I don’t know how many of you know that I am also the FCS Agent for Menard County, and I spend half of my time there. This weekend is Menard’s 100th birthday Celebration, and they will have a big party on Saturday, August 6th. It begins with a parade at 10am, and just about everything is going to be going on at the park under the bridge in the middle of town (at the river). I wanted to invite you all to the festivities (I believe Johnny Rodriguez will be playing in the park that night), and especially to participate in the birthday cake contest I am hosting. Please join in on the fun! The contest will be open to anyone, whether they live in Menard County or not. Cakes are due by Friday at 2 p.m. at the Methodist Church, and the two categories of cakes will be a decorated 9x13 cake or a pound cake. We will also have a category for a set of 18 cupcakes. We will have both a youth (grades K-12) and adult (18 and up) division, the prizes will be kitchen goodies, and there will be no entry fee as we are asking you to donate your entry. We will be donating the cakes to the Menard 4-H Club’s Cake Walk Fundraiser on Saturday at the park. So please, don’t enter anything that needs to be refrigerated or that will melt easily. The judges will taste the cakes (doing as little damage to the cakes as possible). We will do our best to keep the cakes cool so they are appealing to the public for Saturday, and of course they will be inside Friday afternoon and evening for viewing, if you want to come by the church after 3 p.m. to see who won! We will announce the winners and begin the cake walk with the top winners in each category and age division around 10:30 on the slab at the park. After that we will move our cake walk to our assigned spot at the park. There will be homemade pies available also. We will be selling chances for $2 a piece, with 10 people (or less) being in competition for each cake. I am excited to see what you all will “whip up” to celebrate Menard’s 100th birthday!