Washington County Fair attendees can go on their own guided tour of the fairgrounds this week thanks to the work of a 4-H member.

Seventh grader Caedyn Huston of the Lime Creek Livewires designed a virtual walking tour with seven stops that highlight the history of the buildings and grounds. The public can pick up a brochure at the Extension office at the fairgrounds and scan the QR codes located with the brochure to view a video explaining each stop. This citizenship and civic engagement and digital storytelling project has already advanced to the Iowa State Fair, and Huston says his goal was to learn more about his local community. A Washington County history tour was the impetus for Huston’s work, “Well, I give credit to Michael Zahs, I went on a walking tour with him in May and he’s a historian of Washington County and very knowledgeable in the topic, and I was inspired by him. I didn’t want to do something quite that size yet, but I wanted to slowly move into maybe something to get up to that area I guess you could say. And I plan to put in historical interpretation of each tour stop and put in signs.”

Huston hopes that these videos will be viewed for years to come, and will inspire fairgoers to give time or money to preserving the grounds’ older buildings that need routine upkeep. You can hear more from Huston and other state fair project winners during today’s Halcyon House Washington Page on air and at kciiradio.com.