The Lancaster County Fair kicked off on Thursday, and one of this year’s first animal shows gives children with disabilities a hands-on fair experience.
Unified Showing is a group that allows youth with disabilities to pair up with a buddy who helps them care for and show sheep at the county fair. Allison Walbrecht is the founder and president of Unified Showing. She said the kids help with every step of the showing process.
“They’re involved with every single thing we do. They wash, they shear, they feed, they walk them. They do absolutely everything with that lamb, and today in the ring when they exhibited everybody can see just how much hard work they put into it,” she said.
6 kids participated in the Lancaster County show, each of them joined in the show ring by their buddy. Walbrecht said she was inspired to start the group in 2019 because of the barriers she saw for children with disabilities.
“I got so annoyed that there’s so many boundaries up for my friends because of an ability level and a diagnosis. I wanted to tear down anything I possibly could in terms of boundaries, I kind of made a way for them so they could be involved in agriculture,” she said.
Unified Showing branches in Otoe and Gage counties also had sheep shows on Thursday.