Posted on August 22, 2022 at 11:49 AM by Cade Cameron
Kim Etter grew up on her parent’s farm near Russell, Iowa, where she went to school and church. She joined 4-H when she was in 4th grade and actively participated in 4-H meetings, activities, projects, and the county fair. Some of her projects included Pen of 5 market beef, food and nutrition, sewing, clothing, presentations, fashion in review, and home improvement. Some of her projects went to the state fair.
In the summer of 1954, Kim’s grandfather Reed Narber, her father Gene Narber, and her uncle Jim Narber, along with 20 or so other volunteers worked for two months building all the original buildings for the first Lucas County 4-H Achievement Show. Reed was a member of the first board of directors.
After high school, Kim attended Indian Hills Community College and married Jim Etter. They have a cow/calf operation. Kim spends many hours putting up hay and caring for the cows and calves. She is also head cook at Van Allen School. Her husband, Jim works for Reilly Construction, which has been very generous in letting Jim use their equipment to do dozer work on the fairgrounds. They have a son, Johnathan and a daughter, Kelsey who were active 4-H members and are now married.
Kim has been an active member of the Lucas County Fair Association for 13 years, holding leadership positions of president, vice president, treasurer, etc. She writes the grants to receive donations to the Fair Association from various organizations and has been instrumental in organizing and accomplishing the duties associated with the annual 4-H/FFA fair fundraiser and 4-H/FFA fair. Kim has spent hundreds of hours working at the fairgrounds repairing, landscaping, and cleaning. During the fair, she is at the fairgrounds from early morning until late at night constantly going from activity to activity making sure everything is in order. She works closely with the Extension Council and Extension Office. Kim has a great working relationship with the fair board of directors.
Kim was the driving force behind the concept, fund-raising, and completion of “Project Undercover” (the over-head roof over the arena) on the Lucas County fairgrounds in 2019. She was determined to make the over-head roof arena a reality and pushed on even though there were many skeptics. The arena is debt free but will incur more expenses as more amenities are added to it. It is used and enjoyed by many organizations besides the annual fair activities.