SMITHFIELD, Pennsylvania — Two days ago, Beth Ann Bossio woke up to the news that Pennsylvania would not have a booth at the Great American State Fair, the Fourth of July celebration underway on the National Mall in Washington.
The decision was made by Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), who told the New Republic he would not send a delegation to the fair in honor of America 250 after his administration said it canvassed opinions among Pennsylvania businesses and told the reporter, “None of them were interested.”
Shapiro said their disinterest “reflects the sad state of affairs that we find ourselves in that the president politicized this to a degree that businesses don’t want to participate.”
Early Saturday morning, Bossio got a call from PennAg, the state’s leading agricultural trade organization, asking for help. Bossio, a board member of the Pennsylvania Christmas Tree Growers Association, immediately sprang into action.
Bossio said nothing was going to stop her from going to Washington and bringing representation for one of Pennsylvania’s premier agricultural products: Christmas trees. Pennsylvania ranks behind only Oregon, North Carolina, and Michigan in supplying live Christmas trees to the rest of the country.
Pennsylvania Christmas tree farms are a multimillion-dollar industry, harvesting between 700,000 and 1.1 million trees a year. Farmers such as Bossio, who works at her stepfather Jim Rockis’s Quarter Pine Tree Farm in Fayette County, help make that possible through a careful mix of science, skill, and hard work.
Two things motivated her. First, Pennsylvania’s central place in the nation’s founding. Fayette County is where a young George Washington helped ignite the French and Indian War, and Philadelphia is where America’s independence was signed and delivered to the crown. Second, her love of the agricultural industry in this state.
“I never miss out on an opportunity to highlight our industry and to make sure agricultural stories are always being told,” Bossio said.
On Monday, she was packing up the farm’s red truck and hauling on down to Washington to the booth.
“We may not be a crop that feeds people, but we are a crop that feeds their soul at Christmastime, and we are keeping green seances alive across the United States,” she said.
Her reaction wasn’t alone. Sens. David McCormick (R-PA) and John Fetterman (D-PA) were on the phone at the crack of dawn Saturday as soon as the New Republic Shapiro interview became public.
Within hours, McCormick and Fetterman were working the phones, reaching out to the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce, PennAg, and scores of businesses, urging them to step up. Most Pennsylvania businesses answered the call.
So far, Crayola, the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance, Core Natural Resources, Quandel Construction, Schlouch Construction, Utz, Orvis Hill Country, GNC, MSA, The Safety Company, Vitro Glass, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the Neighbor Helping Neighbor Food Bank, and Camp Susque are all donating displays, manpower, carpentry expertise, or donations.
Volunteer firefighters from across the state offered to staff the booth. So did the owner of a pest control company in Montgomery County. They are just a few examples of the people, small-business owners, and large companies now clamoring to make Pennsylvania’s booth reflect the state’s cultural and economic influence, past and present. Even the Liberty Bell — a replica, but still — is on its way from Commonwealth Charter Academy in Harrisburg.
The Pennsylvania Chamber said it sent an email to its members on Saturday asking for urgent donations of materials highlighting Pennsylvania. Within minutes, items began pouring in, and vans were being loaded across the state with items reflecting Pennsylvania’s history and its people.
Even Pennsylvania’s famed Snack Belt — 80% of the snacks consumed in this country are made in six counties — stepped up in a big way. Utz and Middleswarth chips were being loaded into trucks for giveaways early this morning.
Unfortunately, Hershey, the 132-year-old chocolate company synonymous with Pennsylvania’s snack industry and the home of the theme park that draws 3.3 million people every year, will not be bringing its iconic Pennsylvania brand to the Great American State Fair booth.
However, Asher’s Chocolate will be there. So will U.S. Metal Powers, which is sending manufactured aluminum.
There is even an iconic park bench from the Knoebels Amusement Resort, America’s largest free-admission amusement park located in Columbia County, on its way.
As of this morning, dozens of volunteers from across the state were working on the booth, expanding its walls and transforming an empty space into something of substance and pride. Historic American flags from McCormick’s office now grace the walls, while boxcars filled with iconic Pennsylvania materials, both historic and present-day, make their way to Washington from across the state.
“Pennsylvania is where America’s story began, and there was no way we were going to let the commonwealth go unrepresented during our nation’s 250th birthday celebration,” McCormick said when news broke that the state’s booth would not be filled for the celebration of the country’s founding.
Fetterman, who worked with McCormick on pulling out all the stops, said, “Celebrating America’s 250th birthday and Pennsylvania’s special role in our country is important and bipartisan. We discovered our commonwealth wasn’t participating in the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, and we should be.”
The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, which the Shapiro administration had charged with finding sponsors, said Shapiro’s office contacted it less than two weeks before the fair began, making it difficult to secure products and donations in time. As it turned out, other companies were willing to step up in a matter of hours.
Bossio will hit Washington early Tuesday with a 7 1/2-foot-tall, 50-inch-wide tree, along with a tree stand and skirt in tow.
“To keep it natural and tie into the America 250 theme, I plan to decorate it simply with a beautiful American bow at the top and plenty of information about the industry for families to take home,” she said.
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McCormick said he is overwhelmed by the outpouring of businesses, volunteers, and people who have just shown up to help, loaded trucks for other businesses, and got into the spirit of what it’s all about.
“What better way to show America who Pennsylvania is than by how we’ve all come together to be part of something bigger than ourselves at the fair,” he said.