Benton County Takes State Fair Top Honors
Local students secure first place in the state industrial and manual training exhibition through collaborative effort.
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Benton county won first prize at the state fair for the best display of industrial work by school children, scoring 97 out of a possible hundred points. Kennewick school children contributed the canning, the greater part of the agriculture, and all of the sewing and fancy work. County Club Leader F. L. Audrien gathered contributions from Prosser, Finley, and Hover to ensure the win. Individual standout Gladys Hottel took first place for the best dress exhibited, with Avis Philson taking second. The success of the children's handiwork was noted as being of a higher quality than many adult-made models exhibited at the fair.
“It was remarkable that the twenty-odd contestants performed very much better work on the garments they made at the fair than had been done by the adults on the garments which had been handed these young ladies as models.”
Educational achievement and community competition remain central to the identity of Benton County schools, echoing this 1917 victory where students' labor directly elevated the county's reputation.
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