The 27th annual Farm Fair began Thursday, July 31. There were festivities for all of Harford County to enjoy, such as petting zoos, tractor pulls, and carnival rides, but those were not the only memories being made.

People notice and give thanks to the people running the tents, selling food, and taking care of the animals, but do they ever stop and take notice of the people directing their cars? Most of those people parking your vehicles are from Harford Technical High School sports teams. Girls’ soccer, Wrestling, and Football players all volunteered to give up a couple days of their summer to park cars. Sounds easy, right? Well it’s not the hottest cup of tea, they don’t choose the weather they work in, this year volunteers went from working in sunny, 75 degree weather to working in severe thunderstorms and code red heat.

Tech high school does not do this for money, in fact there is no financial benefit whatsoever for their school. This is how it works, they ask team member’s what times and which days they are available to park cars. From there these athletes could work from 8 in the morning to 8 at night, 3 days in a row.

This job was not to just help out the community, it is for players to meet each other, become friends and form unforgettable bonds with one another. Many people go into Harford Tech not knowing anybody because it is a magnet school and people come from all over the county. This makes joining teams hard for some people, it lowers their confidence not having friends, and many are worried about not fitting in.

“It isn’t just community service. Every day I may dread coming to work for hours, but in the end I never want to leave because of how much fun we have while we are there, it is like we become a family. Plus we never stop eating while we are there, so that is a huge plus,” said Tech senior, Shannon Conlon.

When these players are put in a parking lot for six to twelve hours they learn a lot about each other. If they had nothing in common before, they undoubtedly have something now.

“I think this would be a good idea for our school to do something like this, it would be a great way to form a bond between the community and NHHS athletics, I know for sure if field hockey had to do it we would become even closer as a team,” said North Harford senior, Gabby Karr.