It's three days before the opening of the 19th Annual Rochester Country Fair and fair committee board member Kelly Morgado is in the ticket office placing ticket rolls  and other paper items in plastic bins.

"It gets a little wet in here when it rains," she said of the leaky weather-worn wood shed.

The weeks leading up to the fair have been busy for Morgado and her volunteers. The once nine member board of directors is down to just three - Morgado, her husband, Walter, and Andy Harding. The number of volunteers has shrunk, too, down to 30 core volunteers, compared to 100 in past years. But you won't know it by the activities and events planned for the four-day event.

"Julie Kozcera resigned (as chairman of the board of directors) last fall but she stayed on to help us pull off this fair this year.  If she didn't stay, this wouldn't have happened," Morgado said. "Julie is awesome."

"It's very dedicated group of people that want the fair to succeed. It really is because otherwise, we wouldn't have it," Morgado said.

The smaller work crew has meant that a lot of the physical work getting the fairgrounds ready has been truly labor intensive. Morgado herself has mowed areas of the grounds. She's cleaned, hauled, and orchestrated herself through 12 hour work days. But you're not likely to hear her complain.

"I'm not working right now so I have the time," the fit 59-year-old said.

Morgado and her crew seem more focused on the end result than the getting ready. But on Tuesday, getting ready was in full swing. Chase Canopy was on the grounds and had just erected the grand tent, a tent for the animal exhibits, and several smaller tents for gatherings and events.

"We're extremely excited about the beer and wine garden. We've been contemplating it for three years because people had approached us and wanted us to have it," Morgado said. "We had to have someone with insurance, so we partnered with the  Acushnet Lions Club. They are phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal."

Morgado said the fair committee also brought back some popular events that had gone away in the last few years.

"We bought Thursday night back. We didn't have that last year but we brought it back with truck pullers. Kids love the loud trucks - anything that makes noise they love."

Thursday night is also the '50s sock hop. "That's new. DJ Howie Plaud is doing that for us. He's from Rochester. He co-owns Capt. Bonney's Ice Cream. He came up with that idea and we're like 'Perfect!'"

"Friday is the Woodsmen Show show so pray for nice weather. Last year, they had tons of rain," Morgado said. "Everybody did a great job though"

"Saturday, we have the Connecticut State Tractor Pullers. They have a huge following. it's a required event for them so we expect an enormous crowd because they bring their own spectators. Everyone who's into tractors follows them. They're huge."

"Also on Saturday, we have some kids events. We have the Princesses of New Bedford coming,' she said. "They'll be here from 10 to 11:30 a.m. They dress up as princesses or Super Heroes. We did a lot of research and they come highly recommended so that's awesome. And the wrestling Saturday night. Kids adore it.

Morgado said a lot of attention was paid to the young people's and teenagers' activities.

"Jeff Ponte did a great job setting up our volleyball area. It's 'Buck Chuck Beach" back there, geared more for the teenagers," she said. In past years there hasn't been much for them here. We wanted to change that."

"We have a cranberry grower coming to teach the children how to build a bog in a cup. I'm really excited about that. I hope a lot of kids come to that.

"We have miniature golf. We'll have that from 10 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and 9 to 5 on Sunday. That's new to us. We hired a company to come in and set it up. It cost us a lot of money but we wanted something that the kids would love. Hopefully, we'll get donations to recoup the cost," Morgado said.

"We're going to have a hot dog eating contest. That's being sponsored by Matt's Blackboard (resturant in Plumb Corner)," she said. "It was hysterical last year watching people shove those hot dogs down their throats."

"We're doing quiet time activities. It's for children with sensory challenges, autistic children primarily. We did it last year," she said. "We only had five kids show up, but its five kids that got to spend time here at the fair, which they normally might not be willing to do. We have a lot of sensory bins made up and a lot of different activities for the kids. We have a service dog that's coming, if the children want to interact with him."

Morgado said there will be live music throughout the weekend, including some individual musicians and groups from years past, as well as a fiddling contest.

"Not all of the music is gonna be under the big tent," Morgado said. "What we've done is in the food court area, we've putting up a pop up tent. We want people drawn in that way (to the concession area). "Instead of having people just sitting in the tent, we want people to mingle among the vendors."

For all the work, Morgadi said satifaction boils down to one thing.

"For me the best part is seeing the people come through the gates and the little kids are so excited. We don't have carnival rides and they don't expect it, but they'll show me their frog that they caught for the frog derby. It's the kids, it really is. Our grandchildren usually come and they know exactly where everything is and they go running. Just to see the smiles on their faces, thats what makes it all with it."

"Come down. We've got events for everybody. We've got children's events. We added some new events. We've got Buck Chuck Beach for the teenagers, craft vendors, animal exhibits, tractor pulls, live music" she said."There's literally something here for everybody."

For a complete list of Rochester Country Fair events go online to: www.rochesterma.com