Fair Board Gets Two New Members
By Diane Booth Conway,
Merced County Fair Publicity Director
There's a new face on the Merced County Fair's Board of Directors and a familiar face is returning.
Jim Cunningham of LeGrand, who previously served on the board for 11 years, was recently reappointed to the 35th District Agricultural Association's nine-member fair board by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Shannon Picciano of Merced also was named to the panel by the governor. Both appointments are for four-year terms.
Cunningham, who served on the board from 1992 to 2003, was named to replace the position previously held by Yvonne Davis of Merced and Picciano fills the slot vacated by David Passadori of Ballico.
"We welcome Shannon to the board and look forward to working with her as we prepare for the 2004 Merced County Fair," said Cheryl Davidson, the fair's CEO. "We also welcome Jim Cunningham's return to the board, where he will continue to help make the Merced County Fair a successful community event," Davidson said.
Picciano is employed at Merced College as a public information assistant in the Office of Public Affairs and Institutional Advancement. Hired in 2001, her job duties include organizing special events and college scholarship fund-raisers including the Merced College Foundation banquet and preparing public information materials.
Born and raised in Merced, Picciano attended Merced schools, graduating from Merced High School. She attended Merced College and American River College in Sacramento, where she obtained an interpreter for the deaf certificate. She is fluent in American Sign Language and
has worked with deaf and hard-of-hearing students at Merced College. She graduated from California State University, Sacramento with a bachelor's degree in communications.
Married to Eric Picciano, Shannon Picciano held several positions including assistant in the Office of Public Affairs and Communications during former Gov. George Deukmejian's administration. In 1990, Picciano and her husband left Sacramento and returned to Merced with their two children, Devin and Teagan.
The Piccianos' son, Devin, now 14, will be a freshman at Merced High School. Their daughter, Teagan, 16, will be a junior at Merced High School.
She is currently a member of California Women for Agriculture and serves on the Merced County Sheriff's Advisory Committee.
Picciano is thrilled to be a part of the fair she grew up with. "My earliest childhood memories are of visiting the Merced County Fair. It was very exciting for me as a child to see my handiwork on exhibit for other people to see," she said. "The fair was the highlight of my summer, giving me the opportunity to reconnect with my friends and share thrills on the midway rides. I hope to bring a fresh perspective to the fair board with the purpose of fostering that personal touch which is so important to the continuity of a community-based fair," she said.
Cunningham, the fourth generation owner and operator of Cunningham Ranch in Le Grand, is pleased to rejoin the Merced County Fair's Board. He was involved with the fair for years as a leader for Le Grand 4-H when his three children were growing up. "If I had not been reappointed to the board, I still would have found a way to be involved in the fair," he said.
"There's a lot of good people involved in the fair. It's a fun board to be on, but you need to take it seriously, it's a business," Cunningham said. The fair is Merced County's biggest event, he said, but added, "The fair is only a small portion of what goes on at the fairgrounds and it's a break-even proposition." In addition to the fairground's income from state-wide racetrack proceeds and money the fairgrounds receives from the weekly flea market and from renting classroom space for programs including Head Start, he said, "You've got to raise a lot of money to keep the fair going and to maintain the fairgrounds so people want to rent the facilities. It's important to come up with new ideas all the time."
Continuing to make the fair a fun experience is one of Cunningham's goals for the next four years. "We're working hard to make sure it's a family-oriented event that involves the whole community and is a safe, clean place to be with fun activities for all ages."
The fair is a great opportunity for youngsters in 4-H and FFA to "strut their stuff" and share their accomplishments with the community, Cunningham said, but emphasized that the fair is a lot more. "The fair is the largest art show in the county and the largest photography show in the area. You get to show off your cooking and sewing skills and it's a showcase of all of the area's talents. It's the one place where people can come together for six days and see all those things in one fell swoop."
Cunningham also serves on the University of California, Merced Foundation's Board of Directors and on the Merced Theater Foundation's Board of Directors. He also served on the Merced College Board of Trustees. He and his wife, Carlene, have three grown children and three grandchildren.
For more information, call the fair office at 722-1507 or e-mail to Info@MercedCountyFair.com or fax at 722-3773.
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