Fair it comes again

The Orange County Fair will return to the fairgrounds on July 12 and

will stick around through July 28. Every year, it seems the fair breaks

attendance records and attracts bigger entertainment names. This year

should be quite similar, though with a few upgrades to security as a

result of Sept. 11.

On Thursday, City Editor James Meier visited the fairgrounds to

discuss the 110th annual event with new fair board member “Teddie” Ray, a

Newport Harbor High School graduate and Laguna Beach resident.

Q: What got you started on the fair board?

A: My husband is a real activist, and he’s been involved in politics

all of his life. We’ve been involved in supporting and raising money for

Gov. Davis for about -- Michael’s been doing it for about 20 years. A

long time.

So this appointment came up, and since I grew up around here and I

feel that this is such a familiar thing, I thought “I want this.” So I

applied.

What’s so exciting, the best part of being on the board for me, is we

love riding horses. And we’re hoping to expand our equestrian center. The

new fair board is so excited about having community activities on the

site, and we’re looking for an off-site equestrian center. Those things

can tie in, from an educational standpoint, with the agricultural,

environmental and conservational issues. If we could have that use for

this site, it would be so much more encompassing than what it’s kind of

known for now.

Q: What are the chances of the equestrian center moving to the former

El Toro Marine Corps Air Station at this point?

A: It’s so new, but we’ve put in a letter of interest, and we’re

waiting to hear from that. We’re still looking at all of the

possibilities. That would be so perfect -- right up against the Cleveland

National Forest with miles of trails.

Q: What would replace the current site here?

A: Right now, Centennial Farms sees about 60,000 kids a year on school

trips, and they learn. With the urbanization of Orange County, we’re

losing all the agricultural land, kids don’t know how things are grown,

and it all relates to bad nutrition, too, because they don’t know that

things can’t come out of a manufactured bag. So this is a learning thing

there.

Then we can shift some of the more equestrian and ranching sort of

education over on our site here. We’ll still have our trainers. We will

be scaling down the equestrian center, but we’re still going to be doing

community programs here. But another site would give us -- especially at

El Toro -- miles of trails. It could all be interrelated with

conservation, land, environmental issues. It’s a very exciting part.

Q: What are the chances of the fair moving to El Toro?

A: Oh, I don’t know. This is such a landmark. This is a small space

for us. We can’t do everything that we want to do, and if we can get some

place like El Toro or other possibilities to move some of these other

programs that need more space, I think that’s the future here.

Do you know we’re involved in the master plan? So we’re going to have

that phased, and we’re going to go real slow because if we are able to

move some of the educational programs out there, it may do wonderful

things on how we lay this property out.

Q: What do we have to look forward to this year at the fair?

A: It’s kind of fun for me to look at the fair through my kids’ eyes

because I think that’s what people are going to want to be doing. So, the

carnival for my kids is always -- you know, the turn-the-stomach-kind of

rides are always the first one.

But we would not leave the fair ever without seeing the baby animals,

the baby pigs at Centennial Farms -- the livestock area. Also, the kids

can show the animals that they’ve grown and raised, and then they’re

sold. That’s so great for city kids who don’t have an opportunity to see

farm animals. There’s petting zoos, petting areas. That’s always great.

The pig races will be near Centennial Farms. There’s a Ribbet exhibit

that’s all about frogs and reptiles. That’s going to be really fun.

Oh, and the food, you can get any combination of food. You just have

to have like this iron stomach to go through this smorgasbord of wild

tastes around here.

The concert lineup is incredible this year. I’m going to have a big

group of friends at the opening act of Huey Lewis and the News. That’ll

be very fun.

But for my kids, my boy likes the demolition derby. We’re going to

stagger the show times this year. That way, you can get the kids set up

and then go do something else. Weird Al Yankovic, Carrot Top, they’re

great for the kids.

So we come here after the beach or whatever and go on all the wild

rides, have dinner, and then we go to the show. I really don’t worry

about my kids wandering around here without me. It’s so safe. Then we all

meet up afterward for more wild rides and cotton candy, and then we’re

out of here at midnight.

And then we get up and do it again the next day.

Q: You mentioned the kids would feel safe. What are some of the

security changes we’ll see this year?

A: You know, the board has been very attuned to the security issues. I

know we’ve had lots of training. I heard the city of Costa Mesa came over

and did some more training with our security staff. It’s heightened. With

everything that’s going on in the world right now, we’re very aware of

security issues, and we’ve increased our staff and they’re in intense

training of what to look for. There’s a whole network of people in the

fair industry that just meet on this subject.

Q: What were some of the challenges in helping prepare your first

fair?

A: You know, I’m chair of the building and grounds committee. I’m not

on the fair committee, so I wish I could tell you there’s challenges. But

I know one of the things the fair committee has been dealing with is how

to accommodate all the local people that want to bring their products.

The other thing that’s so fun -- this is not for the kids -- is to go

through the exhibit halls and see all those products. You can get the

wildest equipment for your house, nutritional things, food products. All

the inventors want to come and have space here, and we just can’t

accommodate everyone. So I think there’s a structure on how you get to

exhibit here.

There’s going to be a huge exhibit hall on our master plan so that we

could really have Orange County people have the opportunity to show what

they do.

Q: What do you look forward to most at the fair?

A: The food! It’s so funny. I love the scary rides, but I think it’s

really fun to go and test out all these foods. Forget the diets while

you’re here. You just have to eat, because everywhere you go there are

all the different smells.

But I just love to see my kids enjoy it. After all the years of coming

here, my kids feel at home here. Now that I’m on the board, they want to

bring their friends and entertain them. They’ll take off and leave me to

go look at the baby calf that was just born. They have so much fun. I

could just sit at a coffee concession and just let them spin around me.

Q: Any final thoughts?

A: From my age group, there is one week that is incredible. It has the

Guess Who, Styx, Boz Scaggs and Heart -- one after another. I’m going to

be here every day. The concerts are hot.

I think a lot of people want to stay in the community, and they see

this as a way to stay active and not be running all over the country.

This summer, they can stay here and enjoy all of this entertainment.

BIO

Name: Leslie “Teddie” A. Ray

Age: 47

Position: Orange County Fair board member since 2001

Education: Newport Harbor High School graduate, and attended Chapman

College, USC and San Diego State

Residence: Laguna Beach for 18 years

Family: Husband of 14 years Michael, daughters Elizabeth and

Gabrielle, and son Harrison

Hobbies: Kayaking and other water sports, yoga, reading, shopping at

bookstores, and her children’s activities, such as tennis

Involvement: One of the chairs the Harvesters Fund-raiser, the support

group for Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County; board member of

Planned Parenthood for six years; and advisor at Sage Hill High School

Reason for her nickname: Her brother called her “Teddie Bear” when she

was a baby, and it stuck.