If you visited the Crow Wing County Fair today, you might have noticed something a little unusual. Hundreds of small children visited the fair as part of the annual “Daycare Day.”

“You’ll see a lot of people that are shorter than my knee running around. They’re very cute. We really appreciate them coming out to the fair because our goal here is to get as many kids involved in our community as possible,” said Kirsten Schroer, Crow Wing County 4-H intern.

Daycare Day takes place every year at the fair and brings in daycares from around Crow Wing County to the fair for free. Daycare Day at the Crow Wing County Fair started around 10 years ago with around 50 children signing up. This year, there were close to 200.

“It’s really really grown and it’s a great experience for the kids. Not everybody can go out to the zoo and not everybody can get this experience. This is free for them. It’s a time for all the daycares to get together,” explained Daycare Day coordinator Kathy Stevens. “They get to see their friends. They see them year after year.”

Daycare Day was started as a way to introduce young people to the fair and make it possible for children to be able to visit the fair, even if their parents aren’t able to take them.

“It gives children the opportunities they might not otherwise have and because of parents’ work schedules and things like that, they can’t always get to the fair. I think this is a really important social skill for the kids to get out, learn how to stand in line, learn how to wait their turn, how to act around animals,” said Stevens.

Though Daycare Day is a favorite for the children, the adults enjoy it just as much.

“My personal favorite part about Daycare Day is watching the kids learn about so many things they may not have seen before because when you’ve only been around for three or four years, there’s a lot more to see in the world,” said Schroer. “And so just seeing their eyes light up when they see a rabbit for the first time. That’s probably the best part to me because they’re experiencing some things that I grew up with that I forget that not everybody was a part of.”

By — Rachel Johnson

Lakeland News Lead Reporter