In 2001, area residents heading to Watsonville for the Santa Cruz County Fair’s opening day had their plans abruptly changed when the 9/11 terrorist attacks took place that morning.

Fair Manager and CEO Michael Bethke announced Wednesday, in a talk to the Watsonville Rotary Club, that he plans to put together an event to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.

“It’s still a conceptual thing at this point,” Bethke said. “Nothing concrete yet. But if we do get something together, I think this could be an incredible event at the fairgrounds.”

It is still only a concept, but Bethke is already out making pitches to local groups in an attempt to gather community support. He would like to include a significant number of the area’s first responders in the event, and it will take place at Ocean Speedway—the fairgrounds' racetrack.

Fair marketing director Steve Stagnaro also feels it is too soon to know what the event will look like beyond that general outline.  

“It’s so early in the planning stages that these are the things that we’d like to do, but it’s still early to know what’s possible,” Stagnaro said.

The connection to the fair’s opening day is what spurred fair management to begin to explore putting on an event for the 10-year anniversary.

“One of the reasons we started talking about this in the first place is Santa Cruz was one of the 9/11 fairs. We were scheduled to open on 9/11, 2001—that was our opening day,” said Stagnaro.

While Betke said this has the potential to be a very special event at the fairgrounds, taking place two days before the fair’s opening day on Sept. 13. The proximity of this year’s opening day to Sept. 11 was another reason Bethke wanted to produce a bigger scale event to commemorate the 10-year anniversary.

Previously, Bethke has discussed his belief that the county fair is an event that can be used to bring the community together. The anniversary event is another way Bethke thinks he can get people together and create something positive and memorable.

“People can come and reflect, and have a community celebration afterward,” Bethke said. “If we can pack the stands at the raceway to share in the remembrance and have a little festivity afterward, that’s got to be a good thing.”

This was not the only county fair news for the week. It was also announced Thursday that the fair has extended the Jan. 31 deadline for the 2011 poster art contest. Area students now have until Feb. 11 to submit their designs for this year’s official fair poster.

Stagnaro said in the press release that the extended deadline did not come as a reprieve for procrastinating students, but instead, the fair management listened to the “pleas from several area art teachers.”