Aimee O’Neill has been the heart and soul of the Harford County Farm Fair since its inception in 1987, when her father pioneered the event. Her lifelong commitment and passion have helped the fair grow into a cherished local tradition.
O’Neill, 66, is the co-chair of the Harford County Farm Board, a nonprofit group created by her father in the 1980s to support the youth agriculture group 4-H.
Before the creation of the farm board, the Harford County Fair was held at the site of what is now the Harford Mall. The fairgrounds were surrounded by a racetrack and served as the home of the fair from the late 1800s to the mid-1960s. The last Harford County Fair was held around 1962 — 11 years before the fairgrounds became the Harford Mall, which opened in 1973.
During this time, O’Neill was a member of 4-H.
“When the county fair ended, the 4-Hers took their annual fair back to the 4-H campground on Cherry Hill Road,” O’Neill said. “The camp was where I would go, and I would show horses and dogs as part of the fair.”
The absence of the annual county fair isolated much of the county’s 4-H activities and 4-H participation began to dwindle in the 1980s.
O’Neill’s father, John H. O’Neill, took note and set plans in motion to bring back the fair in 1987.
John O’Neill, a farmer, county politician and auctioneer, had raised Aimee and her six siblings on a 1,500-acre beef cattle farm called Springwood Farm in Forest Hill. The family farm was supplemented with her father’s livestock auctioneering business.
“We all worked on the farm and our tasks ranged from feeding to hay production where we would move hay bales by hand,” O’Neill said. “My dad’s passion was farming and that is what I grew up with. I always enjoyed it.”
O’Neill joined her father at the first Harford County Farm Fair in 1988, where she served as a general volunteer passing out popcorn and lemon sticks for a local theater startup as a way to raise money.
The Harford County Farm Fair did not serve alcohol or have a carnival because O’Neill’s father, who was co-chair of the farm board at the time, and the rest of the farm board, wanted to keep the fair focused on “farm and family.”
O’Neill and her father quickly developed ideas for the fair, such as “Kidway,” an area that offered games and activities for children.
O’Neill’s father built many of the games, such as ring toss and bean bag toss, by hand while she developed a volunteer program for young people in the community to help at the fair.
“I worked on the Kidway side of the fair for years and I still do,” O’Neill said. “I wanted to implement volunteers because part of that was to bring children in and give them responsibilities and a chance to volunteer and be a part of the community.”
As the farm fair grew in popularity with larger crowds and new activities sprouting each year, Jim Torre III could be seen with two draft horses pulling a wagon fit for 30 riders. Torre, who was also on the first planning committee for the fair, never charged riders for a stroll around the grounds.
O’Neill had seen Torre working the fair and eventually crossed paths with him after he began renting horses from her father.
“I then went to his house to measure the wagon for promotional signs for my dad’s business,” O’Neill said. “I met him, and we started dating shortly thereafter and got married.”
The two went on to work at the fair together before they were joined by their two sons, James Torre IV, and Timothy Torre, born in 1992 and 1995, respectively.
After having children, O’Neill recognized the need for a baby changing station at the fair.
“I literally watched mothers change babies on the ground and as a mother, I thought we had to do something,” O’Neill said. “So, I created a comfort station for mothers with children and we partnered with Upper Chesapeake to bring supplies and allow women to change their babies and nurse them if they need to.”
The comfort station and Kidway are two aspects of the fair that still exist today.
As a family, O’Neill, her husband and her two sons considered the weeklong Harford County Farm Fair their annual vacation. Torre would use his vacation time at work to volunteer at the fair and both of their sons would volunteer as well.
“The fair was a definite family affair and we loved it,” O’Neill said.
The Harford County Farm Fair continued to grow in popularity as engagement with 4-H boomed. O’Neill was working her way through the ranks of the farm board while simultaneously running her own real estate business, O’Neill Enterprises Realty.
The family volunteered at the annual fair together until March of this year when O’Neill’s husband suffered a fatal heart attack. Now, O’Neill and her elder son, Jimmy, 32, who lives out of state, volunteer each year.
“We do this because we want to give this experience to families and I can tell you, I am still having fun,” O’Neill said. “Being a part of the community is what I do because it is what my dad did, it is what my grandparents did and generations before me did.”
Aimee O’Neill, Farm Fair co-chair, patrols the fairgrounds in her golf cart making sure all visitors and others on the grounds are safe as storms moved in at the Harford County Farm Fair in July 2019.
Over the years, O’Neill said the cost of running the fair began to increase, which led to the addition of a carnival around 2016. The carnival was seen as a way to raise additional revenue in order to keep admission prices affordable for families.
“The business support of the fair and the cost of the fair started to change so it became more expensive as we tried to keep the admission reasonable,” O’Neill said. “With some reluctance, the fair board implemented the carnival to see if it would raise the needed money and support 4-H.”
O’Neill noted that the carnival brought in much-needed revenue, but due to the rapidly growing participation in 4-H, the fair board decided to get rid of it two years ago due to space concerns at the fairgrounds.
She said the elimination of the carnival and increased support from local businesses has returned the Harford County Farm Fair to its roots.
“With the elimination of the carnival, the fair is very much a farm-focused, 4-H- focused, and family-focused fair like it was when it began 37 years ago,” O’Neill said.
O’Neill has served as co-chair of the board since 2009. She continues to work the Kidway side of the fair and is in charge of coordinating volunteer services each year.
Her favorite part of the fair is sharing her knowledge of agriculture with children in the community.
“I have been managing the children’s corner from the very beginning so to me, sharing this culture with children and enjoying their delight in learning something new or having fun or seeing farm animals is what it is all about and why we are doing this,” O’Neill said.
The Harford County Farm Fair is open daily through Saturday.
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