Cherokee County

Hello everyone. After I have processed for a couple days about this blog I think I am ready to start typing. This past Tuesday, the 28th of June, my parents and I took a road trip to Cherokee. Cherokee is a little over a 4 hour drive from my house. Can you say BONDING TIME?! Cherokee is located on highway 59 and 3. My mother and I were asked to judge the Cherokee County Queen contest. I was very impressed with the contest as a whole. A mother and daughter took over the contest this year and there were 20 girls running for fair queen. Cherokee has always been known to have a large number of girls try out but in the past couple year’s numbers have been low, this year was different. The mother and daughter duo did a great job getting girls to run for fair queen and worked with the girls the month prior to the queen contest. Different workshops were held for them such as an etiquette one, Mary Kay for makeup and others. These girls were all treated like royalty leading up to the big day. It was great to see that life had been put back into this contest. Cherokee has also had a lot of success in the past years at the State Fair Queen competition. There have been 4 Iowa State Fair Queens reign from Cherokee County, as well as many that were in the top 5. Those numbers are outstanding. As you know I was the first one from Marion County, seeing how successful Cherokee County has been I want to be able to help Marion County succeed as well in the queen contest. I took many different pointers from the Cherokee County that I will share with my coordinator here in my county to help make our contest better than it already is. There were three other ladies who judged with my mother and I, it was very strong panel of judges. The girls went through a group showing of their dresses and telling us one interesting fact. Then each went through a 5 minute individual interview with the judges. After all the interviews were finished, a banquet was held where parents, relatives, friends and the Cherokee County Fairboard were invited to share this special day with the young ladies. Once everyone was finished eating the girls all had to answer a question they drew from a can to the audience. The girls were judged throughout dinner and on how they answered their question. After a long day of sorting a judging out of 20 girls we all came to an agreement with who would be crowned Cherokee County Fair Queen. It was a very tough decision as each girl had her own story and background to tell that was so inspiring. Cherokee County should be proud for each one of those 20 girls because every one of them could have been selected as queen and done an outstanding job. Before I conclude this blog I wanted to share that my parents and I were able to meet Bruce Jones one of the judges for the Iowa State Fair Queen competition last year. He holds a special place in my heart; he is an outstanding guy and knows where I come from. It was so good to catch up a little bit in the short amount of time that we had, but it was better than no time at all. One thing that is getting easier to grasp throughout my travels is to cherish the time with someone that is close in the area because I will never have this experience again. Example one of my good friends from college drove 45 minutes to just see me in crown and sash, and give me a hug in Cherokee, but it meant the world to me. Friends like those you know will always be there for you. It will probably be the only time I see her this summer with my busy travels but that is what makes this special to me. It is not only giving me the experience of a lifetime but making me take notice of different things I sometimes would take granted for. So to that friend that came and saw me, you mean so much to me, and thank you for being your pretty blonde self. <3

I hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday weekend.

God Bless,
2010 ISF Queen
Lacy Stevenson