At Fort Worth Stock Show, managing the ribbons is a job of a different color

Before any child, chicken or cow walks away with a prize, expert eyes have checked each of the thousands of awards handed out at the Stock Show. Stefan Marchman, livestock show manager, and David Gibbs, consulting manager, typically spend about 80 man-hours organizing the more than 23,000 rosettes, ribbons and banners awarded during the show’s 24-day run. They look for typos and make sure ribbons aren’t missing when they arrive in bulk from a company in Ohio. This behind-the-scenes work is critical to the show’s success because no one wants to deliver the wrong ribbon to a participant, they said. "You got to get this right," stressed Gibbs, who has organized ribbons for 46 shows. Last year’s grand total was 23,164, Marchman said. The pair expect to surpass that this year because there are more events...read more