With the state fair now less than a month away, vendors and exhibitors are making their final plans when it comes to displays, menus and booths on the grounds.

For many nonprofit groups, the state fair gives them more exposure than they get all year long, such as the representatives of Hope for Heather. The local nonprofit was started in memory of Heather Weeks, who lost her life to cancer at age 24 in 2008.

Since then, Heather's mother Frieda and other volunteers have operated a booth at the state fair to promote education and awareness of ovarian cancer. Without the fair last year, nonprofits like Hope for Heather and the Carol M. Baldwin Foundation lost out on quite a bit of exposure.

Frieda Weeks said, typically, a 12-day fair allows Hope for Heather to reach about 50,000 to 60,000 people.

With an 18-day fair to start on August 20, she's planning on the most exposure yet in the Science and Industry Building. While staffing the booth can sometimes be challenging, she's ready to help women understand symptoms and the importance of early detection.

"What we really want women to do is we want to empower them to understand the signs and the symptoms of this disease.  We have a symptoms tracker diary, which is new for us which we'll be handing out where they can actually track their symptoms for four weeks and actually use that as a tool to speak with their physicians," said Weeks.

Weeks said the Hope for Heather booth will also have wristbands, cups and ribbons along with items for sale for a donation like shirts and hats.

She said they are looking for more volunteers, so if you would like to help out at the booth, you can visit their website at HopeforHeather.org and send them an email.

Weeks said in addition to the fair's exposure, she's also looking forward to other events this fall like the annual Teal Ribbon Run in September and a fashion show in November. Those are just a few events that were canceled last year because of COVID-19.