Forestville 4-H boy goes big at Sonoma County Fair for his ailing little brother, sells hog to Guy Fieri

Six-year-old Jett Trappe was so excited about going on the rides at the Sonoma County Fair he was almost wriggling out of his wheelchair.

“I want 4,580 rides,” he declared, adding, “and 100 million 45 eighty. And I want to ride on the tractor.”

But as the sun rose hot overhead at midday Saturday mom Claire Trappe told the impatient first grader the carnival would have to wait. There was one important job big brother Jaxon had to do before he and his four siblings could cut loose at the fair. And it was all for Jett.

It was one of the most important challenges the Gold Ridge 4-H member had ever undertaken in his 10 years. Hitting the pig barn at 7 a.m. he had to feed, water, give a last bath, fondle ears and say goodbye to Pepa and Daddy Pig before leading the two hogs ― more than a combined 500 pounds of bacon ― out to face a crowd of bidders at the fair’s Junior Livestock Auction.

On Friday there were a few tears. But the emotion of parting with the pigs Jaxon had devoted himself to for four months gave way to concentration, pride and determination on Saturday as he went through the last-minute tasks to ready the hogs for market.

His goal was to fetch a gavel-busting price, not for his own bank account, but to raise money for research to help find a cure for a rare and life-threatening genetic disease that has made Jett’s life so difficult. A lively and chattering spitfire compared to his quieter older brother, Jett has so far gone through more surgeries and medical procedures than most people will experience in a lifetime, including a stem cell transplant when he was 2. And there are many more to come.

Jaxon, his sister June, 9, and twins Tyler and Tess, 3, have watched Jett bravely meet his setbacks without losing his good humor and energy for life. He’s recovering now from a double hip replacement and two knee plates.

“I want to help my brother,” said Jaxon, a member of the Gold Ridge 4-H, and a man of few words. “I love him.”

It was Jaxon’s first animal entry at the fair and waiting can be long and tense, with 265 hogs up for auction over the course of the day.

But when Jaxon stepped into the show pen around 1:30 p.m. bidding went furious and fast. In his now smudged with muck white FFA-pants and green tie, he walked out of the ring nearly $10,000 richer. He has pledged half of his earnings to the National MPS Society (mpssociety.org) for research into the little-known disease MPS-1, also known as Hurler’s Syndrome, that his brother is stricken with. The genetic disease is progressive and characterized by the lack of a critical enzyme that leads to the buildup of toxins in the cells and organs and a cascade of serious health problems. Children born with it have a shorted life expectancy.

But Jaxon wants a cure before that happens to Jett.

When the bidding stopped for Pepa Pig, a white, almost pink Landrace weighing in at 247 pounds, had fetched $5,000 and Daddy Pig, a black Berkshire pig, tipping the scales at 265 pounds, brought in $4,850.

“It’s hard to put into words how proud I am,” said mom Claire, who also participated in 4-H growing up in Forestville.

That was far above the average of $3,000 for a hog sold at the Junior Livestock Auction. Jaxon declared he wasn’t nervous.

“It was fun,” he said of the heady moment when Judy Serres of the Serres Ranch in Sonoma Valley pushed Pepa up to $5,000 and TV personality and local philanthropist Guy Fieri stepped in to claim Daddy Pig for a bid of $4,850.

Fieri is a big booster of the junior livestock auction, bidding on some nine different hogs on Saturday. He came by the pig barn earlier in the day and met Jaxon and let him know he had his support.

The longtime Sonoma County resident and restaurateur, knows what it’s like to have a sick sibling. His younger sister Morgan died more than 10 years ago of cancer.

“A lot of kids can’t put it together. But all of a sudden he knows his brother has a big problem and he’s going to do something about it. What kids of that age do that?” said Fieri, who stopped by to greet Jaxon after the auction, whisper some words of encouragement and fist bump Jett. “It takes a lot to raise an animal, especially to raise two of them, and to train them and to be ready to go into the pen with them. I met Jaxon and he was a great guy and I wasn’t going to let him (Daddy Pig) go for anything less than $5,000.I was hoping somebody was going to take it to the roof.”

The Food Network star said he’ll probably donate Jaxon’s hog to the Redwood Gospel Mission, which feeds the hungry.

The Trappe family’s roots go back 50 years in Forestville. They live at Canyon Rock Quarry, where Jaxon’s dad Jonathon works alongside his father Wendel on the land first settled by Jaxon’s great-grandfather Adolph Trappe in 1972. It offered ample ground for Jaxon to raise hogs, which were only about 50 to 60 pounds when he took them under wing to raise them for the fair.

Claire Trappe said Jaxon and the whole family are doing what they can to raise money and awareness for a disease they had never heard of before Jett was born. It’s an uphill race for a cure.

“We trying to raise support for families going through the same thing and advocating for this disease and trying to raise funding for research. With cancer, there are a lot of people it affects.There’s a lot of funding that goes to cancer, but rare diseases don’t get it because there are not a lot of people with rare diseases,” she lamented. MPS affects one in every 25,000 babies born in the U..S. according to the MPS Society website.

Raising money is not all Jaxon does for his brother, Claire Trappe said.

“He’s been there all the way helping clean up messes. Helping me with diapers and helping me draw blood. All the things that shouldn’t be required of a kid, and jobs he shouldn’t have to do.”

Jaxon’s aunt, Anna Gram, also of Forestville, said her nephew is devoted to Jett and treats him like a regular kid brother. But he and his sister June are all too aware of his special needs and the struggles he goes through.

“Every Christmas they make a list,” Gram said. “And at the bottom of the list it always says, ‘A Cure for Jett.’”

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 707-521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com.