Illinois Extension
Registration

2025 State Fair Volunteer Application

4-H State Fair Dates: August 8-10, 2025 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) at the Orr Building
It's that time again! We are looking for people who are willing to judge, be a project assistant, or volunteer at the 4-H General Project Show at the Illinois State Fair. Please indicate your time, availability, and area of expertise through this registration. This application does not guarantee a spot as a judge or assistant. All judges and projects assistants will be notified via email around June or sooner. Don't worry if you're not selected to help this year; it may be that we have already secured enough judges for that project area. 

CRITERIA: Judges must be at least 19 years of age. Project assistants must be at least 16 years of age.

Project Assistants help a specific judge by checking to see that the 4-H member is present before the judging time and helps to organize score sheets and place participation ribbons and medals on projects. It is not necessary that a project assistant be an expert in the area that they assist.

Judges should be an expert in the field or project area that they sign up to judge at State Fair. Judges engage the youth in a short conversation about their project, how it was made, what things were difficult, what they learned, what they want to do next year, etc.  Judges mark the scoresheet for each project in a particular class and determine the champion and reserve champion as well. 

Some things to know:
  • Most of the assignments for project assistants will require you to be onsite from approximately 7:30AM to 4:00PM. Judges should be ready to begin judging by 9:00AM. Except for a few larger project areas, most of the judging will be finished by 3:30PM. 
  • Many of the judge assignments last from 4 to 6 hours, with start times for most at 9:00AM (or around 12:30PM). You may be asked to judge both morning and afternoon projects areas. We will let you know your schedule and assigned project areas later this summer.
  • We are hopeful the state fair agrees to continue to pay $35 for half-day assignments and $50 for full-day assignments for this event. You are welcome to request payment or donate your services. Extension staff and government employees cannot receive compensation. 
  • Later in July, parking passes and entry ticket(s) will be sent to all selected judges and project assistants for each day they assist at the fair. 
  • Lunch will be provided each day.
  • There are a limited number of hotel rooms for those helpers traveling more than 2 hours to judge/project assist or who are assisting multiple days. You will be assigned a roommate. You may request another state fair judge or project assistant to be your roommate by adding that name to the last section of the registration form.     

Thank you very much in advance for your willingness to assist us at the State Fair and for support Illinois 4-H members!

Melissa Irwin, mmirwin@illinois.edu, 217-300-9378
State Fair Volunteer Coordinator



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Contact Information

Please confirm your email address (as this will be our primary method of communication with you)!
Please indicate the County within Illinois where you reside.
Please indicate what role(s) you are willing to serve in at this year's State Fair. If you would like to be assigned to a certain area based on your expertise, please include that in the Additional Information section at the end of the form.
While we appreciate everyone's willingness to assist us, judges must be at least 19 years and project assistants must be at least 16 years old and provide their own transportation to the fair.
Please help us as many days as possible.
All-day availability makes it much easier to schedule our volunteers! However, if you are not available for the whole day(s) which you have selected, you can provide more details in the next question.
Hotel rooms are very limited. We will do our best to provide a hotel room for anyone helping multiple days or anyone with a morning assignment traveling farther than two hours to Springfield. Rooms will be double occupancy, so YOU WILL BE SHARING A ROOM WITH ANOTHER VOLUNTEER OF THE SAME GENDER. Space is LIMITED and will be offered on a first-come first-served basis. You SHOULD NOT bring anyone to stay with you, as you will be assigned a roommate. If you have a request to room with another volunteer, indicate that in a later question.
Please select your areas of expertise (those you are qualified to judge). Please select your areas of interest (those you would like to provide assistance with as a Project Assistant).
FOR JUDGES - If you selected multiple areas, please list your first and second choices here. Describe your expertise in the selected areas above. i.e.: years involved with project area, jobs held related to area, prior judging experience, etc.
If you work at least a half day, compensation is $35. If you work a full day compensation is $50. If you wish, you may donate your time. Reminder: Extension staff/ state government employees are not eligible for payment. Payment will come directly from the state fair office later in the fall. Please understand that we cannot guarantee payment; payment is provided by the Illinois State Fair through the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

For those being paid:

To receive payment, you must return a signed W-9 form preferably before the start of the fair (this form will be included with your assignment). If your W-9 is not submitted by end of the state fair, we will assume that you are donating your time.
Let us know if you were in 4-H! We want to acknowledge our State Fair volunteers who are 4-H alumni with a special addition to your Judge/Project Assistant button.
This year all judges and PA's will receive a T-Shirt complements of the Illinois 4-H!
Is there anything else that you would like to share with us regarding volunteering at State Fair?
Include dietary needs for the provided lunch here.

Civil Rights Compliance - Participant Info

As part of our commitment to providing equal opportunities in our programming, University of Illinois Extension is required to collect and report overall statistics about the race, ethnicity, and gender of program participants. Your responses are voluntary and appreciated.