About the Home & Garden Show

The 17th annual Home and Garden Show sponsored by The Union Democrat and participating exhibitors promises to be the biggest ever.

Bring your family to spend a day browsing through exhibits, signing up for free prize drawings, eating lunch and taking all the information you desire home with you.

More than 100 exhibitors will be showing everything from planting tips and window treatments to home construction, real estate information and financing.

They will fill all four buildings at the fairgrounds plus a huge pavilion and much of the outdoor area.

The show will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Parking and admission will be free at the fairgrounds. To ease the parking crunch, a free shuttle bus will run continuously between the fairgrounds on Stockton Road and the Sonora Plaza shopping center on Mono Way.

The Police Cadet Explorer Post sponsored by Sonora Police Department will direct traffic and parking at the fairgrounds.

About $10,000 worth of prizes will be given away in free drawings, and exhibitors will have many other giveaways.

Many of them will also offer special discounted prices on anything sold at the show.

The most valuable gifts will be brochures, literature and information about the latest in home and garden improvements, real estate, financing and other home-related topics.

In addition to commercial exhibitors, a number of civic organizations and agencies are participating.

The Sonora Mountain Lions will have an Eye Mobile there Sunday offering free vision and glaucoma screening.

The Sonora Seventh-day Adventist Church is again sponsoring a nursery area where parents may change diapers, nurse or have a quiet time with babies.

Organizations such as the Master Gardeners and Tuolumne County Chamber of Commerce and agencies such as the Tuolumne Utilities District and Tuolumne County building, planning, fire, environmental health, solid waste and assessor-recorder offices will have informative booths.

The Tuolumne County Recreation Department will have its Mobile Youth Center van at the show.

Representatives of the YES Project, which addresses problems of young people with positive activities and programs, will be selling afghans with familiar Tuolumne County scenes on them. Proceeds will benefit YES programs.

The Tuolumne County Visitors Bureau will have information about places of interest in Tuolumne County and will have books for sale that relate to local places and events.

Area service clubs and youth organizations will again be selling food with the proceeds going to community causes. The Sonora Kiwanis Club and Downtown Sonora Kiwanis Club will both be selling food, offering everything from doughnuts and coffee in the morning to tri-tip or sausage sandwiches for lunch. Snack foods will be served all day long.

Girl Scouts will have cookies for sale, and Boy Scouts will sell candy.

The Tuolumne County Fire Department will have information about fire prevention.