Celebration marks 25 years on Centennial Farm

For the 25th anniversary of Centennial Farm on Thursday, the whole gang came out to partake of the festivities.

There was Victor the llama, whose ripe old age of 26 makes him the farm’s oldest resident. Nearby were Patches and Freckles, a pair of oxen who put on their party hats to celebrate the 3.5-acre educational farm at the Orange County fairgrounds.

Down the way was a mini-pen of 2-week-old chicks. They too wore party hats to show their excitement.

And, of course, there were throngs of Costa Mesa schoolchildren, excited to walk and run about the farm’s barn, animal pens and agricultural exhibits to learn about the history of farming and where their food comes from.

This has been Centennial Farm’s mission since 1989 and now, 25 years later, more than 1.1 million people have benefited. The facility was so named because it was founded on the 100th birthday of the Orange County Fair.

More than 100 visitors celebrated the anniversary by eating cake, chomping on pig-shaped cookies and watching archive footage of an exuberant Huell Howser touring the farm while filming “California’s Gold.”

Centennial Farm co-founder Jim Bailey was among the guests. The former Orange County Fair livestock supervisor was given a standing ovation and credited for his 55 years of service, as was his wife, Helen, for her 45 years.

A.G. Kawamura, who also was instrumental in the farm’s founding, said the patch of the fairgrounds used to be a grassy space before becoming, in its first year, a dug-up, “dinky little farm” with a picket fence around it.

“We were convinced it looked pretty ugly, but we kept on going,” he said. “The fair went on.”

The following year, the fair board began funding the project, and “the rest is history,” Kawamura said.

“When you see the miracle take place on a child’s face of holding a little chicken in their hand, or watching something grow and eating it, you saw the magic right away and the value,” he added. “It’s with great, great honor I get to say I’m a part of this.”

Jenna Sillasen, 9, got excited when an angora goat hopped on a fence to get a closer look at her.

“It’s getting up,” she said. “It’s posing!”

Charlie Grant, a 1-year-old of few words, easily described his feelings while checking out the hens: “Wow!”