By Eric Cravey
For The Register-Herald
Beckley — Four years of hard work paid off July 4 for 17-year-old Montana Parks and her male market lamb Beast.
Beast earned Grand Champion honors in the senior division of the lamb showmanship competition at the first-ever Raleigh County Fair held July 3-5 at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center. It was Parks’ first win showing her lambs, something she began while a freshman member of the Liberty High Surveyor FFA chapter. She and Beast, who has a female companion named Beauty, were awarded a banner and a gold belt bucket.
“So all of my four years, I’ve only shown at the West Virginia State Fair, and with that, there’s so much competition when you go into it,” said Parks, a Lester, W.Va., resident and 2026 graduate of Liberty High. “It’s very hard, but I mean it’s not all about the buckles and the banners that you win at the end of the day. I mean, it’s the relationships and the responsibility and hard work that you learn with them, and that’s why I’m here.”
Parks said the win at the Beckley competition serves as a good practice run for this year’s West Virginia State Fair.
Parks’ mom, Schaunna Parks, said Montana has always loved animals. Her interest in lambs began when Montana first joined 4-H Club (before she later transitioned to FFA) where its members typically select a year-long project.
“And she was like, ‘I would like to show a lamb,’” Schaunna Parks said. “In that first year, we started from scratch. We knew nothing. We all just put our heads together and did the best we could, and we learned so much that first year, and it was just something that really gave her a work ethic, and she’s always been a very responsible young lady, and it just gave her something that she could work toward, that also included her passion with animals.”
Montana Parks said the Raleigh County Fair was a great venue to celebrate the area’s agriculture community.
“I just feel like everyone here is, no matter what you’re showing, if you’re showing a hog or you’re showing a sheep or you’re showing a goat, it doesn’t really matter, because I feel like every one of us is just here for each other, and we’re all learning,” she said.
“Some of us are new at it, some of us are old and are professionals, but I mean, at the end of the day, I feel like it’s kind of like it brings the community together, and you get to bond with people and make lifelong friends along your way.”
In the fall, Montana Parks will enroll at Appalachian State University, where she plans to major in veterinary technology.
Parks’ story is just one example of the hard work area youth perform while working area family farms. At the foundation of all of this hard work are both FFA and 4-H, which played a large role in bringing the first-ever Raleigh County Fair to life. While both organizations are agriculture-related, at their foundation, both organizations teach youth vital leadership skills they will use for a lifetime.
“Learning to be public speakers, learning to even just speak, talking to the public, and educating them,” said Surveyor FFA Chapter Advisor Lindsay Acord of Liberty High. “You watch them showing little kids the animals, that makes them come out of their shells so much that they don’t even realize they’re at competitions, when we go to these competitions.”
Acord grew up on a farm but did not join FFA when she was herself a student at Liberty High. In her three years as the club advisor, she is constantly amazed at how her students grow in both skill and confidence with each year they participate.
“I’ve watched these guys sit down with senators and House delegates, and advocate for our classrooms and for our school,” Acord said. They’re, you know, advocating for our program. They actually were over there talking to Delegate (Christopher) Toney who was here, and he stopped by and was talking to us, and the kids were talking to him.
“They’ve got to know him so well, they talk to him like a friend, not just as a delegate, and so it’s been really interesting to watch and see how much they’ve learned to talk to adults and kids.”
So, what does the future hold for Montana Parks? She has her eyes set on establishing a fully-operational lambing operation that she plans to name in honor of her grandfather, who died of cancer and never got to launch Circle P Farms. She wants to name her business Circle P Club Lambs.
“I know how proud my PawPaw would be of me showing and working hard on a farm and everything that I’ve done in my life,” Montana Parks said. “So, I want to carry on that tradition of him wanting that and carry it into my business as I move further on.”
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