A new king and queen have been crowned at the Livingston County Ag Fair.
Ainsley Kratochvil from the Fairbury Prairie Farmers 4-H Club is queen while Christopher Corrigan from the Graymont Achievers is king. The two were crowned during a ceremony Wednesday evening prior to the Broken Horn Rodeo near the grandstands.
"Being crowned was super exciting in front of the big crowd," said Kratochvil.
Kratochvil is excited to represent the organization which has been a big part of her life for so long. The Fairbury native plans to major in agricultural communications at Purdue University this fall as a member of the Honors College and as a Dean Scholar in the College of Agriculture.
Corrigan acknowledged it feels great to keep the king status in his family as his brother, Mark, was the fair's 2018 king. He fondly looks back at his numerous trips to the Illinois State Fair during his time in 4-H.
"Projects I've liked include woodworking, aerospace and some cooking," he said.
In the future, Corrigan hopes to enter the agribusiness field.
The fair royalty contest has different parts including an application process, interview on the fairgrounds and a vote by all 4-H members. The king and queen attend the different livestock shows during fair week in addition to being present at the evening activities while walking around the grounds visiting with others. Look for the pair in this year's Threshermen's Parade as well.
While Corrigan was this year's only king candidate, other queen candidates in addition to Kratochvil included Mara Knobloch from the Waldo Peppy Club and Vivian Pratt from the Graymont Achievers. Knobloch is mostly involved with beef at the fair but has done sewing, cake decorating and visual arts.
"Beef is my main thing," she admits. "My brother started when he entered 4-H and then I just kind of went along with it."
Knobloch plans to attend college, hoping to major in medicine and eventually attend medical school.
Pratt has been involved in visual arts, beef, dairy, sheep, swine and other projects.
"I just enjoy learning new things and getting to share them with other people," Pratt explained.
Pratt plans to attend Heartland Community College for her general studies.
Also on hand for the honors Wednesday evening were 2018 king and queen Mark Corrigan and Megan Ifft along with 2019 king Garrett Pratt. The 2019 queen, Laynie Hunter, could not be at the fair. The newly-crowned king and queen each receive a $500 scholarship with the runners-up each receiving $250.
