When Lois Anne Risser moved to Lancaster County more than 50 years ago, she was newly married and looking for "a way to get out in the community and get to know the people."

So she helped at the milkshake stand at a still-small country fair in Lampeter and then starting keeping its books.

When next September rolls around, it will have been 50 years since a young bride rolled up her sleeves to volunteer at the West Lampeter Community Fair.

And after years of quiet, hard work for her fair, Risser has been honored by statewide fair officials with a top regional award.

This fall, the 75-year-old grandmother of four was honored as "Person of the Year" for the state fair association's Zone 4, which includes Lancaster County.

The award recognizes people for their contributions to their local fairs and across their region.

And that describes the Lampeter Road resident to a "T," West Lampeter Fair officials said.

They know it's great to have someone "you can count on, and who knows what they're doing," as veteran fair president Don Welk Jr. said.

Risser succeeded her husband, Jay, as fair treasurer 33 years ago, and the job involves putting in some 18-hour days during fair week at the Lampeter fairgrounds in late September.

A "people person," the homemaker has invested her energies in the fair even while rearing two daughters and a son, serving as a church organist, and raising roses.

She wasn't planning on a half-century of volunteering when she first started helping out, she recalled this week.

"The fair has grown so over the years," she said.

But more to the point, it has kept its small-town values and atmosphere.

Risser is the volunteer who works with community groups that run the fair's concession stands, the main annual fundraiser for some organizations.

When fair week arrives — and next September's will be the 84th annual — "I live there!" she said with a friendly smile.

"I go there at 8 (a.m.) and I get home at midnight, 1 in the morning."

She opens all the e-mails for the fair, and, she says, "It's amazing all the requests we get from people who want to entertain" at the fair, which has no rides or big-time entertainment.

"And I always send them back, saying, 'Sorry, we don't have outside entertainment.'"

When her state fair association award came this fall, it was a complete surprise to Risser.

She and others from the West Lampeter Fair made the hour-plus trip to a gathering at the Kempton Fairgrounds, near Kutztown, and, she recalled, "I had noooooo idea!

"When they called my name, Don (Welk) said, 'Well, get up there!' They all knew."

Risser is originally from Hickory, in Washington County, south of Pittsburgh.

She met her husband — a Lancaster native who grew up on a farm near where they live now — when he was working in western Pennsylvania and he visited her church.

They will celebrate their 53rd wedding anniversary in March.

Her husband, Jay, was a milk-tester for the Pennsylvania Dairy Herd Improvement Association for 50 years until he retired five years ago.

The couple, avid Penn State football fans, have been season-ticket holders for nearly 30 years.

She played the organ for nearly 40 years for Community United Methodist Church, on Tennyson Drive, before retiring in June, and now she fills in when needed.

She is a longtime member of Strasburg Presbyterian Church, so each morning after playing at Community UMC, she said, "I'd high-tail over to my own church" for its services.

Risser, the former Lois Anne Carter, attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania for a year then went to work for three years at the Koppers Company in Pittsburgh.

The Rissers have three children, Carol Fahnestock, Landisville; J. Ronald Risser, Lancaster; and Maryellen Cranston, Ashfield, Mass., as well three grandsons and a granddaughter.

The fair volunteer also has traveled to every state, all of the British Isles and to Germany twice.

She also quilts, knits and raises vegetables and about 75 roses.

CONTACT US: doconnor@LNPnews.com or 481-6033