Gracyn Allen, the 2018 Miss Champaign County Fair Queen will provide SJO Daily with a recap of her experiences as she fulfills her requirements throughout the year.
I started out the month of September by being in my first parade as the 2018 Miss Champaign
County Fair Queen. The parade was for the Hoopeston Sweetcorn festival and it was a very long route
with many people. I spent the whole day in Hoopeston and ate lunch at Autumn fields, an assisted living,
with other queens from all over the country that were there competing for the 2018 National Sweetheart
title that night. I met so many queens and got to have conversations with a lot of them. Following this
parade, I was in three other parades during the month of September including; the Champaign Labor day,
Arcola Broom Corn festival, and Fisher Homecoming parade. My favorite thing about being in a parade
and getting to wear my crown is when all of the little girls say, “look it’s a princess!”. It is such a great
feeling and it makes me so happy. Also, during the month of September I volunteered and spent the day at
Curtis Orchard In Champaign with the Farm Bureau Women’s Committee for an agricultural education
event where children and families could come learn about farm safety, pollination, apples, and how butter
is made. It was a lot of fun!
For the month of October, I have been working on my queen scrapbook that will be judged, along
with all of the other scrapbooks made by the County Fair Queens in Illinois, by the 2018 Miss Illinois
County Fair Queen, Samantha Hasselbring at the end of the month at the Central Zone meeting. All of the
County Fair Queens are required to attend this meeting where we will have mock interviews and get to
know all of the other girls that will compete for the State title in January. It has been so much fun looking
back at all of the pictures and realizing that I have already made so many great memories during the last 3
months since I was crowned. I also just got to spend the day at the U of I homecoming game walking
around handing out little footballs and candy to kids! It was a lot of fun! I am looking forward to more
exciting things as Queen in November.
