GOSHEN — Colton Stuckman, 30, hit the pillow at 4 a.m. the morning of the frog jump contest at the 2025 Elkhart County 4-H Fair.
“We were out late last night and the night before catching all these frogs,” Stuckman said. “It was quite a chore. I got about two and a half hours of sleep last night.”
But catching the frogs the two nights before the contest was worth it for Stuckman because he got to see the smiling faces and joy from many of the children who participated, including his own children.
Allison Pinion, a fair board member, said the frog jump contest has been happening for 30-plus years. The contest used to take place in the evenings, she said.
“The most fun part I think is having the kids, or adults even, name their frogs,” Pinion said. “So, you get some really interesting names on their frogs.”
Sawyer’s Country Edge department store in Syracuse, Indiana, provides the frogs. The frogs are caught in private ponds around the Elkhart County area, Stuckman said.
Another sponsor, Hopper’s Pike Street Grille in Goshen, provides the gift certificates that each participant receives in the contest. The gift certificate is a free kids’ meal at Hopper’s. The top three winners in each age group received a trophy.
Contest participants were allow to blow on the frogs, hit on the ground behind them and speak to the frogs, but they were not allow to touch the amphibians in any way. The frog with the longest length of two jumps won the contest.
“I feel like there’s sometimes we have some catastrophes where we’re almost about to squish the frogs, so we say, ‘You can’t touch them, but they can stomp behind them,’” Pinion said. “We gotta have a parent out there to sometimes catch them before they squish that frog, but it’s a lot of fun, yes, to see them jumping. A lot of times, they’ll be jumping as they’re getting out of the pit, but they might not jump when they get out there, so yes, there’s some disappointment, but at the same time, there’s so much joy that goes into it and they have a lot of fun.”
Some people brought their own frogs, Pinion said. While Sawyer’s provides frogs, people can bring their own frogs if they are proud of them, she said.
For Stuckman, catching the frogs annually for eight years, and then catching them years before with his father, brings back memories.
“I love it,” Stuckman said about the joy on kids’ faces. “I love that part of it. Like I said, I grew up doing this, so it’s my favorite part of the fair for me.”