Aaron and Leah Janz’s love story began in the third-floor office of the 4-H Building at the Minnesota State Fair with two questions:
“Do you know how this thing works?”
“Who are you?”
Aaron was fiddling with the PA system — a brand new board he didn’t recognize. Leah was surprised to see a new face, first skeptically making sure he was allowed in the staff-only area.
By the end of the fair, they had a “state fair fling” — a summer romance neither of them expected to outlast the encampment. Three years later, they married. Today, they live in Burnsville with two children who are both in 4-H themselves.
Their love story in the 4-H Building was one of multiple couples featured in MPR News last year, and it surprises no one who has spent time there.
Aaron says, “The moment you walk in, you feel like you’re back home. You feel like you belong.”
It’s that feeling, and the people who keep it running, that bring Leah and Aaron back to support the building’s renovation.
Two roads to the same building
“4-H gave me the opportunity to explore a lot of different project areas in a low-pressure environment,” says Aaron. He found his footing in shooting sports, fishing and the outdoor side of Wisconsin 4-H. Once he became a Minnesota 4-H summer employee, the 4-H Building claimed a permanent place in his life.
Leah’s exploration through 4-H led to her career. She wasn’t drawn to any one project area, so much as the design process itself. She excitedly pored over poster boards and presentations, and when she learned that she could keep designing as a real profession, her pathway to a graphic design career began.
“I knew what I wanted to do in ninth grade,” says Leah. “Though I can’t say my Microsoft WordArt posters have aged gracefully.”
A mini-reunion, every August
For Leah and Aaron, every visit to the 4-H Building is a mini-reunion.
They go to the fair across multiple days, returning to the building to see specific people: the longtime security guard, a former roommate and staff and volunteers who still pour their time into making a positive 4-H experience.
Their memories flood back — midnight snacks from the cafeteria staff, late-night conversations with friends during shifts ending at 4 a.m., wearing a green suit as a door greeter.
Room to grow
The facilities are “kind of rugged,” says Aaron. He knows what improvements are possible firsthand, since he grew up staying in Wisconsin’s modern, dorm-style complex.
Leah is excited to see the renovation make the building as immersive as the Eco Experience building her own kids love — more interactive, more alive and used far beyond the 12 days of the fair.
Mostly, they hope the next generation walks through those doors and feels what they felt.
“I hope they feel inspired when they walk in those doors, and that they come away with a brand-new set of friends they didn’t have before,” says Leah. Many of her closest friends came from 4-H. She has known them for more than 25 years.
Aaron hopes it brings in more youth to learn the important lessons of 4-H: not to prize perfection, but progress. It’s a lesson their daughter absorbed last year when her third practice cake, meant for the fair, failed spectacularly. She brought photos of all three cakes instead, talked the judge through what she'd learned and earned a blue ribbon anyway.
Leah and Aaron's gift is a bet that the next generation will find the same thing they did inside those walls: a place to try and fail, a reason to come back and connections that last far beyond the 12 days of the fair.
Join Aaron and Leah in supporting the 4-H Building campaign
With a gift of $1,000 or more, your name will be added to the donor wall in the 4-H Building. Pledges can be fulfilled over five years, with payments made monthly or annually — whatever works best for you.
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