Retirees, teenagers put best foot forward at State Fair’s Job Fair

What do you do if you don’t want a full-time job or a part-time job? How about a seasonal job?

Such was the situation for Pendleton’s Teresa Mason, who came out to Thursday’s Indiana State Fair Job Fair in hopes of landing a temporary Fair position.

“I’m a people person, so I like being around crowds,” said Mason, a 1-year-old retired school teacher and customer service supervisor. "I find it fascinating to watch different kinds of people and interact with them, so I think this is a perfect run of people coming through the gates.”

We had nearly 1,500 job-seekers turn out for about 400 temporary positions at the Indiana State Fair, set this year for Aug. 6-22. Grounds, security, education and other departments all held interviews with applicants, which ranged from teenagers to retirees and Hoosiers to Kentuckians, in the Farm Bureau Building.

Monique Andurson and her brother, Chaz Johnson, weren’t going to let something so little as living in another state deter them from applying for jobs.

The Louisville, Ky. siblings, who have family living in Indianapolis, made the 120-mile trek and were the first in line at 8 a.m. – even though the fair started at 3 p.m. Johnson said a friend had told him the fair started earlier, but that he and his sister toughed it out most of the day because they wanted to be there a “good reasonable time” before anybody else.

“I need something that’s going to help me out,” said Andurson, 17, as she filled out an application. “I need money in my pocket.”

If you couldn’t make it to the job fair, but still want to submit an application, you can do so by stopping in the Employment Office in the Public Safety Building at the Fall Creek Parkway entrance from June 8-18. For more information on the Indiana State Fair, visit http://www.indianastatefair.com/.

Submitted by Kristofer Karol

(above photo by Nick Hewitt)