After a ten year absence, the Allen County Fair will again have a rodeo queen.
Four candidates are vying for the title, which will be determined by fair event ticket sales.
The queen candidates are selling tickets for $4 each through July 29. After that, the price increases to $5 per ticket.
Two tickets are required to attend the Aug. 4 and 5 URA-MRCA rodeos and Aug. 8 demolition derby. Only one ticket is needed for the ranch rodeo, draft horse pull and antique tractor pull.
Fair board treasurer Becky Robb said the return of the rodeo queen was prompted by the desire to increase advance ticket sales.
“In the past, we got 4-H clubs to help with sales and they got a percentage of the proceeds,” Robb said. The clubs used the funds for a scholarship for a club member, Robb said.
This year, the queen candidates each get to keep 10 percent of the proceeds from her ticket sales.
“It helps out the girls, it helps out us,” Robb said. “Our hope is that the girls will use this money for their college educations.”
Each club selected its own candidate.
The queen will be announced at the Aug. 4 rodeo, Robb said. The candidates won’t know before then who has won, she added.
Each girl was given 250 tickets to sell, and all are being assisted by their 4-H clubs.
CALLIE UMHOLTZ has been a member of Logan Pals for 11 years.
“I like helping the younger kids,” the 18-year-old said. “That’s always fun.”
Umholtz is active in horse, sheep, photography, foods and clothing construction. She will show sheep at the fair.
“You’d be surprised how high some sheep can jump,” she said.
Umholtz has also worked as a lifeguard at the Humboldt pool for three summers. She participated in basketball, soccer and softball all four years at Humboldt High School and will attend Allen County Community College this fall on a softball scholarship. She plans to use her proceeds for her college expenses.
“I’m going into communications and event planning,” she said.
After ACCC, she plans to go to Kansas State University and possibly live at the 4-H affiliated Clovia House, she said.
Ultimately, she would love to go into wedding planning.
“I like to bake and I like photography and I can flower arrange,” she said. “That’s some of the bits and pieces” of that career.
“I want to own my own business,” Umholtz said.
Contact Callie Umholtz at 620-473-2360 for tickets before July 29.
KASSANDRA TURNER calls Mildred home. She is a member of Prairie Rose, which has about a dozen member families, she said.
To enhance her sales, she put up fliers at Wranglers Salon in Iola and “gave each family in the 4-H group 20 tickets to sell.” That approach reflects Turner’s leadership skills, exemplified as a member of the Kansas Peer Education Group.
“There’s 16 of us in the whole state,” she said. “We go to different schools and teach them about career connections, job interviews, scholarship applications and traffic safety,” Turner said. Peers also “share dynamic leadership skills with the other schools,” she said.
Peer members are selected by former and current Peer participants. Potential members must submit a video application. Turner made her video about recycling.
In addition to Peer, the 17-year-old is active in Family, Career and Community Leaders of America.
“FCCLA is a very big organization, especially in Moran,” she said. Turner recently returned from a trip to Nashville, Tenn., with her FCCLA group.
“We won state competition and so we (went) on to nationals” she said.
She is also active in 4-H, Future Farmers of America, yearbook and forensics.
“I can’t play sports because I dance with South Street Dance Studio and that takes up a lot of time,” she said of another hobby.
Turner hopes to go to Allen County Community College.
“I want to go into graphic design and commercial arts,” she said of her career plans.
Turner reminds potential fair goers to get their tickets through the queen candidates.
“They’re cheaper this way than if you buy them at the door,” she said.
Contact Kassandra Turner at 620-496-7985.
LAUREN TONEY loves the fair.
“I think it would be fun to be queen,” she said. “I go to all the rodeos.”
Her favorite is the shodeo.
“It’s where the kids do their own rodeo,” she said. Shodeo events include sheep riding — known as mutton busting — and roping calves and goats. Ranch rodeo, explained the 15 year-old, reflects “what real cowboys do — It’s guys cutting cows,” she said.
Toney has been in City Slickers for eight years. She’ll show two steer and a meat goat at this year’s fair.
“I try not to name them because I get too attached,” she said of the animals she’ll say goodbye to in August. In the past she has shown pigs and a horse, she said.
The high school sophomore is also involved in basketball, softball and FFA.
Toney enlisted the help of her family to sell tickets, “because I have a big family,” she said. She plans to use her proceeds for next year’s animal projects. Her career goal is to become a veterinarian.
Contact Lauren Toney at 365-2556.
MAGGIE TERHUNE talks business, promoting the discount that fair goers receive if they buy event tickets from a rodeo queen candidate or other 4-H’er.
The incoming freshman at Iola High School is the only high-schooler in her Prairie Dell 4-H group, she said. She is involved in crafts, cooking and horseless horse.
“It’s for people who want to do horse projects but don’t have a horse,” Terhune said.
“I’m also in senior line dance,” she said. “I had about a month to learn the dance before I had to perform for 4-H Days,” she said of her last challenge. “It was fun.”
In school, Terhune participates in marching band and color guard.
“I’m also hoping to be in forensics and I’m going to be in drama club,” she said. She worked in concessions and played basketball last year as well.
Active in theater, the 14-year-old enjoys her time on stage.
“I did the summer theater in the park,” she said. “I was Candy Sprinkles.”
Next, Terhune will “try out for Godspell,” this fall’s Iola Community Theatre 18-and-under production.
Terhune, who lives with her mom and three siblings, will use her proceeds to purchase school clothes, she said.
“After I graduate from high school, I want to go to Allen County Community College (for) theater and then get into Southwestern University or Oklahoma University and major in theater,” she said. “I want to make my living as a professional actress.”
Contact Maggie Terhune at 228-3207 for event tickets before July 29.
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