The Barker family of Burlington all took home ribbons in the chair caning competition at the 2025 N.C. State Fair for their individual entries. Daughter Hadley won a first-place ribbon in the youth competition. Dad Gary was a second-place winner in the adult competition and mom Heather won third place.
The family’s entries carry on a tradition for Gary Barker’s family with the State Fair and caning competitions.
Gary Barker’s dad and grandmother were both caners who passed on the skill that Gary has now shared with his daughter and his wife.
Barker’s family also entered competitions at the State Fair, Gary said, recalling that one year “my mom, my dad, my niece and my nephew all entered the Fair, and they all won ribbons.”
Gary has been entering fair competitions for six or seven years and earned a first-place ribbon a few years ago.
Last year Gary noticed there were no caned chairs entered, and he asked about it. Learning that the competition could go away if there continued to be no interest, Gary pledged to enter the contest and find some others to enter, too.
Gary followed through on the promise and got Heather and Hadley involved, too.
Heather said she wanted “to learn because it was such a big thing for his family.”
“I really liked It. Once I got the process down, it was fun. When it got to the end, it was a little harder,” Heather said.
“It was my first time entering anything at the fair,” she added.
Hadley, who also has an art project entered at the fair, was excited about winning a ribbon for the chair and was proud to be the fourth generation of the family to do caning.
The three were at the State Fair Sunday for a day of fun and to check on their entries.
“The first thing we did was have a hot apple cider, which is something we always start with. Then we took a picture with the mum tower,” Heather said. “This is usually our last stop, but we were excited to see how we did, so we came to the competition building next.”
Once they arrived and saw the ribbons, the first order of business was to call Gary’s mom to tell her. “Grammy is the one who taught us,” Gary said, adding, “my dad would have absolutely been proud.”