T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Angie Nelson (front right, holding plaque), pictured alongside members of the Central Iowa Fair Board, was inducted into the CIF Hall of Fame during a ceremony held Wednesday night before the Queen and Little Miss Princess crowning.

For a Marshall County native who grew up in the Gilman Rustlers 4-H Club and now, as an adult, serves as a 4-H advisor while working professionally in the agricultural field and coaching girls swimming at Marshalltown High School in her free time, it would be hard to think of a more deserving recipient for induction into the Central Iowa Fair Hall of Fame than Angie Nelson.

Nelson, who now lives on the rural Gilman farm where she was raised, was recognized during a ceremony under the Big Top Tent at the Central Iowa Fairgrounds on Wednesday evening just before the crowning of the CIF Queen and Little Miss Princess. Fair Board President Jodi Breniman noted that Nelson “always has a smile on her face and a bubbly personality that makes your day so much better.”

A member of the first class to graduate from the newly combined East Marshall High School in 1993, Nelson served as the Marshall County Extension Director from 2006 to 2009 and has worked as a regional manager for the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation covering a territory including Marshall, Poweshiek, Jasper, Hardin and Hamilton counties since then.

“When I was the extension director, I really got to know the insides of the fair. When I was just a kid here, you just run around and have waterfights and cool stuff like that, and you don’t get a chance to see all the inner workings and all the time and effort it takes to make things happen,” she said.

She also sat on the extension council from 2011 to 2018.

“Honestly, you’ve just gotta love the fair,” Nelson told the T-R after her induction. “There’s something fun to do. There’s a lot of awesome people that are here, and there’s a lot of great people that make this thing work. And they’ve been doing it for a number of years, and so I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of that growing up.”

After returning to Marshall County with her husband Matt, a fellow East Marshall alum who now works on the farm with Angie’s father, Nelson quickly reintegrated herself into the community and the fair in particular, and she received a warm welcome from the get go. The hall of fame induction is a full circle moment, and she’s proud to join an elite club of dedicated people who make the CIF a success each and every year.

“I just think it’s fantastic. I’ve been a big fan of the Marshall County Fair for all of my years, and there are people that pour their heart and soul into this fair and the fairgrounds here. And I’ve just been very fortunate to get to know them, and I’ve been very fortunate to get to be a part of it,” she said.

Alongside Michelle Eibs Atcher, Nelson now leads a 4-H club made up of mostly East Marshall students, a combination of the Gilman Rustlers and the Laurel Livewires with some Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) youth also involved.

“We’ve got a great group, and I have awesome parents. I’ve been lucky enough to be doing this long enough that I have parents who are (both) friends and parents,” she said.

Contact Robert Maharry at (641) 753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.