Who will be crowned 2021 Centre County Grange Fair Queen? 3 contestants will compete

Three Centre County teens will vie to become this year’s Grange Fair queen at the Aug. 18 coronation, held at the fair’s Southside Stage at 6 p.m.

The winning contestant will take over for Morgan Bair, who served two years due to the pandemic canceling the 2020 Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair and queen events. Whoever is crowned queen already has the support of 19-year-old Bair.

“I’m so excited to get to watch her just grow in this role, to grow into herself and to expand her capabilities,” Bair said. “Anything she thought she was able to do, she can do so much more. And this, this title of queen, is just going to enable her to do that.”

This year’s contestants are:

• Mattee Stoicheff, a 16-year-old from State College attending State College Area High School. She is the daughter of Barbara Stoicheff and Clint Youngfleish.
• Roselyn Weaver, an 18-year-old from Philipsburg attending Susquehanna University. She is the daughter of David and Stephanie Weaver.
• Hailey Bucha, a 17-year-old from Clarence attending Bald Eagle High School. She is the daughter of Joseph and Megan Bucha.

Centre County Pomona Grange Master Ashley Furman said the queen events will follow the lead of the fair’s general rules, which encourage social distancing and increased hand-washing.

Even with the increased safety precautions, Furman said the fair queen pageant won’t look much different than previous years for those attending.

What will look a little different, Furman said, is the pageant luncheon, which will have fewer people in attendance in order to facilitate social distancing.

“We’re trying to be socially responsible for our community while still letting the public feel comfortable with what they feel comfortable with,” she said.

Though not a COVID-related change, Furman said the committee has also spent recent years thinking about how to get all pageant contestants involved with the fair.

Traditionally, the girls elected queen and queen alternate would help with fair-related duties throughout the event and following year. But this year, each contestant, including those not selected as queen or lead alternate, will still be part of the Alternate Court, Furman said.

The members, or in the case of this year’s three contestants, the single member of Alternate Court will act in different departments throughout the fair week as event spokespeople.

“We ask them to learn so much just for the pageant day,” Furman said, “and instead of saying, ‘sorry, you didn’t make it,’ what we would like to do is try to entice them to run again, and hopefully get them involved in the fair more.”

Another change, Furman said, is that the newly elected queen will help sell 50/50 raffle tickets in the Emporium.