Ionia Free Fair manager Beverly Clark has announced that the
2015 Centennial Fair will be her last as the Fair’s manager. Clark came to the Ionia Free Fair after a long
and active career in the amusement industry when her husband Doug became the
Ionia Free Fair’s manager in 2004. “It
literally began as a labor of love,” Clark said, “Doug joined the Fair as its
manager in 2004 and the rest, as they say, is history.” Together she and Doug brought many
improvements to the fair along with assisting the Ionia Free Fair Association
with a framework for preparing the fair for the future.
With Doug’s untimely death in 2007, Bev willingly stepped
into his shoes and never looked back.
She has managed the fair though a number of crises, both financial and
natural, including the early cancellation of the B93 Birthday bash after heavy
rains in 2009 and the rain out of the last three days of the 2011 fair. Clark has seen a lot in her years in the
business but she contends the Ionia Free Fair will remain firmly fixed in her
heart. Fair concessionaires speak very
highly of the Clarks. “Bev and her late
husband Doug are truly one of a kind.
Not many like them anymore,” said Ron Netterfield a regular fair
concessionaire. She has worked
relentlessly to keep the Fair changing with the times and is particularly proud
of her “EPark” which has evolved into one of the most popular venues of the ten
day fair.
In keeping with her pledge to do all she can to better the
Fair and to honor Doug’s legacy she has volunteered all of her services to the
Fair at no charge.
Clark will manage the fair through the end of the fiscal
year. “We are actively seeking
candidates to succeed Bev but she will definitely be a tough act to follow,”
said Clare Colwell, president of the Ionia Free Fair Association. “Our hope would be to name her successor as
soon as possible so she can work with them through the remainder of the fair
and to the end of our fiscal year.”
When asked what her #1 wish was for the Fair she immediately
responded with “another hundred years!”
Clark will be recognized during the fair for her
efforts. After the fiscal year ends in
September, she will remain involved in the Fair as a member of the Board of
Directors of the Association, but, she says, “more time at the lake” is on the
agenda.
