As the end of Fayette County Fair Queen Alex Kent\u2019s reign draws near, there\u2019s still a lot to do before she passes her crown to the 2026-27 queen in waiting. Among the items on Kent\u2019s \u201cto-do\u201d list of high importance, she hopes to help further shape young lives and potentially pave the way for a future fair queen or princess.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am starting a new program for local youth called the Future Queen Workshop, which will be two-hour program I will be hosting on Wednesday at the fairgrounds,\u201d explained Kent. \u201cMy immediate goal with this project was to create an opportunity for young girls to build confidence, develop leadership skills, make new friends, and learn more about the Fayette County Fair Queen program. Long term, I hope that this experience can help shape young lives by helping make memories or teaching them something they can carry with them for the rest of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The workshop will take place from 4-6 p.m. at the Fayette County Fairgrounds\u2019 Dance Pavilion and is open to any girl under the age of 13.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of the duty of every Fayette County Fair Queen is to complete a service project during their year of serving,\u201d continued Kent. \u201cI am unique from almost every other Fayette County Fair Queen in the program\u2019s history because I am not involved in 4-H or animal showing, which is typically where most girls focus their projects since its important to them. I wanted to come up with a project that would have the same kind of importance to me personally and also be able to help provide something for others, so after some brainstorming, I came up with this idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the past several months, Alex has been working on developing a curriculum for her workshop which would be fun and worthwhile for group of girls of various ages.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe workshop will include several fun activities, along with leadership lessons, confidence-building opportunities, and so much more,\u201d she elaborated. \u201cEven though its called the Future Queen Workshop, it doesn\u2019t mean participants have to be aspiring candidates \u2013 I just want it to be a fun afternoon with friends that will hopefully teach them something new or help them discover something new about themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the activities planned for the afternoon will be making cards for residents of local nursing homes, which Kent will deliver prior to the start of the fair next week, along with various leadership activities, crown decorating, and much more. There will also be a catered meal courtesy of West Union Police Chief Paul Becthold.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have enlisted the help of several other past royalty and contestants in this year\u2019s competition, who will help lead the different age groups and will also each share their own experiences surrounding the competition or their time as serving as a queen or princess,\u201d she continued. \u201cAt the end of the afternoon, I am going to have every girl walk the runway, just as I did when I competed for Iowa Fair Queen at the state fair last year. Before they go, everyone will receive a special certificate recognizing their participation in the first ever Future Queen Workshop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among Kent\u2019s assistants who will help lead the program will be fellow 2025 royalty Deanna Balk (2025 Princess), along with Laci Lauer (2024 Princess), Lily Holthaus (Miss West Union and current candidate), Maggie Jones (at-large candidate), AJ Klusman (at-large candidate), Maria Klimesh (Miss Waucoma candidate), Lainy Donnelly (Miss Clermont candidate), and Hannah Scott (Miss Westgate candidate).<\/p>\n
Kent noted she hopes to make this program an annual event, whether it be by returning every summer to lead it herself or passing on the coordinator position to future generations of royalty.<\/p>\n
As of last week, there were 20 young participants signed up for the program through preregistration. However, Kent noted that there is still plenty of room for anyone who wants to show up the day of and be a part of the fun. Check-in and registration for anyone not already signed up will begin at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 22. There is a fee for each participant, which will go toward covering the cost of materials and supplies.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest goal is just that everyone has fun and takes something new home with them when they leave,\u201d closed Kent. \u201cIt became evident to me from the moment I was crowned last year just how much many of these girls look up to us, so I want to do everything I can to show them how to be a leader and share with them about what it takes to be a Fayette County Fair Queen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the end of Fayette County Fair Queen Alex Kent\u2019s reign draws near, there\u2019s still a lot to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[111787,2018,9,24,63,122,124,123,17000,41664],"class_list":["post-292718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-fayette-county","tag-kent","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-west-virginia","tag-workshop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}