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Petting zoo organizers in 35th year at Washington County Fair

3 min read
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Jan Marchezak, fifth from left, and her extended family have made the petting zoo at Washington County Fair a labor of love for 35 years.

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Veronica Maurer of Pittsburgh feeds an African zebra straw after running out of feed.

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Max Ivcic, 11, plays with one of the bovines owned by his grandmother and father, operators of the petting zoo at Washington County Fair.

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Jan Marchezak and her husband, Rich Tomsic, play with some of the penned goats, llamas and other animals at the Washington County Fair.

It’s a family affair at Washington County Fair for Jan Marchezak. She and her legion of extended family corral and care for hundreds of animals as part of the petting zoo and animal demonstrations at the annual celebration of livestock and funnel cakes. Some of Marchezak’s five grandchildren get involved, but this year, a youth of a different sort will be hanging around the Wild World of Animals Show – a baby baboon.

“Ozzie is just about six weeks old, and he’ll be in my daughter and her husband’s show every day over at the Wild World of Animals along with Shaka, a 5-year-old mandrill monkey,” said Marchezak, who’s tending to about 80 goats, llamas, zebras, pigs and a litany of other animals as part of the petting zoo.

Marchezak, 65, of Eighty Four, has been running the Barnyard Petting Zoo & Pony Rides organization for 35 years. The matriarch’s home base hasn’t changed. Yet the story of how her daughter – Jaimie – met, married and collaborated with her husband, Grant Kemmerer, was a mix of the domestic and the exotic.

“More than 20 years ago, she was set up with our area of petting zoo animals, and here was Grant, looking like Tarzan with his ponytail and a bunch of wild animals. Now we all work together,” Marchezak said.

This year has been particularly tough on the family, with oppressive humidity and a hectic schedule.

“I get really emotional talking about it, especially the work we’ve done of late. It’s been trying, doing our fifth fair in four weeks. It’s either a blessing or a curse that we raise so many animals, because there isn’t an animal we don’t like,” Marchezak said, “and with the rain, it really has become Noah’s Ark at the petting zoo area.”

Marchezak leans on her husband, Richard Tomsic, for handywork and repairs around the farm. Her son, Jeremy Ivcic, is part of the “backbone team” that runs the operation, as well as her daughter-in-law, Mindy, who has the monumental task of keeping records on more than 500 animals at the farm.

“I’ve been involved since I was 2, but at 16, I knew I wanted to help. I didn’t want to go to college, so I committed to this. It’s crazy, but it’s all worth it to see kids with the animals,” said Ivcic, whose son, Max, was playing with some of the miniature African Zebu cows.

“Max has a real passion for the cows … but there’s a bit of a misrepresentation we try to educate people on as part of the petting zoo. These animals are very docile and comfortable around humans because they’ve been raised by them. If they were raised by their mothers, they would be skittish and run,” Marchezak said, “but that was my problem. I had to stop having human babies, so I turned to taking care of these. And my grandchildren – we’re raising young farmers, female farmers. This is the fourth generation of us continuing that tradition, and you have to because no sane person would voluntarily seek this out.”

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