Butler Farm Show participants will spend a whirlwind seven days showcasing the fruits and the meats of their labors, socializing with peers, making a few bucks and, in some cases, finding love.

Eagle Bowl winners — the family annually judged to be most involved at the farm show — are at the heart of this community event.

The Butler Eagle, which has sponsored the award since 1952, talked with a few past winners to discuss what makes the Butler Farm Show so special.

Laughlin Family

Since Ken Laughlin of Connoquenessing Township was a little boy, he has participated in the Butler Farm Show by entering rabbits.

Nearly three decades later, Laughlin, his wife Joyce, and his four children, Nichole, Luke, Sarah and Rachel, represented the farm show as the 2011 Eagle Bowl winners.

Little has changed for the Laughlins in the past year. The family has more than 20 entries planned for this year's show. Depending on how the plants grow, Laughlin said there could be more.

However, this year includes one twist for the family. Laughlin's son, Luke, cannot compete in the 4-H division because he is too old.

Although Laughlin has fewer children competing, he still spends a lot of time preparing.

“The kids put a lot of time in, too,” Laughlin said.

“They do it all now. They take care of everything.”

As Laughlin's two competing daughters, Sarah and Rachel, get older, they take on the responsibility of setting up, tending to the animals and showing their entries, but they still work together as a team, he said.

Laughlin uses his additional time to fulfill his duties as president of the Butler Farm Show Board.

Laughlin said his favorite memory is seeing all the youths reunite every year.

“It's a farm family,” he said.

He added, “My original agricultural values came from my grandparents. That's where my original love came from. It's in your blood, I guess.”

Cox Family

“Our family has been going probably 16 years now. I also went and showed when I was younger and in 4-H,” said Sandi Cox, matriarch of the 2003 Eagle Bowl winners.

“We don't even get into the game area or the rides that much. Our kids are always hanging out with the other kids and socializing. It was the socializing for me, too. Especially since shortly after the show, school starts.”

She said the family's commitment is a “year-round process,” since showing large animals, such as horses and steers, can be a 12- to 18-month project. Steer projects for the show are assigned in November the previous year, while smaller animals, like pig or sheep, are assigned in May of the show year.

Cox said youths who show animals, most of whom are 4-H participants, are easily motivated to care for their charges, but less inclined to deal with all the paperwork.

“As a parent, the only thing I had to push my kids on was to finish their 4-H books,” she said.

“We are trying to instill in the 4-H kids that this is a business. You need to track your expenditures without compromising quality.”

The lessons learned by her son and three daughters have been invaluable, Cox said.

“It's not about winning. It's about getting a good product to market and getting your name out there. It's about the end result,” she said.

“My son is 27, and he is still selling meat to some of the people who bought off us when he was in 4-H.”

The week of the show, participants rise early, usually by 5 a.m., to get to the farm show grounds.

“(The week) is very tiring. We've shown a lot of things, but we've always had animal projects,” Cox said.

“There are so many people and everybody needs the wash racks so they stay cool for the day and they look good for the people who view them. The evenings go faster, because you're usually socializing.”

She said the farm show is special because of how hard its board works to promote the show and the livestock auction, an effort that is lacking in some surrounding counties.

“These kids do not realize how lucky they are to have a farm show that contributes so much to the youth here,” Cox said.

Although only the youngest of the Cox children, now 21, still shows animals at the farm show, all of them still try to help and educate younger 4-H members, their mother said.

One 4-H member, a teenage neighbor, keeps his show steer on the Cox's Connoquenessing Township farm, doing barn chores in exchange for the animal's board.

Also, the farm show partially is responsible for the Coxes gaining a son-in-law.

On July 14, their eldest daughter, Vickie, 24, married Justin Kennedy of Penn Township, son of 2004 Eagle Bowl winners the Kennedy family.

The newlyweds used to compete against one another at the farm show.

“Also, I used to show dairy against Jeff Kennedy (Justin's father) at the Farm Show,” said Sandi Cox with a laugh.

Kennedy Family

Jeff Kennedy of Penn Township, whose family claimed the Eagle Bowl in 2004, has been attending the farm show “for as long as I can remember.”

“There are pictures of me trying to drag bales of hay into the farm show when I was 3 or 4,” he said.

“They've all been fun, and they've all been different challenges. Today is more for our kids than it is for us.”

Kennedy and his wife, Janice, as well as their sons, Jordan, 21, and Justin, 25, represent the third generation of their family to be crowned Eagle Bowl winners at the show, starting with the H. Francis Kennedy family in 1954.

“About a week or so beforehand, we start getting the stalls ready up there and start washing cows. That's about all we take up there now is dairy cows,” Jeff Kennedy said.

“Jordan will stay out there all week to tend to the cows, and we have a neighbor boy (Adam Tuzikow, 18) who is back and forth helping me (on the farm) and Jordan at the show. Myself, I keep to things here. We are a dairy farm and busy seven days a week.”

Kennedy said when his sons were younger, they used to show steer, sheep and hogs, but Jordan only shows dairy cows now.

“Dairy animals are different than livestock. They are in for the long haul, rather than finishing a meat project in 18 months,” Kennedy said.

“There have been times where we had three generations of cattle family at a show.”

He called the farm show an experience that prepares youth and young adults to compete with their animals at the state and national level.

“This is a starting point to see if their animals are good enough to go to the next step,” Kennedy said.

In addition to his sons, Kennedy has supported nieces, nephews and neighbors as they showed their animals, including his new daughter-in-law, Vickie (Cox), who married Justin Kennedy on July 14.

“I believe they met at a fundraiser square dance through 4-H,” Jeff Kennedy said.

The Kennedys will have nine animals in this year's show.

Metrick Family

The Ken and Cathy Metrick family, operators of Metrick's Harvest View Farm in Connoquenessing Township, were the 2005 Eagle Bowl winners.

Ken Metrick will pull double duty as secretary of the Butler Farm Show Board in 2012.

“I've been on the board for about 24 years, I guess,” he said.

“I always liked the farm show. I haven't missed the farm show since I was a little boy.”

Metrick worked at the show with Future Farmers of America as a youth, then helped as a young adult, and he now serves on the board.

“It's a lot of work since we farm all the time, and my role on the board is to coordinate all of the exhibit space and the vendors. I would miss it if I wasn't doing it,” he said.

The Metricks' daughter Laura, 19, will show pigs and sheep at this year's show, her last as a 4-H member, and their daughter Amy, 20, will show sheep in the open class.

“They get their market animals in the spring, taking out their pigs and getting them used to being handled, as well as figuring out their nutrition. Same thing with the lambs, so when they go into the show ring it's nothing new to (the animals),” Metrick said.

“To me, they're learning responsibility and leadership skills, and they're hanging out with a good group of kids. The competition is second to me. The kid is more important than the animal.”

Metrick said his daughters also show vegetables grown on the family farm and spend the week before the show loading supplies into a camper to park on the show grounds.

“The girls and my wife, they stay for the week, but I stay here so I can get up and feed the animals and pick our produce for market,” Metrick said.

“(My daughters) are going to college for agriculture-related careers. It's in their blood, too.”

Between his activities with FFA as a youth, raising livestock and tractor handling contests, Metrick said it is hard to pin down a favorite memory, but winning the Eagle Bowl was a highlight, especially since the Metricks' farm is not a large crop producer.

Frazier Family

Jeff and Donna Frazier of Center Township, winners of the 2010 Eagle Bowl, have been attending the farm show for about seven years.

“My oldest boy wanted to start showing there, and that's how we got started,” Jeff Frazier said.

“He started out with a Hereford steer, and now we have breeding stock and lambs. My daughter shows now, too.”

Frazier said his children, Zach, 18, and Becca, 15, start their livestock projects in the fall, but feeding and care of the animals is year-round. Also, the family often has show submissions in numerous categories, from gardening to 4-H Travel Club.

The week leading up to the show is a flurry of washing animals and loading supplies.

“(Zach and Becca) do 99 percent of the work,” Frazier said.

“I think they're probably more nervous than (I am).”

Zach Frazier will continue his work with animals at Purdue University, where he will study animal science (pre-veterinary medicine), his father said.

“(Working with Farm Show animals) is what spurred him into wanting to do that,” Jeff Frazier said.

“I have a 5-year-old, too, and he'll be able to start showing in three years. He likes about any (animal) he can get his hands on.”

Govan Family

The farm show is something Jim Govan of Adams Township works toward all year.

His wife, Shirley, and two daughters, Faith and Hannah, know how much work it takes to have a successful farm show. That effort was rewarded in 2009 when the Govan family was honored as the Eagle Bowl winner.

“It really was an honor to win that award,” Jim Govan said.

“I was proud of my family.”

That year held a few first-time events at the Farm Show for the family, including the first year the Govans decided to enter the Eagle Bowl.

“That was one of the best things that happened from all the years at the Farm Show,” Hannah Govan said.

It was also the first year Jim's oldest daughter, Faith, was too old to compete in the 4-H division. Since the family's win in 2009, Jim said not much has changed.

Hannah, 15, still competes in the animal judging. This year, she plans to enter three market hogs, two market lambs and one breeding gilt.

“I work with the animals every day so I can feel comfortable in showing them,” she said. Jim said he was unsure of their future in the animal judging when Hannah is too old to compete, too.

But Hannah, who has been competing since she was 9 years old, said she wants to be a leader and help 4-H division children when she is done competing.

Hannah has been around the farm show since she was a little girl when Faith, now 22, began competing. She said her family has been farming for five generations.

“It's just part of our life,” Jim Govan said.

Eagle News Intern Alexis Pfeifer contributed to this report.