LOCAL NEWS

All for One Swine Show gives youths with intellectual disabilities a chance to show pigs

Jennifer Walter

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Ten-year-old Sam Incha loves rabbits. He spends afternoons taking care of his furry friends that live in the backyard. He even showed them this year at the Wisconsin State Fair.

But Incha, of Cambridge, also wanted to try something new at the fair — showing a pig.

He got his chance Thursday during the All for One Swine Show, an event that gives children and teens with intellectual disabilities the opportunity to learn how to groom, care for and show a pig.

For Incha, the task came easy.

Sam Incha, 10, of Cambridge shows a pig named Ida around the ring at Wisconsin State Fair, with help from mentors Morgan Fitzsimmons (right), 19, of Mineral Point, and Tanner London (center), 18, of Clinton. The All for One Swine Show gives youth with intellectual disabilities the chance to show a pig at the state fair.

"They really just start walking straight and you just tap them which way you want them to go,” he explained.

And Morgan Fitzsimmons, 19, who worked with Incha and his pig, said he was a natural.

This was Fitzsimmons' first year as a mentor with All for One, which debuted last year at the fair. But she is no stranger to working with pigs. She raises them at home in Mineral Point and spends summers at swine shows across the country.

"We've been doing this a long time so it's kind of second nature to us," she said of herself and Tanner London, 18, the owner of Ida, the pig Incha was showing. London also worked with Incha to teach him how to care for Ida and move her around the show ring.

“It’s an easy thing to adjust to,” London said. Learning how to move the pigs, he said, comes naturally for a lot of participants.

But unlike Incha, many of the youths who sign up for All for One have no experience showing animals.

When Erica Langholff, a former livestock coordinator for the fair, started the event at last year's State Fair, getting youths to work with animals for the first time was her main focus. She took up the idea after seeing a similar event at a county fair in Oklahoma.

"Most of these kids, number one … haven’t seen an animal and none of them come from farm backgrounds, which is pretty crazy," Langholff said.

It's the first event of its kind in Wisconsin. Langholff said she hopes All for One will inspire similar events to happen around the country.

Participants get an hour to work with exhibitors, learning how to wash, feed and groom a pig, as well as practice showing it. Then participants show the pigs, just as their mentors would.

Last year, the event had six participants. This year, there was 11, including five returnees.

The All for One Swine Show gives youth with intellectual disabilities the chance to show a pig at Wisconsin State Fair with the help of mentors. Here Elysa Doherty (right), 19, and her sister Isabelle Doherty (left), 14, both of Johnson Creek, mentor Alex Kuri (center), 17, of Muskego on caring for a pig named Oakley.

Langholff said she hopes to one year expand the show to bring in other types of livestock, possibly sheep, cattle and goats.

The event was open to all interested youth with intellectual disabilities. Langholff also reached out to Special Olympics to spread the word. Participants came from Lake Mills to Milwaukee.

As someone who grew up showing pigs, Langholff said the opportunity to teach kids how to work with animals for the first time is really important to her.

“It’s something that’s near and dear to my heart,” she said.