The 2020 Fayette County Queen’s Tea was held on Saturday with the commodity queens and two fair queen candidates.
The annual celebration at the Mahan Building on the Fayette County Fairgrounds that is usually used to narrow down the field of applicants for fair queen was held in the early afternoon with members of the Senior Fairboard. Although originally believed to be three candidates, the field has shrunk and the court will consist of Aubrey Schwartz and Victoria Waits. Both young ladies took time to talk about how excited they are to be a part of the process.
“It is definitely sad in one sense as I will miss 4-H when I go off to college, but it means so much to have my last year — even with COVID-19 — it means a lot because of what I am aging out of and what the whole experience means to me,” Waits said. “4-H and FFA have been my life and the lessons they have taught me and things I have learned have just meant so much more. There are going to be skills I have learned that I will never forget. So without this fair, I would not have been the person I am today. If I become the fair queen I would be very honored to represent our Fayette County Fair.”
“This is definitely different, I am so excited to be doing this because growing up at the fair you always want to see the fair queen, so I am really excited despite everything going on. This is something that is somewhat normal for once, although it is not the exact circumstance we want, at least it will be as normal as possible,” Schwartz said. “(For the younger kids) definitely don’t be afraid to take an opportunity. It will be great and it is what you make it — not what others tell you to make of it.”
The third potential candidate, Laikyn Hughes, was recently accepted as the 2020 Fayette County Pork Queen and therefore will not be on the Fair Queen Court. Hughes — daughter of Jeff and Candy (Tiger) Hughes — is a 2020 Miami Trace High School graduate. As a member of the Barn Busters 4-H Club, she currently holds the office of president and has held numerous other offices such as vice president, secretary, treasurer, news reporter, health officer and safety officer. She is currently serving on the Junior Fair Board and the Food and Consumer Science Board where she is serving her second term — this year as secretary.
“We had most of the commodity queens there and we had four wonderful judges and they spent a lot of time with the two candidates,” Fayette County Fair Queen Coordinator Lisa Schwartz said. “They could spend a lot of time with both young ladies and got to know them very well. Both ladies interviewed well from what I have been told, and I have no idea who the winner is. The judge put the name of the winner in an envelope and we will find out during the opening ceremony, which I encourage everyone to come to.”
The 2020 Fayette County Fair Queen will be crowned at the opening ceremony of the 141st Fayette County Fair on Sunday, July 19 at 2:30 p.m. at the Grandstand with no charge for admission.
The information in this article was provided by queen coordinator Lisa Schwartz. Stay with the Record-Herald for more coverage of the search for the 2020 Fayette County Fair Queen and coverage of the Fayette County Fair from July 19 through 25.
Reach Martin Graham at (740) 313-0351 or on Twitter @MartiTheNewsGuy.
