CONNOQUENESSING TWP — For the Drake family of Worth Township the Butler Farm Show is always a chance to flex their agricultural and creative muscles.

Getting picked as the 2016 Eagle Bowl family? That’s the cherry on top of a good year at the farm show for Donna “Dee Dee” Drake, her husband, William, and seven of their 16 children.

The Eagle Bowl, which is sponsored by the Butler Eagle, recognizes the family that is the most involved in the farm show.

The Drakes live on a 204-acre farm on West Liberty Road, where they raise beef cattle and sheep, and grow corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, hay and other crops. The family rents out hundreds more acres to accommodate the scale of their agricultural operations, a major portion of which is growing and selling hay to horse owners.

For the family, farming is a way of life that began generations ago and was passed down until William and Dee Dee, who grew up in Sharon, married in 1986. They have 16 children, all of whom Dee Dee says grew up working on the farm and learning the ins and outs of agriculture.

“It’s a great place to raise a bunch of kids. It’s a real blessing to be on a farm,” she said. “All of my kids can work. They’ve been taught to work because they had to work.”

At the farm show the Drakes have been a fixture for 22 years. Two of Dee Dee’s sons, 22-year-old Joshua and 17-year-old Aaron, were nearly born on the farm show grounds, she said.

This year the Drakes had seven children — Stephen, 25, Adam, 23, Joshua, 22, Paul, 20, Aaron, 17, Benjamin, 14 and Melissa, 9 — involved with events, shows and other aspects of the farm show.

Paul, who has been a member of the junior farm show board for two years, has been busy this year working on the show’s administrative side. Until last year he showed animals at the show, but since he aged out of 4-H Paul has turned his efforts to arts and crafts, as well as agricultural products.

The family always shows breeding cattle, including homegrown steers and short horn heifers, as well as market lambs and shopshire sheep. But each year they manage to come up with dozens of other exhibits as well — from arts and crafts to agricultural products and baked goods.

“We have always exhibited animals, and every year we add things like baked goods, canned goods, flowers, produce (and) arts and crafts,” Dee Dee said. “We spread it out. Everybody has their thing.”

This year William Drake won best-in-show for his field corn entry, and the family also notched best-in-show honors for their gourds and Melissa’s lamb wool.

Aaron Drake won first prize for his bred-and-owned ewe. Benjamin won top honors for his steer’s rate-of-gain — essentially denoting that his animal gained the most weight during its upbringing — and Melissa won prices for being the arts-and-crafts outstanding youth exhibitor, and an outstanding lead line award.

She also was selected as this year’s Little Miss Butler Farm Show 4-H winner.

Melissa said her favorite award this year was her win in the lead line category.

“I never won at the farm show before so I got really excited,” she said, adding that her favorite animal to show is pigs.

She likes to use marshmallows to entice the animals to follow her during training.

Dee Dee said the family’s success this year makes her proud to have raised such a hard-working and motivated farm family.

“They work really hard on their projects (and) they’ve built an amazing flock of sheep,” she said. “I’m very proud of my kids. They deserve those firsts.”

Farm show officials said the family submitted more than 200 entries in 35 departments, and nearly all placed — 90 first place winners, 62 second place winners and 53 third place winners.

But the unexpected honor came when farm show organizers notified the Drakes on Friday morning that the family had been chosen as the 2016 Eagle Bowl winners.

Dee Dee said she was surprised the family won this year. The last time the Drakes won the Eagle Bowl was in 2001.

She said she wasn’t even planning to enter the family in the contest until some friends urged her to register for it.

Both Paul and Melissa said they had no idea the family had even been entered into the contest.

“I thought she (my mom) was joking me at first,” Melissa said. “I’m excited, because I’ve actually never won the Eagle Bowl. The last time we won I wasn’t even born.”

William Drake said he too was surprised with the honor “because I didn’t really know we were doing it.”

He likes the cattle exhibitions the best because he enjoys working with those animals.

He added that he supports 4-H because it helps teach children how to compete and also how to react to both winning and losing. He said 4-H youth react properly if they win or not.

Dee Dee Drake said winning the award held excitement for her. She views it as an honor for her family.

“I was absolutely excited, because my youngest two weren’t yet born when we won the last time,” she said. “I think it’s quite an honor to represent the farm show and the farm community by being an Eagle Bowl family. I can’t even tell you how much it means to our family.”

The farm show ends Saturday night.