Photos courtesy of Dallas County Fair Queen Organizer Trish Radke
Courtney Wojtowicz (above) and Sophie Meekma (below)
The Dallas County Fair is nearing its end, with the fair queen coronation set for today.
The final two candidates running for the fair queen are Courtney Wojtowicz and Sophie Meekma, who are both 2024 graduates from Dallas Center-Grimes High School. Wojtowicz describes that her motivation for running for fair queen is to promote disability awareness as she finds it important to educate others within the community. Wojtowicz is not originally from Iowa, but illustrates that she loves it.
“Grew up in Minnesota for about 10 years and I ended up moving a few times, but I ended up in Iowa about seven years ago and this has definitely been my home, and especially in Dallas County, where it’s just a family atmosphere.”
Wojtowicz will be going to Southwestern Community College to major in agricultural business while working towards her rural real estate license. Meekma recalls having many fun moments at the fair, which lead to her motivations to become fair queen.
“I just wanted to be able to be a representative of the fair and be able to pass on those amazing memories that I’ve been able to have throughout the years. It’s just such an amazing fair, so I would just love to represent it.”
Meekma mentions that she is the first person in her family to run for fair queen and likes to spend time outdoors and with her animals. While at DCG, Meekma ran cross country and track, plus played basketball. She also volunteered more than 45 hours for the National Honor Society for DCG. Meekma will be attending Dordt University to major in animal science with her goal to become a veterinarian.
There are three other candidates running for the Dallas County Fair Queen along Wojtowicz and Meekma including Kelsey Greenslade (Adel-DeSoto-Minburn), Maitlyn Bucklin-Pagano (Waukee Northwest), and Brinna Orr (Woodward-Granger). The Fair Queen Coronation is set to happen at 3pm today at the Dallas County Fairgrounds, 28057 Fairground Road, in Adel. Raccoon Valley Radio will be at the fairgrounds to cover the event, and will name the fair queen when she’s announced.
