A field of seven was narrowed down to three on Wednesday evening as the search for the 2018 Fayette County Fair Queen continued with the annual Queen’s Tea.
The event was held Wednesday at the Mahan Building with parents, guardians and organizers enjoying a meal and dessert to celebrate the efforts of the seven candidates for fair queen. Each year as the Fayette County Fair draws closer, potential fair queen applicants are tested through several means. They begin by first applying to become the queen, which is followed up with an interview with judges. This interview process was completed Wednesday and afterward the girls demonstrated their public speaking capabilities during the Queen’s Tea.
This year each girl was asked a different question — rather than given single word — to speak on. Following all seven questions and answers, the three judges deliberated for a several minutes before emerging and selecting three of the candidates to be a part of the 2018 Fayette County Fair Court.
The judges decided the Fayette County Fair Court will include Haley Copas, Jordan Bernard and Victoria Schappacher.
Haley Copas is a 2018 graduate of Washington High School. As an active member of her school and community, Copas has shown tremendous strength, motivation and dedication. Even through maintaining a busy after-school schedule, Copas has been dedicated and focused on her schoolwork and education. She will end her high school career with a strong business background; completing high school of business classes, enrolling in college credit plus courses and maintaining a cumulative 3.5 GPA. While her schoolwork and extra-curriculars have kept her busy, Haley has not shied away from being active in her community as well. As a seven-year member of the 4-H Fun Bunch and Fayette Land & Livestock 4-H clubs, Copas has held numerous offices such as environmental officer and community service officer, and has participated in various shows with her hogs.
Jordan Bernard has been a member of the 4-H program for the past eight years. In those eight years, she has served as a member of the Fayette County Jr. Fair Board, the Teen Leadership Council, and as a camp counselor. Besides 4-H, Bernard has also been involved in several school activities and was very active in sports, music and the many clubs available at her school. Through her schoolwork and all of the extra-curriculars, Bernard said she has been very busy, but because of all the activities she was involved in she has learned many important life lessons. One of the most notable lessons she said she learned was the importance of friendship, and she learned all of this through 4-H.
Victoria Schappacher is a recent graduate of Ohio Virtual Academy. While at Ohio Virtual, she was a member of student council and served as secretary of the agricultural society. She graduated cum laude this year. Schappacher has been involved in 4-H for 10 years on the county, state and national level. She has taken a variety of 4-H projects that include; dairy heifers and cows, dairy feeders and steers, market and dairy goats, tractors, clothing, veterinary science projects, officer judging and other miscellaneous projects. She is a past Fayette County Dairy Princess. Schappacher has served as an Ohio 4-H Ambassador, Junior Fair Board (treasurer), Fayette County Teen Leadership Council (president), Fayette County 4-H Tractor Club (president), Fayette County Family and Consumer Science Board (past president), Fayette County 4-H Advisory Board (youth representative), and a member of the Pigs-N-Things 4-H Club (treasurer).
“We had a good time, we had seven candidates, and the judges had a hard time deciding to narrow it down to three,” Queen’s Tea coordinator Lisa Schwartz said. “It was a hard year, this is the first year in six that we had to narrow the court down. It was hard for the judges to decide as all the girls were very strong applicants. We will find out who the 2018 Fayette County Fair Queen will be at the opening ceremony.”
The Fayette County Fair Queen will be crowned during the opening ceremony on Sunday, July 15 at 2:30 p.m. and organizers are encouraging the whole community to join for the celebration. The 139th-annual Fayette County Fair will be held July 16-21.
Stay with the Record-Herald for more on the 2018 Fayette County Junior Fair.
