Sadie Roy Ready For State Fair Queen Competition

by Diane Lowrey
R-T Editor
Trenton resident Sadie Roy says she is ready for whatever happens during next week’s Missouri State Fair Queen competition at Sedalia.
The Southeast Missouri State University junior-to-be will be one of 49 women from around the state seeking to become the newest representative of the state’s agriculture industry. Sadie, who will be representing the North Central Missouri Fair, feels her long-time involvement in agriculture as a member of the FFA and as an agriculture education major at Southeast, has helped prepare her to serve in the role of state fair queen.
“As an ag ed major, you learn a lot about different ag-related things and I feel like I can talk about a wide variety of ag topics,” she said. “And as the state fair queen, you are an ambassador for the ag industry and you have to be able to tell its story. I enjoy talking to people, especially when it comes to agriculture, and I would like to be the face of agriculture and educate others about what an impact it has on their lives.”
Sadie’s agriculture involvement began at an early age, helping out on the family farm and showing livestock at area fairs. She was a very active member of the Trenton FFA chapter, including participating on several judging teams, and serving as chapter president during her senior year. Her interest continued as a college student as she chose to enter the ag education field. As a member of the Ag Club and the Collegiate FFA, she helps with “Ag Days,” where college students go into the classrooms of the Cape Girardeau School District and share information about the agriculture industry.
“It’s amazing how much people still don’t understand about how agriculture affects their lives,” she said. “Our Ag Day allows us to go into the classroom with kids at a young age and talk to them about that very subject. The kids like that and it’s really awesome.”
She spent this past Christmas break in the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador, studying about how agriculture works in those areas as well as visiting several farms. And her most recent interest involves a hydroponics project in Haiti developed by her landlord, who plans to establish a similar project at a farm in Sikeston.
“It’s really cool the things that are going on in agriculture,” she said, adding she has been asked to help with the Sikeston project and plans to do so.
Following graduation, Sadie would like to teach in a rural Missouri School, sharing with students some of the things she has been able to learn thus far. But her work won’t stop there.
“After about five years, I really would like to go to a charter school in the inner city and teach those students about how they are connected with agriculture and its impact on their lives,” she said. “There’s a lot of ag-related things that they can do even though they live in the city and I want to teach them about those things they may not know.”
Competition for the Missouri State Fair Queen title begins on Wednesday, Aug. 8 with the interviews. On Thursday, contestants will take part in the talent/speech competition, followed by formalwear judging. The new queen will then be named that evening.
“It’s a busy two days, but it will be a busy two weeks if I would happen to win,” she said, adding that the queen is involved in some way in nearly all of the fair events. “Lots of pictures, lots of ribbons, lots of kids.”
Sadie will be giving a speech during the talent/speech portion of the competition. She has titled it “10 Seconds” and will talk about how 10 seconds of courage leads to a lifetime of passion – in this case a passion about agriculture. Speeches cannot be more than two minutes and Sadie said she is around the 1 minute, 56 second mark.
“They deduct points if you go over, so I’m going to be spending a lot of time up until the pageant working on making sure I don’t go past two minutes,” she said.
Her older sister, Breilly, who competed in the state competition in 2016 and was the third runner-up, has helped with Sadie’s preparation – mostly by video as Breilly is spending the summer in Maine working on her master’s degree.
“I’ll record something and send it to her and she’ll give me some suggestions where I could improve,” she said, adding she has also received help from several of her instructors at Southeast. “Everyone’s been great about helping out.”
While excited at the prospect of becoming the state fair queen, Sadie already has her next move planned if she isn’t selected as the winner.
“I’ll be there (at the state fair) showing my cattle,” she said. “So I won’t be going anywhere, at least until after Tuesday.”
Sadie is the daughter of Scott and Cindy Roy of Trenton.