4-H royalty happy to represent Clark County no matter circumstances

“I’m just trying to keep up the positivity and just encouraging everybody,” said Clark County Fair Queen Mozie van Raaij. “This is just a temporary situation, and everything will get back to normal. I honestly just look at it like yes this is only a junior fair, all the midway stuff is gone, all the flashy lights are gone, but at the end of the day this is what fair was originally. It started out as strictly livestock. I would say it’s like a trip back in time and we’re able to celebrate that as well.”

A recent Southeastern grad who will attend Ohio State this fall, van Raaij acknowledged COVID-19 has disrupted her spring and summer, but she still managed to do a half dozen projects and maintained her role as advisor to the Cloverbuds in her 4-H club, the Barn Busters.

The SEHS FFA member remained upbeat Monday despite the scaled down fair, and she chose to look on the bright side.

“Normally there’s a lot of grandstand events like the scrambles, things that bring in general public, that I would be taking part in, but without those I have been able to spend more time handing out awards and seeing other members,” she said. “I enjoy that.”

Like van Raaij, Madison Trinkle and Mackenzie Blair grew up idolizing the fair royalty and wanting to wear those crowns.

Sunday night, Trinkle was named 4-H Queen while Blair was named Princess. Seth Richardson is the 2020 4-H King, and Andrew Ryan is the 4-H Prince.

“It feels good,” said Trinkle, an 18-year-old Catholic Central grad who plans to continue her education at Ohio University. “I’m excited to go to the other fairs that will be happening and represent Clark County well.”

With goats, hogs, ducks, turkeys, rabbits and a dairy feeder, she has an impressive resume when it comes to project experience, but she acknowledged always wanting to be queen.

“When you’re little it’s like, ‘Woo! I want to be fair queen like that!’” she said with a laugh. “I’ve been the Goat Ambassador and the Dairy Queen, so being the 4-H Queen is pretty big based on when you’re little.

“This year a new thing I was able to introduce we had a junior ambassador with the goats, and I just got to crown that so it’s really cool getting to see the little ones involved in that.”

Blair, a senior-to-be at the Global Impact Stem Academy and vice president of the Kountry Kids 4-H club, said she was still feeling a little overwhelmed with being named 4-H Princess on her 17th birthday.

“I have just always loved royalty,” she said, noting she first tried out to be Poultry Queen when she was 10.

“I’m enjoying it this year. I like having the title and being able to promote Clark County. I am a little bummed it’s this type of fair, but I’m more bummed that COVID is happening.”

“I do enjoy seeing my friends. Most of them are the ones I’ve grown up with, and some of my friends from my club I haven’t seen all spring and summer, so it’s good.”

Richardson, a 17-year-old senior-to-be at Northwestern who has taken goats, turkeys, pigs and a dairy feeder in his time in 4-H, said it still had not hit him yet he won the king competition.

“I’m kind of surprised, but I’m very glad to have it because I want to show the community we can come together through this hard time and make some fun out of it,” he said.

Richardson did not get the idea he might want to be king until a friend took the honor last year, but he decided it would be a good opportunity to share his experiences with young kids.

“I would like to go into elementary schools and promote 4-H, send letters home with little kids so they can be more aware of everything we do and what we can do for them,” he said. “Honestly, 4-H has made me a better person all the way around. I’ve just made so many friends and learned so many skills.”

Ryan, a 17-year-old senior-to-be at Shawnee, shared similar goals.

“It means a lot this year because with the world in such turmoil with this pandemic, it’s important to have good role models leading the youth of 4-H and showing that we can get through it and helping them still be a part of the program even though we really can’t be as connected a we usually are,” Ryan said.

With a market hog, lamb and goat projects this year, he said he is happy to be able to take part in the fair even if it has been harder to catch up with friends than he would like.

“Somewhat but not completely because of social distancing and not being allowed to gather in large groups,” he said. “We can talk across the barn, but it’s been nice because we’ve been away from each other for so long. It’s been nice to reconnect to see each other here.”