Isabella Pieri and her alpaca Midas dress as an officer and inmate for the Llama and Alpaca Costume Contest at the Clark County Fair Aug. 3.
Dayna Hines and her alpaca Coco pose for Shannon Joy, the leader of the Curious Companions 4-H club before the Llama and Alpaca Costume Contest at the Clark County Fair Aug. 3.
Every year, kids in 4-H get the opportunity to dress up with their camelids (mammals in the camel family such as alpacas and llamas) for the costume contest. This year, costumes consisted of “Dora and Boots,” “Butter and Popcorn,” and a La Center cheerleader and football player.
“We encourage the handler to dress up with their animal,” Shannon Joy, leader of the Curious Companions 4-H club said.
Joy’s favorite part of the contest is seeing how creative kids can be when coming up with their costumes.
“A lot of times they will put their passion to their animals,” she said.
Past 4-H leader Peggy Gresham said part of the contest’s purpose is to show how trainable alpacas and llamas are. Dayna Hines, an upcoming senior at La Center High School, chose to utilize her school spirit for the competition by dressing up her alpaca, Coco while she wore her cheerleading outfit.
“With him specifically, it’s easy for me to put costume stuff on him because he’s my most desensitised animal,” Hines said of Coco as she described the vet wrap and football gear she had on his neck, legs and ears.
Hines has been dressing up Coco for the costume contest for the past eight or nine years she’s been a part of the club. Her favorite costume she has put together was last year’s, with her as the Cat in the Hat and her two alpacas, being Thing 1 and Thing 2.
“I had them literally head to toe in stuff,” she said. “I had shoes on their feet, t-shirts on them, stuff on their tail, and the little hats that said Thing 1 and Thing 2.”
Hines joined the Alpacas 101 4-H club nine years ago. She said her favorite part of the club is the experiences she has at the fair and talking with the public.
“It helps me with my confidence level, and it’s helped me so much with being able to talk with random people,” Hines said. “When I was eight years old I was this shy little girl who couldn’t talk to anybody.”
As for why she chose alpacas over llamas, Hines thinks alpacas are cuter. Abigail Pierson prefers llamas and dressed her llama, Envy, as a hippy because this year’s theme for the contest was “Sound of Music.” Pierson’s favorite part of the contest is being able to show off her llama to people at the fair. Her mom helped her sew the costume together.
Hines ended up winning Best in Class for the 2019 4-H costume contest after placing a pom-pom on Coco’s head.
