Katelyn Callahan became the 2026 Fountain County 4-H Fair Queen on Saturday night in her third attempt for the crown.
She first entered the competition in 2024 and then was named Miss Congeniality in the 2025 contest on her way to becoming this year’s queen (and Miss Congeniality for the second year in a row).
Asked what kept her returning to the pageant, Callahan responded, “I’ve had great experiences doing it and made a lot of friends. I’ve always wanted to represent Fountain County.”
The new queen will be a junior at Purdue University majoring in Animal Sciences and says she is looking forward to all the activities in the upcoming year despite going to college and additionally working at Prime Cut 41 in Veedersburg.
There were four other candidates in the contest: Claire Smith, Jalyn Allen, Allison Dotson and Kendall Shumaker with Smith winning the People’s Choice Award, Allen being named first runner-up and Shumaker becoming the second runner-up as well as Miss Photogenic.
Being in the pageant gives the participants coaching in public speaking and interviewing as well as clothing and makeup, so more candidates would widen the impact of that training.
More entrants would also allow the court to become larger, allowing its members to spread out the workload during the week of the fair.
The contest changed slightly this year as it had three-full event judges as has been the case in the past, but there were three more this time – all speech specialists.
Each participant had to give a one-minute talk on a topic of their choice – much as they do at the Miss Indiana State Fair contest – in front of those three extra judges.
Callahan said that paid off for her as she thought the interview and speech aspects of the contest were both the easiest for her and her favorite part of it.
She took her one minute to speak about having been diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), which first hit her a few years ago and in her talk, she explained how she had struggled to cope with it.
There was one other change in the pageant this year – a 30-minute limit on deliberations by the judges in the hope that the event would not drag on much of the night as it had in some past years.
The judges agreed to change and they did return within their allotted time, meaning that the event ended earlier than before.
Asked what she would do with the remainder of the evening after having won the title and with extra time to spare, Callahan said, “I’ll go home and be with my family and enjoy things. [Winning it] probably won’t sink in until I’m back here tomorrow.”
Thinking about the rest of the fair week, she noted, “I know I’ll be busy but I’m looking forward to spending time with my court. I really love them all.”
Callahan closed with a message to the Fountain County, saying, “I’m excited to get to represent you. You brought me from my teenage years into my adult years.