Nancy Tutterow has been to every Center Fair since it moved back to the community in 1957.

And except for a time while recovering from surgery, she has been a volunteer at the fair, which brings the talents of Davie residents in growing vegetables, taking photographs, baking cakes, canning beans, you name it.

“I love it,” she said. “It’s just as appealing and exciting as the first one was,” Tutterow said.

She remembers one of her teachers entering something she had done in the then Davie County Fair. The fair started in Center, moved to Mocksville, then back to the Center community in 1957.

From the one-day fair and barbecue in 1924, the event has grown to two days, with vendors selling their goods.

Tutterow still enters exhibits. “The day of the fair, bringing my few exhibits in is just exciting,” she said.

Alice Barnette is another long-time Center Fair volunteer, and said it’s time for some new blood to take over the event.

“For the event to continue, additional community support is needed,” Barnette said. “It’s going to take people, and not just people who talk the game.”

Getting sponsors, calling judges and fair officials and getting the site ready and cleaned takes people willing to put in the hours at the necessary time.

The self-supporting fair takes from $3,000-$5,000 a year, Barnette said.

“There’s a lot of work ahead of time,” she said.

The Center Volunteer Fire Department and Center Community Development Association split the barbecue profits; the fair gets money vendors pay to set up.