His legacy lives on: Ten years later, Drew Scott Memorial Sheep Show is stronger than ever

Ask anyone who knew Drew Scott, and they’ll tell you about how he always wanted to be the center of attention. On one July night at the Grundy County Fair for each of the past 10 years, that dream has been realized even in the aftermath of his tragic and untimely death.
           
“This thing here, I think he’d just get a kick out of it because the world’s revolving around him,” his father Lee said on Friday night.
           
Scott, a 2007 Grundy Center High School graduate, passed away as a result of a car accident near his family farm in rural Jackson County at the age of 20 in 2009. Both Drew and his sister Mallory were fixtures at the fair—specifically, the sheep show—and they quickly found success.
           
“I don’t know why we suggested sheep. I was a cattle guy,” Lee said. “But once they started showing them, they liked it, and then they started showing at the state fair. That’s when both of them really liked it, and I think that’s when they became addicted.”
           
Lee went on to joke that Mallory, who along with his wife Janet also attended last Friday’s event, was a better shower than Drew, but his only son more than made up for his lack of technical skills with a goofy personality, a can-do attitude and a willingness to try anything.
           
“Mallory was the one who really took it really seriously and wanted to win, and Drew was in it for the girls,” he said.
 
The Grundy County Fair held and still holds a particularly special place in the Scott family’s hearts: all three surviving members make the 2 ½ hour drive every summer, and the year after Drew’s death, the market lamb show was renamed in his honor along with a newly created $250 scholarship that went to his friend Cassie Bakker in 2009. Today, the award has grown to $2,000.
 
“This is what he was all about: being at the fair and helping people. He was very generous towards other people,” Bakker said. “He was always pulling jokes and making people laugh.”
 
And according to fellow scholarship winner and friend Derek Noteboom, one of Scott’s biggest goals was to help younger kids learn and offer whatever advice he could. Dustin Dinsdale, who received the scholarship in 2014, was one of those kids.
 
“Growing up hearing what Drew did for this county fair, he’s someone that you really kind of grow to admire and appreciate what he did,” Dinsdale said. “You kind of want to try and take his place and follow in his footsteps.” 
 
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