Photo by Hannah White

 

BUCYRUS—With fair week over, this year’s royalty is ready to go out and explore other fairs around the state.

This year’s queen, eighteen-year-old Katelyn Wagner, attends Wynford High School and is a member of Heartland 4-H Club, through which she shows market lambs.

“Over the next year as queen, I am really excited to just be with my court and all travel together. I know that’s a very fun experience and you get to learn a lot and find a lot of new friends,” Wagner said.

When it comes to running for royalty, Wagner has a little experience in that field, running for livestock royalty in 2020.

When asked why she wanted to run for queen this year, Wagner said, “When I ran for livestock royalty in 2020, I really enjoyed just everybody knowing who I was and being on the royalty court and going to other fairs, so I decided that I wanted to be the one in charge and travel to as many fairs as I could and represent my county in the best way.”

For anyone looking to run for fair royalty next year, Wagner’s advice is to just go for it.

“You’re going to be really nervous; I was probably the most nervous person on that stage, but you’ve just got to take a deep breath and do it, it’s a great experience and a great way to improve on your public speaking.”

This year’s new fair king is Connor Corwin, a sixteen-year-old who attends River Valley High School and shows dairy feeders, dairy steers, and dairy through Dairy Maids and Gents 4-H Club.

“I ran for king because I ran for prince in the past and there aren’t many younger guys that do it, but it’s a fun experience,” Corwin said. “It feels great to have won, and I think it’s great trying to educate all of the younger members around 4-H and what they should do to become a better role model for those younger members that are newly coming in.”

Like Wagner, Corwin also shared the thing he is most looking forward to over the next year is traveling around to the different fairs.

The advice that he would give to someone wanting to run for royalty is also to just go for it.

“You’re going to be scared when you go up there, but once you get it done and over with and the questions are over, you’ll have a sigh of relief and say, ‘I did decent and it’s alright.’”

Echoing his sentiments on just going for it with royalty, Corwin suggests just going for it with 4-H, also.

“Go for it. I love it, it always teaches you life lessons and it always teaches you how to take care of responsibility.”

 

The 2022 Crawford County Junior Fair Royalty Court

King – Connor Corwin

Queen – Katelyn Wagner

Queen First Attendant – Kendal Widman

Queen second attendant – Niyah Shipman

Princess – Brynn Bruner

Princess Attendant – Caelinn Diekmann

 

Photos by Hannah White