BUCYRUS — A crown, a sash, a bouquet and a copper kettle. The sought-after prizes by young women in the Bucyrus area that signify one thing, a victory in the Bucyrus Bratwurst Festival Queen’s Pageant.
Emotions ran high even before the crowning was completed, as 2018 Bratwurst Festival Queen Emily Rudd gave her farewell speech, which included a tearful thank you to her mother, who after an outpatient surgery Thursday to battle her breast cancer, made it the festival to walk her daughter across the stage for the final time.
After tears were dried, Rudd performed her final act as queen, crowning the 2019 queen.
That was Colonel Crawford High School senior Sarah Beck.
During the award ceremony, Beck also was named the 2019 Queen’s Pageant Miss Congeniality, an award voted on by the contestants themselves.
The first runner-up in the pageant was Wynford High School senior Paige Rex and the second runner-up was fellow Wynford senior Madie Wagner.
While the judges were deliberating to decide the winner of the queen’s pageant, Wynford Junior High eighth-grade student Cassandra Kurek was named the 2019 Bratwurst Festival Princess.
Like Beck in the queen’s pageant, Kurek also was voted by her peers as the 2019 Princess Pageant’s Miss Congeniality.
Kurek’s court are used to being royal as they, like Kurek, are all Royals at Wynford Junior High. The first runner-up is Autumn Thoroughman, a seventh-grade student at Wynford, and the second runner-up is Emily Goldfuss, an eighth-grade student at Wynford.
The chairman’s award, an award special to the princess pageant, was awarded to Isabella Stang, a student at Bucyrus Middle School.
In the 2019 Bratwurst Festival Junior Princess Pageant, it was Hannah Crawford Elementary first-grade student Kylie Rittenour who took home the crown.
Rittenour’s court was first runner-up Averie Hill, a second-grade student at Hannah Crawford Elementary, and second runner-up Aubrey Arnett, a second-grade student at Bucyrus Elementary.
The queen, the princesses and their courts will reign until the 2020 Bratwurst Festival.