Two Veterans Return to Fair Board
By Diane Booth Conway,
Merced County Fair Publicity Director
Two familiar faces are returning to the Merced County Fair's Board of Directors.
Barbara Matheron of Hilmar and Carol Sartori-Silva of Merced were recently appointed to the Merced County Fair Board by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Matheron replaces Chris Tafoya of Merced and Sartori-Silva fills the seat held by Frank Hutchins of Merced. Both appointments are for four-year terms that expire in January 2009.
Both women have previously served on the nine-member 35th District Agricultural Association's board. Matheron was on the board from 1994 to 2002. Sartori-Silva served on the panel from 1998-2002.
"We welcome Barbara and Carol back to the board particularly because they are such strong supporters of the fair," said Cheryl Davidson, the fair's CEO. "Both women are dedicated to putting on a top quality fair and their experience and knowledge are an invaluable resource."
While it's been a few years since they have been on the fair board, that didn't keep Matheron and Sartori-Silva from continuing their involvement in the fair. Both women volunteered at the Junior Livestock Auction for several years and will continue to do so now that they're returned to the board. They're both regulars at livestock showing and judging events and always spent lots of time at the fair checking out the exhibits and other attractions.
The Merced County Fair has always been a big part of Sartori-Silva's life. When she was just three years old she remembers riding in the 1954 Merced County Fair parade and years later she watched with pride as her father, Haydn J. "Mickey" Sartori, led the 1982 Merced County Fair parade as Grand Marshal.
She also recalls the fair's annual milk tasting contests started by her father more than 40 years ago when the competition was held under the fairgrounds' Grandstand bleachers. The Grade A Milk Producers' Contest was named for Sartori-Silva's late father in 1998. Sartori, who died in 1997, worked as a state dairy inspector.
Growing up, Sartori-Silva spent many Saturday nights at the fairgrounds' Grandstand "jalopy races," the predecessor of today's Speedway racing. She and her siblings would help their father run the American Legion's concession stands there during racing season and the fair car races. Sartori-Silva also remembers a job at the fair when she was a teenager, earning money making cotton candy for one of the fair vendors.
"From the time we were little, it was part of our life," she said of her family's involvement in the Merced fair. In later years, Sartori-Silva was a 4-H leader and helped her children with their 4-H and FFA animal projects. She was there when her children showed their Holstein cows, swine and sheep.
"It's a big honor to be appointed to the fair board," said Sartori-Silva. "To me it's not about prestige, it's that I have an opportunity to preserve something for my grandkids. So many kids these days don't get a chance to see farm animals. They don't know what a calf looks like, how they're born or how to milk a cow. They can see all that at the fair. If we preserve the fair, these kids will have that. It's a good place for people to bring their families."
She is married to Norman Silva, who is retired from the Merced County Marshal's office. The couple has two sons, Kevin and John, a daughter, Jennifer, and eight grandchildren. Sartori-Silva was employed as a supervisor for the Merced County Workforce Investment Department for 24 years and was on the Merced County Civil Grand Jury from 2002 to 2004.
She is a member of California Women for Agriculture and the California Grand Juries Association. Sartori-Silva also is a lifetime member of the Western Fairs Association and is a charter member of the restoration of the Merced Theater.
Barbara Matheron is very pleased to return to the Merced County Fair's Board of Directors. Matheron also grew up at the fair, showing sheep and horses and watched as her sons went through 4-H and FFA showing their animals. "It's like a second home," she said, adding, "You make friends from different towns and schools and those friendships continue because your lives are intertwined. It's like we're all one big family."
She was inspired to apply for a seat on the Merced Fair board more than a decade ago because her father, A.V. Bettencourt, served on the Los Banos Spring Fair Board.
Each fair is still like a homecoming, Matheron said. "I am absolutely thrilled about being reappointed to the board," she said. "I am very excited to be involved in this year's fair and the upcoming fairs. To be part of that is really rewarding."
Sitting on the fair board is a position she takes seriously. "I look at it as a working job, even though it's not paid," she said. "A fair director's role is to interact with fairgoers, to provide them with information and to find out what fairgoers like and don't like at the fair and to let the board know about it."
Matheron and her husband, Duane, run Hilmar Holsteins, a family-owned and operated dairy farm established in 1956 by her husband's grandfather. Now the couple's two sons, Ryan and Aaron, have graduated from Cal Poly and are working in the family business.
Since Matheron's livelihood is in agriculture, she is an avid supporter of continuing to strengthen the link between the fair and ag education.
"It's very important that we keep the fair to educate people about agriculture. If you eat and wear clothes you're involved in ag," she said, adding, "The fair is the best avenue for ag education."
Not only is the fair educational, but the goal is to make it entertaining, too, Matheron said. "The fair provides a safe, clean, fun place for families to come and relax and enjoy all aspects of the fair."
Matheron was named Hilmar Citizen of the Year in 2004. She earned the honor for extensive community involvement, including helping to establish the Hilmar High School Sober Graduation celebration as well as playing an active role at Hilmar's Holy Rosary Church. She is a member of California Women for Agriculture and California Dairy Women and has served on the board of directors of Hospice of Emanuel Hospital in Turlock.
The other Merced County Fair board members are: Lloyd Vierra, President; Marc Garcia, first vice president; Charlie Parish, second vice president; Gary Carlson, Jim Cunningham, Mark Erreca and Shannon Picciano.
For more information, call 722-1507 or email to Info@MercedCountyFair.com or fax at 722-3773.
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