This year’s state fair queen crown is being worn by a northwest Missouri teen. Claire Walker, of Chillicothe, is the state fair queen – making her the ambassador for the State Fair and Missouri agriculture throughout the coming year.
Walker, 19, told Missourinet that she wants to bridge the gap between the people going to the fair for the first time and the people that have been going for 50 years.
“You have the people who are coming year after year showing but it’s the people who don’t have that connection that have the most to gain from attending the State Fair,” she said. “It’s our job as exhibitors, as advocates, as people in agriculture, to tell our personal stories. Because for me, I feel like you can tell someone as many facts and stats as you want about agriculture, but until you give them a reason to care, that’s how you get someone to understand why we do what we do.”
Walker, who grew up on a century family cattle farm, is the daughter of Brice and Tiffany Walker.
She hopes that fair visitors will walk through the livestock barns during this last weekend of the fair.
“So many times, that’s where your community is. That’s where your memories are, whether it be the youth or the adults that are there. That’s where the fun times are – getting ready to show the hectic and chaos that you have whenever people are getting ready to go into the ring. Just the hanging out by your animals when you’re not showing that day and see the love that these people have,” she said.
Walker explained why she decided to run for Missouri State Fair queen.
“I knew so many of the girls that were running,” she said. “But then I got to form more connections with them. I knew at the end of the day, whoever was selected as the fair queen would be someone who could represent the actual State Fair Association, but be someone who can be a voice for agriculture, be that person who can build that bridge for the people coming for the first time, or the people that have been there for 50 years.”
According to Walker, the state fair has something for everyone.
“When you come to the fair, you are surrounded by building exhibits or animals, the carnival, the food. It’s the people that want to welcome everyone, so they find a way to make agriculture marketable to anyone, because it’s so much more than just corn and animals. It’s the food we eat, the clothes we wear,” she said.
As queen, Walker will receive a $2,000 scholarship to continue her education at the University of Missouri in agribusiness management.
The state fair continues through Sunday in west-central Missouri’s Sedalia.
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