The pandemic complicated, extended the Grange Fair Queen’s reign. Here’s how she adapted

Soon, 19-year-old Morgan Bair will give up her Grange Fair queen title after an unusual two-year reign.

After the coronavirus pandemic caused the cancellation of the 2020 Grange Fair, Bair said the Queen Committee asked her if she’d be willing to pull a second year. She gladly accepted, spending 2021 as both a college freshman at Bob Jones University in South Carolina and a second-year fair queen.

Bair’s experience with the Queen Program began in 2018, when she was elected queen alternate. Now, after three years of being involved in the program, Bair said she has a lot to be thankful for. And while she will miss her position, Bair said she is excited for the new queen to share the same experience that she credits with changing her life.

“As queen, you are the face of the fair,” Bair said. “When people think of the fair, they think of our queen. That’s why it’s so important to have someone who can really vocalize why our fair is important and why agriculture is important.”

As queen, Bair said her job is ultimately to connect to fairgoers — of which there are typically 200,000 — over a shared love of the Grange Fair tradition, while also initiating conversations about the importance of agriculture as it relates to the fair.

And though agriculture education is a staple of her job, Bair said she didn’t have any personal connection to the topic before running for queen. Through the Queen Program and her experiences as queen alternate, Bair found that connection.

“I got to go firsthand and see the livestock shows which I had never gone and seen before … and the light bulb turned on, like, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m involved, even if I’m not the one showing these animals,’ ” she said.

During her reign, Bair said one of the biggest things she did was create and run social media accounts that better allowed her to reach the community and share her message. As queen, Bair also spread her message at various community events throughout the past two years, like parades and festivals, along with participating in initiatives like reading about agriculture to local students.

But with the fair’s cancellation last year, Bair was left to problem-solve ways she could still build those connections. She decided to write, film and edit behind-the-scenes tours of the fairground. She ended up creating five episodes, which she shared to social media.

Centre County Pomona Grange Master Ashley Furman praised Bair’s creative response to the unprecedented circumstances and her ability to still effectively educate the public about the impact the fair has on the community.

“Morgan has been a phenomenal queen who has taken the circumstances with COVID in stride,” Furman said.

“It was just thinking outside the box of, ‘how can we still make an impact, even if our circumstances aren’t ideal?’ ” Bair said. “And so that was another thing (the program taught me). Going into college, I know that even if it’s not what I’m expecting, I can overcome and conquer whatever challenge.”