Wright County Fair Queen Paige German has wanted to put on a crown most of her life. “The passion of embodying royalty has always been a dream of mine since I was a little girl,” German said, adding, “what young girl hasn’t fantasized of someday becoming Homecoming Queen or County Fair Queen?” German “really honed in” on her aspiration to run for Fair Queen after she joined Future Farmers of America (FFA), and watched Lupe Johnson be crowned in the summer of 2019.
FFA involvement is really good for kids, according to German. And in her experience, that’s especially true for girls. “I believe that FFA has served as a shining beacon of inclusiveness for young women by guiding them with the tools to become leaders on local to national levels,” German said, adding that “I personally found a love for leading others through FFA,” by taking leadership roles. German served 2 years as the CGD Chapter Reporter, 1 year as the Chapter President, and was the first person from Clarion from Clarion to be elected as the North Central District Reporter Officer in the last quarter century.
But FFA is great for both boys and girls, German assured. “FFA has proven to empower the youth of America, both boys and girls,” she said, adding that it enables them “to be a part of something much larger than themselves.”
Asked what she would tell a child who asked about FFA, but confided (as kids often do) a little apprehension about joining, German said, “I would tell them, ‘Absolutely you should join! There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of in joining FFA.” She said she would explain that Future Farmers of America “is so much more than a club, but rather a family of agriculturally passionate individuals who all share the same hope of leading and ‘agvocating’ to the world.” In the end, German said, she’d tell them, “it is all up to you in how involved you wish to become, but I will say the work is well worth the reward, in being a part of something that can have this much impact in our communities.”
German said she feels honored whenever she puts on the crown. “To wear the crown of Wright County Fair Queen feels like an exhilarating honor in knowing that I am the representing face of all the love and determination that is put into various aspects of the fair.” She also said that the reactions of little girls, to whom she’s a role model, “is a heartwarming feeling that can not be matched.” And that she is filled with “an immense feeling of pride every time I see a little girl’s face light up with joy and wave frantically when they see me walk by.”
And speaking of role models, German said she was “tremendously grateful” to get to know last year’s Wright County Fair Queen Alecia Anderson. “Alecia was a pleasure,” and very helpful in guiding her as she took on the crown of Fair Queen, German said. “She is the perfect role model,” German declared, noting that she hopes she can be just as comforting to next year’s contestants as Anderson was for her, and the other contestants this year.
Of the other young women who competed with her for the Fair Queen Crown, German was classmates in the Clarion-Goldfield-Dows school system with two, Emily Christensen and Fair Princess Kara Legleiter. And while it may seem like it would be difficult to compete against old friends, “I wouldn’t have wanted to spend the day interviewing for Fair Queen with any other duo,” German said. “I love Emily and Kara both dearly. I grew up with them throughout grade school and built quite a special bond with them through FFA while serving on the officer team with Kara and traveling to State and National Convention with Emily.” And, she said, “I am extremely proud of the beautiful, wise, and independent young women they have grown to become, and I am pleased to call both of them my friends.”
Coming up Queen German has a busy schedule. She will be riding in the Dows Corn Days Parade, on Saturday August 6th at 10am. Then, from August 9th-13th she will be attending the Iowa State Fair as a contestant in the running for Iowa State Fair Queen.
Asked what she’s looking forward to doing at the State Fair, and if there’s perhaps a guilty pleasure in store for her, she replied, “In the food sense, I’m definitely a sucker for fair lemonade and deep fried pickles.” But what she is looking forward to most is “spending time with many of my friends I made through being a FFA District Officer who have also won their county fairs as queens.”
German, who graduated High School in the class of ’22 as an honors student, will soon go on to college to pursue a major in Advertising and Digital Media Marketing and a minor in the Interactive Digital Studies Program with an emphasis in Computer Science at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.
But she will always treasure the memories of this year’s fair, and her time in FFA, and growing up in Wright County in general. And it’s not just winning the title of Queen that she’ll remember fondly in the years to come.
“Being able to not only see but feel the passion that those kids put into their projects was one of the most rewarding aspects of my week,” she said. “I am truly blessed to have been granted this exceptional opportunity to fully divulge into the fair lifestyle, and to make memories that will last a lifetime.”
