Innovative Family Literacy Initiative Expanding after Big First-Year Success

December 2010 – The Minnesota State Fair Foundation is looking ahead to August 2011, planning how to expand on the overwhelming success of the Fabulous Fair Alphabet Forest, an innovative family literacy project that proved popular with fair-goers ranging from toddlers to grandparents during its kick-off at the 2010 “Great Minnesota Get Together.”

The Fabulous Fair Alphabet Forest is the brainchild of children’s book author and illustrator Debra Frasier. Frasier, whose book A Fabulous Fair Alphabet (Beach Lane Books, Simon & Schuster, 2010) was inspired by 20 years of photographing the State Fair, was determined to find a way that families could make a visit to the fair as much a celebration of literacy as it is of fair food and carnival rides.

When the State Fair gates opened in August of 2010, the concept grabbed the attention of fair-goers in a way that even Frasier hadn’t anticipated. “We knew we had a great idea, but we were competing with hundreds of other fair activities. Despite that, we can measure our success not only in smiles, but in numbers and words: 5,000 yards of yarn were used to make alphabet mini-banners. 20,000 alphabet crowns adorned the heads of Fair visitors young and old. And nearly 100,000 words were collected and turned in to our little cabin in the Fabulous Fair Alphabet Forest by fair-goers who were eager to claim a blue-ribbon prize—all in the name of vocabulary building—with delight, I might add.”

Corporate partners will join hundreds of Minnesota libraries to back the initiative in 2011. Thanks to this kind of support, when the gates open for another twelve-day run on August 25, 2011, fair-goers will see the return of popular (and free) activities such as the Fair Letter Photo Booth and the State Fair Dictionary. Planners are developing expanded activities, with possibilities including a State Fair-Libs story game and “Take-a-Reading-Break” park. Another important expansion features daily appearances by home-grown Minnesota children’s book authors.

This should be welcome news to the Pedersens from Brownton, Minnesota, who wrote this note in 2010: “This was the best experience this year. We loved the State Fair as children with our parents and now our grandchildren love it with us. We will be back next year looking for the Fair Alphabet!”

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