Lindsay Campbell
Caitlin Anderson achieved a lot more at this year’s Emo Fair queen competition than she expected.
The 15-year-old, who was crowned the 2015 winner last Thursday, said she never dreamed of capturing the crown.
She added her reason for entering the summer-long event purely was for the experience.
“This is so strange,” Anderson said moments after receiving the title.
“I didn’t expect this much to come out of it,” she admitted.
“I didn’t expect to win anything. I just expected to gain more confidence and make friends.”
But Anderson did say it’s a great feeling to see all her hard work pay off.
“There’s a lot that goes into preparing for this,” she explained.
“It’s really hard to get up in front of a crowd and have to perform. It’s super scary,” added Anderson.
“You have to work really hard to put everything together and be prepared for everything.
“I learned that I can accomplish more than I ever thought I could,” she noted.
As well as being crowned fair queen, Anderson also received the Dorothy Bonot Award.
Kaitlynn Lougheed was named First Princess, with Kassidy Strachan being named Second Princess and Miss Congeniality.
The four contestants, who also included Alanna Gerula, began their quest for the crown at the end of June.
Since that time, they’ve attended community events and competed in a number of challenges, including a fashion show, interview, floats presentation, banner making, and entertainment.
Entertainment was the final portion before the winners were revealed.
Pageant organizer Laura McCormick said although this year’s line-up of girls worked well together, she wishes more would have participated.
“We usually encourage more contestants and we do want more contestants,” she stressed.
“We really try at the beginning of May to start looking for contestants, and this year it was just really hard.”
Still, McCormick said it was nice to get district-wide representation from each of the candidates.
“We had contestants from all over the district this year—Nestor Falls, Rainy River, and Emo—so that was really different,” she noted.
“Lots of times we don’t get that wide variety of the district.
“And especially because some of them don’t go to high school together, so now they have found friends in other areas.”
McCormick said the pageant went well overall, and thought each contestant was able to take something away from the experience.
“The girls really challenged themselves and that’s really what it’s about,” she remarked.
“As the summer went on, I found that they got more open and more involved and they enjoyed the community events, which is what we want to see.”
April Simmons, one of the four judges this year, said she saw an improvement with each contestant, but noted Anderson truly set herself apart with her songs during the entertainment portion.
“Her entertainment was wonderful,” Simmons said. “I thought it was great how she sang an original song.
“I thought that was where she excelled the most. You could tell there was lots of preparation that went into her entertainment and overall it was really great.
“She’s awesome,” Simmons lauded.
The various category winners were as follows:
•Banners—1. Alanna Gerula 2. Caitlin Anderson/Kaitlynn Lougheed (tie) 3. Kassidy Strachan
•Interviews—1. Kassidy Strachan 2. Caitlin Anderson 3. Alanna Gerula
•Fashion show—1. Kaitlynn Lougheed 2. Alanna Gerula 3. Kassidy Strachan
•Floats—1. Caitlin Anderson 2. Kassidy Strachan 3. Kaitlynn Lougheed
•Entertainment—1. Caitlin Anderson 2. Kaitlynn Lougheed 3. Alanna Gerula
