Star-Journbal Editor
Imagine Gina Andrews' first job interview after graduating from Kansas State University, three years from now:
Interviewer: Your resume shows you worked at the Marion County Fair between your freshman and sophomore year. What did you do?
Andrews: I was fair manager.
Interviewer: You managed a fair booth?
Andrews: No sir, I managed the whole thing.
Interviewer: What thing?
Andrews: Everything. I managed the entire fair.
Interviewer: And you were how old at the time?
Andrews: I was 19, sir.
Interviewer: Well, I think we're done here, Miss Andrews.
How soon can you start?
If she should need a reference from her current summer employer, Andrews will have to give fair board president Chuck McLinden some time to get his superlatives in order.
"The job she's done for us since she's started at the first of the summer, let's just say, well, it's been a gift, or whatever, I don't know what the words are," McLinden said.
What McLinden would like to say is, as manager of the Marion County Fair, Andrews is doing a grand champion job.
Home on summer break from K-State, Andrews was working two days a week for the chamber of commerce, and three days a week at the golf course, where her father, Gary, is the manager.
The job of fair manager came open unexpectedly this summer, as two people prepared to leave the chamber office for other jobs.
Suddenly Andrews' two days a week became an around-the-clock race to get everything ready before the fair, which begins Wednesday and runs through Aug. 12, in Hillsboro. Now that fair time is here, Andrews will be the on-site manager at the fairgrounds.
"I'm staying really busy, but I'm having fun, too," Andrews said, multitasking at her desk Friday. "It's a lot bigger job than I expected, but it's going OK though. I have good people I'm working with."
At first her desktop appears to have been visited by a flock of migrating yellow butterflies.
On second glance, the yellow wings are sticky notes, stacked neatly together in rows.
"I got a lot of things done yesterday, so my to-do list is actually pretty short right now; so you caught me on a good day," Andrews said, showing a sheet of notebook paper on which every line was filled.
"It's all coming together," she added, with a laugh. "I'm not panicking as much as I was before."
Funny thing about that.
McLinden had been panicking when the job was open, but he's not panicked anymore.
"Gina was hired based on the recommendation we got from people who knew her and knew her skills," he said, as the superlatives began to flow.
"To be honest, she's gone so far over and above my expectations, it's incredible. She has done so much to make the fair go smoothly, it's amazing.
"I've never worked with a fair manager that was easier to work with and got so much accomplished in so short amount of time."
The sticky note system has been effective, and the to-do lists have certainly helped. But to understand how a 19-year-old could be so effective and highly thought of, consider her 12 years experience as a member of the South Cottonwood 4-H Club.
As a 4-H'er, Andrews focused on sewing, cooking, and, you guessed it, leadership skills.
"I think 4-H in general is a really good way to teach responsibility," said Andrews, who is majoring in Family and Consumer Sciences and plans to teach home economics.
Andrews was crowned county 4-H Fair Queen two years ago, winning the vote of her peers, despite never showing an animal in all the years she belonged.
"You get a different take on 4-H living in town instead of living on a farm. You still get a lot of good out of it, though.
"You meet a lot of people and it opens a lot of opportunities."
McLinden, whose two children participate in 4-H, said Andrews' abilities proved the benefits of the organization.
"For a 19-year-old girl she has so much confidence in her abilities without being cocky about it," McLinden said.
"Being comfortable doing what she does, dealing with the public, I can see how 4-H has helped her developed the confidence to do that."
After the praisefest was over, McLinden finally admitted that Andrews had done one thing that he wasn't happy about.
Not happy at all.
She told McLinden that she planned to stay at K-State next summer to take classes, and wouldn't be around to manage the fair next year,.
McLinden considered offering her a raise from her meager salary, but changed his mind.
"As far as I'm concerned, there's no way we could pay her what she's been worth to us, anyway," he said.
