On Saturday August 9th, 10 contestants ranging in ages from 6-21 and hailing from Madera and Mariposa Counties will compete in the 2014-2015 Mariposa County Fair Rodeo Royalty Contest. There are three divisions, Jr Princess, Princess and Queen. These young ladies have been volunteering in the community over the last few months, they have been at the Mariposa Pioneer Wagon Train, helped out a few times at the Senior Center serving lunches, some assisted at the Mariposa Mountain Riders Trail Trials and they have been attending clinics on horsemanship, poise and public speaking. Last month they were able to participate in a Rodeo Royalty Clinic that was held at Tenaya Lodge sponsored by Chukchansi which featured the reigning 2014 Arizona State Rodeo Queen, Miss Taci Shaffer. They have enjoyed visiting the History Center and “Intro to Mariposa History” slide show presentation by Tom Phillips.
At 8:00 a.m. in the Gold Bowl Arena at the Fairgrounds, the Horsemanship competition will begin. This event is free and open to the public for those that wish to come out and cheer the girls on. In the early afternoon the Queen contestants will undergo a personal interview (closed to the public) and come back together again at 6 p.m. in Building A for the Royalty Sponsor and Family appreciation dinner. Limited tickets are available for this dinner for $15 pp and can be obtained by contacting Carol Suggs at 209-966-8150. At the dinner the contestants will be performing their modeling and poise as well as answering impromptu questions, and the Queen contestants will be presenting speeches based on this year’s fair theme, “Boots, Buckles and Barrels of Fun”.
After this dinner the contestants have to wait until fair when current Rodeo Royalty Junior Princess Miss Cadee Barnum, Princess Miss Victoria Smith and Queen Miss Haley Nott will crown the new winners of each division approximately 1 hour prior to the Mariposa County Fair CCPRA Rodeo, which takes place on Sunday, August 31. Make sure you get your rodeo tickets! Tickets are $10 and are available from any of the current contestants or at the Fairgrounds box office.
The Mariposa County Fair Rodeo Royalty Program is administrated by the Mariposa Friends of the Fairgrounds Foundation.
