Chuck Miltenberger, of Niles, volunteers as Dairy Superintendent at the Berrien County Youth Fair, which runs Aug. 11-16

Q: How do you volunteer at the Berrien County Youth Fair?

I am the Dairy Superintendent so I manage the dairy portion of the fair. Next year will be my 40th year of doing it. Basically I supervise the showing of the dairy cows for the week. I make sure everyone shows up and gets in their place. This year we only have 30 cows. At the height of when we were doing this — about 20 years ago — we had many, many more cows, but the dairy farms in Berrien County are slowly disappearing do to urban expansion and the fact that it hasn’t been a good business to be in the past few years.

Q: How did you first get involved with the fair?

I showed as a youngster myself and both of my boys — we were dairy farmers for more than 20 years. The boys started showing and I think it was before they were even done that I volunteered as superintendent when the previous one quit. I’ve been at it ever since. It really involves about 10 days each year. On Thursday we set up for the week, clean the barn and set up large fans to keep the cows cool. The cows come in Sunday morning and stay all week. That is an all-day job pretty much for me. I supervise the milking of the cows at 7 in the morning and again at 7 in the evening. At night we put on a milking show to explain to people how it works.

Q: What do you enjoy about being Dairy Superintendent?

We are about a generation and a half away from the farm, so most people have no contact with farms anymore. Where milk comes from is a mystery to most people. It shows up on the shelves at Harding’s or Martin’s and that’s about as far as it goes for a lot of people. We get to keep people more informed about the dairy industry and how milk is produced.

The biggest thing is the kids. That’s the main reason I go back every year. I am on my second generations now. Some of these young people who are bringing their children in have showed for 10 years. We try to impress on them that since they showed for 10 years they need to come back and give back. Many of them volunteer too. That’s a neat part of it to see that.

It is also great to watch the children grow, not just physically, but their personalities and everything. I really get to see the differences year to year.

Q: Why is it important to volunteer?

There are so many ways you can give back. We all take in one way or another, so it is a way to give back to our community and our country. When you can help someone else feel good it makes you feel good too.