By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
With hours to go until the 2026 Wood County Fair Royalty Court is crowned, the 2025 court had mixed feelings about their reign being over.
Since the moment they were chosen to represent the fair last July, the group of eight has worked hard, bonded well as a team, and represented the county with pride.
Elizabeth Strawman and Henry Strow led the court as queen and king, but with the support of the entire court—Cayla Frank, Gavin Roessner, Faith Morgart, Gordon Ayers, Dakota Rader-King and Wesley (Wes) Kellermeier—the team had a busy year. They handed out trophies, interacted with junior fair members, greeted fairgoers, helped with other fair events throughout the year, and attended many other county fairs, all serving as the faces of the Wood County Fair.
“We represent Wood County and the Wood County Fair,” Elizabeth said.
Collectively, the experiences that helped them earn their royal titles included years of 4-H, FFA and Boy Scouts participation; dozens of projects; and leadership roles such as camp counselors and junior fair board members and officers. A common, and favorite, experience was working in the 4-H Milkshake Barn.
Most of them have been attending the fair since they were little; so, it’s a lot in their blood. They had older siblings, parents, and grandparents who have been active participants in the fair as exhibitors, showmen and fair board members.
Promoting the fair
After visiting so many other fairs during their royal year, each of them agreed that Wood County has a fair second to none.
“The fair is a tradition with animals, rides, fair food,” said Henry. “The fair is fun and we have a lot of things for people to do and see.”
The diversity of the fair, with the many species, quantity of animals in the barns and the competition “is amazing and puts our fair above and beyond many other fairs,” Gordon said. “We also have Babyland, which is pretty cool and a popular stop for a lot of kids.”
Gavin promoted the variety of events every year for fairgoers to enjoy. His favorite, the demolition derby, brings a sense of excitement. This year’s rodeo on Friday night will be fun, followed by the fireworks. “We have a lot of events that go on, and a lot of them are in the evening, so people can go after work or just take their kids to the fair’s fun events,” he said.
“The fair has always been a really big part of all of our lives,” said Wes. The group agreed that support of the community is one of the rewards they get to experience.
“Getting other people here to see all the hard work that we put in, along with all the different activities we have to show for our hard work is meaningful,” Wes said.
Encouraging future junior fair members
They see one of their roles as the royal court is to encourage future junior fair members to work hard, get involved and experience the process of running for junior fair king and queen.
“We want more people to realize, ‘Oh wow, I really want to be a part of the royalty group. Oh wow, I want to represent my favorite fair, Wood County Fair,’” said Elizabeth. “By us trying to put ourselves out there more inspires others to do the same.”
Wood County is somewhat unique with its junior fair king and queen competition. “Some fairs don’t even have a king or they have one candidate run,” Gordon said. “Here, it’s an actual competition. We take it very seriously. Whoever wins king (and queen) is probably well deserved” because of the county’s strong junior fair system.
Interacting with younger junior fair members is one of the perks of the position.
“When the little kids look up to us, or even like to come up to talk to us, it feels really cool,” Cayla said. “I know a lot of us looked up to older kids who were camp counselors, junior fair board members or on the royalty court. We looked up to them, and it became a goal for us. Now, in this role, it’s just like full circle.”
Seeing everything come together during fair week is a highlight for Dakota. “I know how hard everyone worked all summer, but seeing them come here and prove all of the hard work they’ve done is great,” she said. “Seeing their names on the 4-H boards, they deserve it because of how hard they’ve been working.”
The benefits of being involved in junior fair activities and the royal court go beyond the recognition. Everyone admitted they have grown as a leader and become more confident in speaking with people and in front of a crowd.
The work, the rewards
Each royal, from queen and king to all the runners-up knew there would be work involved once they were crowned on the first night of the fair in 2025. But their first realization was shortly after the ceremony, they were given a list of all the activities they were expected to attend.
“We all were looking at our regular schedules and trying to figure out who could cover what as quickly as possible,” Faith said.
From the various livestock shows, Showmanship Sweepstakes and Ring of Dreams to the cheerleading competition, demolition derby and calf scramble, “We just got to be involved in so much,” she said. “It was a lot more work than we were expecting, but I know it really brought me out of my shell quickly.”
For Gavin, improving his communication skills has been one of the biggest perks. “I’ve been able to communicate a lot better with people. I wasn’t the kid that really went up to new people and said, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ But now I feel like I can go up to mainly anybody and just be like, ‘Hey, my name’s Gavin.’”
“We learned to work as a team,” Elizabeth added.
“Just learning how to communicate within the team and work as a team and not just as an individual has helped me a lot,” Gavin said.
The junior fair royal court is invited to many activities outside of fair week. They helped at the CLAP raffle, the fair’s gun raffle event, and also attended 10-15 other county fairs.
”It was fun to help with the events even after the fair,” Henry said. “It showed us a little different side of the fair.”
Seeing the other county fairs also opened their eyes to how fortunate they are in Wood County. Those visits provided a good barometer when comparing the Wood County Fair, which has barns for each species and the barns are full.
“While there were some fairs that felt more like Wood County’s with lots of animals and activities, some fairs had one barn for almost all of the animals,” Cayla said. “We’re just so not used to that here.”
Even the big fairs in the state may have full barns with lots of animals; many of those don’t have the fair king and queen and royal court competition.
“They often have ambassadors of the different animal species, but not the overall junior fair royalty,” Gordon said. The difference, he believes, is how Wood County 4-H and FFA “personally reach out to the kids more compared to the other counties. We try to get kids more involved in 4-H. And that’s how our numbers are so up compared to others. We try to get them involved early on.”
A special bond
From the moment after they were crowned when the list of activities they needed to cover during fair week was set before them, the 2025 Royal Court had a goal to be the best team they could be.
“We’ve talked about our favorite memories, but I think we all agree that getting to know each other and getting close, visiting other fairs and all of our car rides have just been really memorable,” Cayla said. “It’s been so impactful just to build these connections with each other and make memories that we’ll have forever.
“We were just starting to warm up together when we were first crowned, and we clicked so fast and worked together as a team from the start,” Elizabeth said. I feel like it’s really something special.”
They came to realize that their special team made the work a lot easier and more fun to tackle.
While showing animals was hands down the favorite fair activity for many members of the royal court, the friendships gained as a member of the royal court and junior fair were a close second. Staying in campers during the week allowed them to spend a lot of time together outside of the royal duties.
“We literally just hang out 24/7,” Faith said. ”It’s like a weeklong vacation with friends. That’s a big part of the fair.”
As they prepared to step down after the junior fair parade and royal announcement, they admitted the feelings are bittersweet.
“I’m really seriously so sad about it, but at the same time, I’m so grateful,” Elizabeth said “I’ve done my part. I want someone else to shine just as much as I did. I’m so incredibly excited for who the next individuals will be and how well they’ll represent Wood County. “
“I’m just grateful for this opportunity,” Wes said. “It’s been a great experience.”
“I want people to remember how we represented Wood County,” Elizabeth said. “And I want them think, ‘Wow, they did such a great job, and they’re such a great group of people. I want to do that too. I want to go to the Wood County Fair, a place that I love.’”
