A trip to the Hershey Convention Center in a few weeks will be an exciting weekend for Jolie Winemiller, the 25th Anniversary Harford Fair Queen. The Pennsylvania State Fair Queen 2017 will be crowned January 21st, 2017, during the Pennsylvania State Fair Convention in Hershey and Jolie will represent the Harford Fair in the competition. She has had experience with queen competitions, having competed and won the title of Alternate Harford Fair Queen in 2014. She recently had the opportunity to compete for the Miss Pennsylvania title in Pittsburgh.
Jolie Winemiller, the 25th Anniversary Harford Fair Queen 2016, posses with WNEP’s Ryan Leckey at the fair in August.
So what does it take to represent a fair as queen? First of all, involvement in the fair is a requirement. A genuine love of the fair and all that it represents is important in representing the fair. Friendliness, poise, and the ability to speak well in public to represent the fair are all important qualities for a young lady to represent the fair. She is ecstatic about competing at the state level representing the Harford Fair.
Pennsylvania has 109 fairs, with approximately fifty-six of them holding queen competitions and the winners have the opportunity to represent their fair in Hershey. The process of competing in Hershey began for Jolie about a year ago as she began completing an application and writing an essay titled “Why You Should Come to My Fair.” Next, she composed and memorized a speech with a similar theme, which each contestant presented twice during the competition at the Harford Fair. Jolie took a unique approach to her speech, speaking about life lessons learned at the fair. “For me, the Harford Fair is home,” she said. “It’s the place where I learned life lessons.” She said the fair is the one place where she can remember being a child, a teenager and a young adult. “Eventually, I will be a senior citizen sitting under the shade pavilion here,” she said. She will present her speech as a part of the competition in Hershey.
She was then interviewed by the panel of three judges. One of the perks of the competition for the girls is getting their hair styled, dressing up for the occasion, meeting country western celebrities such as Old Dominion and Chris Janson, and spending an exhausting week participating in the wide variety of events the Harford Fair offers. Jolie agreed that one of her favorite duties was reading to children in front of the Little Red Schoolhouse and seeing how much the youngsters looked up to her as a role model. She is so proud to represent the Harford Fair which has been a part of her family tradition for many, many years and will celebrate its 160th year the week of August 21-26th, 2017.
Jolie is a 2015 graduate from Mountain View High School and is presently a sophomore at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, with a double major in history and communications. She works for the student affairs office at the college and is a sales associate at the Hotel Hershey. She is a member of the Wig and Buckle Theater Company and vice president of recruitment.
She is the daughter of Jan and Jeff Winemiller, who recently moved from Harford to South Carolina. She has a sister, Jay who also lives in South Carolina.
The Harford Agricultural Society wishes Jolie the best as she represents them in the state competition. Members of the board of directors will be present throughout the convention to personally wish her the best.
