2015 Putnam County Fair queen contestants

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

The 2015 Putnam County Fair Queen contest is set to take place this weekend.

The contest will take place Saturday, July 11 at the fairgrounds Community Building at 7 p.m.

Contestants will be judged on the basis of beauty, poise and personality, which will determine in both preliminary and personal judging and public contest.

The winner will represent Putnam County in Miss Indiana State Fair Pageant.

This is the first of two features introducing this year's contestants. The remainder will be featured in Friday's print edition.


Bailey Goff

Bailey Goff

Bailey Elisabeth Goff, 19, is the daughter of Kent and Karen Goff of Coatesville. She has two siblings Nick Pride, 31, and Connor Goff, 16.

The home school graduate will be a sophomore at Indiana State University, majoring in speech-language pathology with a minor in counselor.

Her sponsors are Gail Pride and John Brinkerhoff; Bob and Lynn Pride; Karen and Connor Goff; Trent and Tiffany Boswell; and Colt and Ashley Underwood.

Goff was a 10-year 4-H member, having participated in the Greencastle Stars 4-H Club and Putnam County Horse and Pony Club. She completed over 120 projects, earning the Tenure Award for 2014. She was a member of the horse and pony judging team, competed in the American Painted Horse Association Judging Contest and North American International Expedition National Judging Contest.

Her accomplishments in high school included being awarded the Presidential Volunteer Gold Award six times over 3,000 hours of community service in Special Olympics.

At ISU, her activities include community service with the Leadership Learning Community at the Bethany House, Ryves Youth Center and walking the dogs at the Terre Haute Humane Society.

Her accomplishments include making the Dean's list both semesters of her freshman year, finishing the year with a 4.0 GPA. She was elected vice president of the Residence Hall Association at ISU for 2015-16 and awarded the State 4-H Foundation Healthy Living, Food and Nutrition Science Scholarship for 2015.

Goff's hobbies include attending Bethel Baptist Church of Fillmore. She is obsessed with Grey's Anatomy and her cat, Spencer. She is learning to play banjo and enjoys playing tennis, teaching children to ride horses, helping youth get ready for the county fair and being an assistant in her mom's 4-H club.

She is empoyed at Monical's Pizza of Greencastle and serves as a campus tour guide at ISU.

Her future plans include graduating from ISU with a bachelor's degree in speech-language pathology and returning to pursue a master's degree in communication disorders. She wants to be a speech therapist in a hospital to help people of all ages, live in Putnam County and continue to be involved in 4-H.


Mikayla Roach

Mikayla Roach

Mikayla Roach, 20, is the daughter of Mark and Janice Roach of Roachdale. She has five siblings, Mandi, Mark, Megan, Michelle and Michael.

She is a 2013 graduate of North Putnam High School.

Her sponsor is American Mantrailing, Police and Work Dog Association (AMPWDA).

Roach was involved with dogs in 4-H for 8 years, goats for 7 years, sheep for 3 years and art for 3 years.

Her activities include involvement in the AMPWDA.

Her noted accomplishments include participation in Round Robin in 2012 and 2013 as the goat representative and winning first place in the State Far Dog Agility contest.

She is a shift manager at Pet Supplies Plus.

Roach's future plans include becoming a Police K-9 trainer.

"I plan to continue working as a manager at Pet Supplies Plus until I can go to the Indiana Police Training Academy, and would like to become a Police K-9 Trainer."


Ariel Higgins

Ariel Higgins

Ariel BreAnn Higgins, 18, is the daughter of Bobbie and Robert Thompson of Greencastle. She has two siblings, Whitney Ray, 24, and Hunter Higgins, 16.

She is a 2015 South Putnam High School graduate with plans to attend Butler University in the fall.

Higgins is a 10-year 4-H member, having participated in photography and rabbits for all 10 years. She also participated in swine (1 year), goats (1), scrapbooking (3), cooking (8), and archery (8).

Her noted activities include cross country, track and field, basketball, cheerleading, FCA, FFA, PIE Coalition, Interact Club, National Honor Society, Student Council, Spanish Club, Teen Court and drug puppet shows for elementary 4-H.

Academically, her accomplishments include honor roll all four years of high school, academic honors and top 10 percent in graduating class. In sports, accomplishments include all-county and all-conference distinctions, sectional championships, regional qualifier, semi-state qualifier and academic all-conference.

Higgins' hobbies include running, reading, hanging out with family and friends and shooting her bow. Her talents include gymnastics, running and making new friends. She enjoys anything involving myster, watching sports and volunteering.

She is employed at the Waters of Greencastle.

Higgins' future plans include continuing her dedication to sports.

"I plan to attend Butler University to study criminology and run Track and Field."


Miriah Cherry

Miriah Cherry

Mariah Lynn Cherry, 19, is the daughter of Mike and Kandra Cherry of Greencastle. She is the younger sister of Mikayla Cherry, 21.

The 2014 South Putnam High School is attending Indiana State University, studying safety management.

Her sponsor is Ernie Sheldon Family Farms.

Cherry was a 10-year 4-H member, having participated in sheep, swine, food preservation and foods for 10 years. She also participated in poultry (2 years), wood science (4), scrapbooking (3), sewing non-wearable (3) and sewing wearable (3).

She was a member of the Jolly Juniors Club for 10 years and Junior Leaders Club for 5 years.

Her activities in high school included varsity cheerleading, varsity cross country, varsity tennis, student council, National Honor Society, Latin Club, PIE Coalition and Teen Court. As a college student, she is involved in the American Society of Safety Engineers and philanthropic chair of Alpha Omicron Pi.

She is employed at Crown Equipment and while at school is an office assistant for the College of Technology at ISU.

Her accomplishments include recipient of the Spirit of 4-H award in 2014, top 10 of her graduating class, county cheerleading champions in 2013 and 2014, as well as completing 10 years of 4-H.

Her hobbies include tennis, crafting, fishing, running and eating home-cooked meals.

Looking to the future, Cherry said it is important to live in the moment by quoting, "The future is always beginning now."

"So, live in the moment and you're essentially planning your future."

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