Fair play

Paul Clinton

For Jennifer Pierce’s disabled children, Tuesday morning at the

Orange County Fair packed some special thrills.

Shortly before noon, Pierce’s students giggled and laughed as they

rode on the Bear Affair ride in the children’s play area. After

arriving at the fair, the children bopped around, in front of the

ride’s fencing, anticipating their fun.

Blazing through the gate, after a ride operator swung it open, the

children hopped into their teddy bear spinners, which turn like the

teacup rides at other parks.

“It’s been good,” Pierce said as she shepherded them to the ride.

“They’re having a lot of fun.”

Pierce serves as an aide with the Westminster School District,

teaching handicapped children during the summer. She had brought

almost a dozen of her students ages 3 to 5 to “Friends of the Fair.”

Fair organizers set aside one morning each year to give moderately

to severely handicapped patrons the run of the fair. On Tuesday, the

students had most of the fair to themselves for 2 1/2 hours.

Almost 40 rides, mostly in the children’s area, were open. The

more daring rides, including the roller coasters, were not open.

Also, most of the vendors and all of the exhibit buildings were open.

Only the commercial products hall remained closed.

“I get so much feedback from these groups,” said Ginny Smith, the

fair’s coordinator of specialty programs. “There are not many places

to take this type of patron.”

Smith has been organizing this fair event for 21 years. She

oversaw the fair’s distribution of some 7,500 free tickets to groups

that preregistered and requested tickets.

Tickets and little red stickers went out to a long list of groups

and individuals, including a group at the Fairview Developmental

Center in Costa Mesa.

This year, Smith said, some schools declined invitations for

tickets. A few said they were worried about the stepping up of the

national security alert system to orange.

* PAUL CLINTON covers the environment, business and politics. He

may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

[email protected].