The Merced retiree and his wife, Betty, enter the fair’s annual theme contest every year. This year one of his eight theme suggestions – “Wetlands, Water & Wildlife,” was selected by the Fair’s Board of Directors as the winner of the 2010 Merced County Fair’s theme competition. The theme commodity of the 119th fair is water and wetlands.

Denno will receive $100 for his theme idea and a pair of season passes to the six-day fair, June 15-20, 2010.

Denno, who lives in Merced, has been enjoying retirement for the past year. He and his wife owned and operated Davis Office Systems, a local computer and copier business for 49 years. The couple is busy traveling but went all out for the 2009 Fair. “We are big fairgoers,” Jeff Denno said. The Dennos entered three of the fair’s “Day of” cooking contests and took home first place honors for all three entries in the “Chocolate Passion” “Almond Delights” and “It’s The Cheese,” competitions. The Dennos also entered the scarecrow contest and their entry was awarded the “Best of Show” ribbon.

The contest winner is overflowing with pride that his entry made the biggest splash among the almost 300 submissions. “That’s great, it’s always fun to see what my wife and I come up with.”

David Witt of Atwater entered “Wetland Wonderland,” the second place winner in the competition. Ardene Shaeffer of Merced took third place for her theme idea, “The Wonders of Water.” The second and third place winners will each receive a pair of season passes to the fair.

Now that the 2010 fair has a theme, the next step is to launch the search for a winning graphic design. The fair is sponsoring a contest to find a logo that best illustrates the theme. The deadline to submit entries is Friday, Oct. 30 at 5 p.m.

The creator of the top design wins $500, a pair of season passes to the fair, and the thrill of seeing their winning artwork used to promote the fair on everything from T-shirts, posters and billboards to banners and buttons. The competition is open to Merced County residents only.

“We’d like the community to come up with some wildly creative designs for our logo contest,” said Thomas D. “Tom” Musser, the fair’s CEO. “We’re hoping to get a flood of fun logo designs to illustrate our new theme.”

The fair’s board of directors will select the first, second and third place graphic design winners at their November 16 board meeting. The second and third place winners will each receive a pair of season passes to the fair.

To enter the contest, artists may use any medium and submit a maximum of three entries on 8-1/2 by 11-inch paper. All entries become the Merced County Fair’s property and won’t be returned to the artist. The winning entry may be altered for marketing purposes. Entries may be submitted to the fairgrounds office, 900 Martin Luther King. Jr. Way or mailed to the Merced County Fair, 900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Merced CA 95341. Submissions should include the entrant’s name, address and telephone number and a copy of the following statement with your signature: “The logo entry (entries) are the artist’s own original, artistic creation and intellectual property.” A story and photo about the logo winners may be issued by the fair. Information on the contest will be available at the fair’s website, www.MercedCountyFair.com. For more information, call the fair office at 722-1507.