised in Merced and grew up going to the fair. Her father, Vern Taylor, served on the Merced County Fair’s Board of Directors. She has fond memories of trips to the fair as a child and later, as a mother.

“We always had fun going to the fair -- it was a big deal. We would always go as a family and when I got older we’d meet our friends there. When I was 16, I worked at a stand that sold hot dogs and corn-on-the-cob on a stick,” she recalls.

As an adult, Wilkerson has won ribbons for the watercolor paintings she exhibited at the fair but her favorite fair memory was when she took her two daughters to the fair for the first time when they were just 4 and 6 years old. “We went on the rides and they were so excited to see all the lights and the people. We witnessed the birth of a calf in the Mooternity Ward and just sat there the whole time and watched it. My daughters just couldn’t believe it. Providing experiences that some kids wouldn’t normally see is a really neat part of the fair.”

For information, call the fair office at 722-1507 or email Info@MercedCountyFair.com or fax at 722-3773. Visit the 2008 Merced County Fair’s award-winning website, www.MercedCountyFair.com

Top of page