Samantha Bies of Dexter was a busy young lady at the 75th Annual Chelsea Community Fair.
She was a fair queen contestant and showed both her lambs and a steer.
“This was the most I’ve ever done at fair,” she said.
Bies finished as the the runner-up in the fair queen competition to Queen Courtney Cook and was named Miss Congeniality.
She had the reserve champion pair of sheep, then won her senior showmanship class with her steer and was also named the senior records winner.
But her one personal goal for fair this year was to win the showmanship sweepstakes crown after finishing as the runner-up last year.
Sweepstakes, which takes place on the last night of fair, is a competition between all the senior showmanship winners of sheep, pigs, goats, chickens, rabbits, horses, steer and dairy. Each showman has 3 minutes to show each species of animal and answer two questions posed by the judges about the different animals that they are handling.
Bies said she was more prepared this year after finishing as the runner-up last year. She scored a total of 289 points — three points more than this year’s runner-up Amanda Johnson,who was the senior pig showman champion.
“I had a posterboard filled with all the species and information about them that I thought the judges might ask about and I went over and over them,” she said, adding that it was her goal “to get that sweepstakes win.”
The whole week, she said, “was so exciting.”
As a fair queen contestant, there were activities and meetings before the fair week even began. Then every day during was filled with numerous appearances, which included the ribbon-cutting ceremony to kick off the fair, the Kiddie Parade, a turn in the dunk tank, handing out prizes at Ladies Day, and participating in the fair parade.
Plus, she had her animals to care for and show.
Bies was one of nine senior showman who competed in the class that showcases livestock handling skills and knowledge. Amanda Johnson was the runner-up in the competition.
The other participants were Ryan Koenn (sheep), Taylor Schrock (Western horses), Katie Hicks (chickens), Kennedy Aldrich (goats), Taylor Luckhardt (dairy), Sheri Robbins (rabbits), and Tonya Heimerdinger (English horses).
“Next year will be my last fair,” she said, and it will be her ninth. She said she had so much fun competing for fair queen this year, she plans to try again for that coveted crown in 2013.
For Bies, 17, the daughter of Chad and Carrie Trinkle, the 2012 Chelsea Community Fair is certainly one she’ll treasure.
Thank you lisa for all your coverage of the chelsea fair!( and my girls) people from chelsea and surrounding areas want to here about all the localness that you have been covering!great job! keep up the good work! carrie trinkle (sam and emily’s mom)
Congratulations Sam. Grandpa and I are so proud of you. Sorry we couldn’t be there, but it was wonderful to see you on this site with the great article about you. I’m trying to explain the dunk tank to Danica, she thinks you were sad. LOL
Lisa: Wow! Sam was indeed a busy girl. With all that you mentioned, she also made a float for the parade. That used to be a requirement for the queen candidates but I think Sam was the only one to do this, this year. It looked great.
I am not sure if they mentioned it to you but she helps her mom in the Hobbies dept each year, taking in items and helping to organize the many things that come in on the Sunday before the fair. They spend all night organizing it and then it gets judged on Monday. It takes many hours to get the green barn ready for the fair and Sam is right there volunteering.
Great job Sam!