Many years ago, Gary Mielke went to the Stephenson County Fair and came home with a question. Mielke and his siblings were well acquainted with the fair, having shown cattle at the fair for many years.

“Leonard Flack was there. He was pretty old, he had some age on him. He was working at the fair, and I looked at him and I said, I wonder who is going to fill his shoes,” Mielke asked.

Flack served the Stephenson County Fair for more than 50 years and was president of the fair board for 15 years.

Mielke didn’t realize it at the time, but he would someday be that person.

“I guess that was me, but I wasn’t planning on it at the time. Once you get involved, you stay involved,” Mielke said.

He has been involved with the Stephenson County Fair for about 35 years, serving as president of the fair board for the past eight years.

On Jan. 15, at the annual meeting of the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs in Springfield, Mielke was elected president of the IAAF board, the group that oversees, administers and lobbies for the state’s county fairs. One of the biggest and continuing tasks for the IAAF board is funding, making sure that rehabilitation funding and premium funding for county fairs are at least maintained in the state budget. That continues to be a challenge.

“It still is an issue. We get something back, and that’s better than getting nothing,” Mielke said.

Back home in Freeport, Mielke and the Stephenson County Fair Board are working on their next big rehab and improvement project in the fairgrounds track area. Work has started on raising and leveling areas of the straight track.

“My personal goal with the track is that I’d like to get it big enough to where we could have a small oval or circular track for monster trucks, racing lawnmowers, side-by-sides and four-wheelers. It would make a great staging area for tractor pulls and demo derbies,” he said.

With planning for the 2026 Stephenson County Fair all but concluded, Mielke and his board already are looking forward to 2027.

“We are talking about the events for 2027 now because there are some acts and attractions that you need to book at least a year in advance if you want to bring them to your fair,” he said.

Mielke said showing at the fair and being involved with the fair taught him life lessons, and those same lessons are the ones he hopes future generations take away from their fair experience.

“It teaches a sense of responsibility and taking care of something else, other than yourself. It teaches you how to talk to people of all ages. It teaches you sportsmanship; you have to stand there and you applaud for the winner, if that’s not you, and you congratulate the one who did win. You thank the judges for being there. You get that built into you, and you just learn to do that all the time,” he said.