Reighard Competes at Pa. State Fair Queen Contest

Back in 2008 when I was the Williamsburg Farm Show queen, I had the wonderful opportunity to run against many young women at the Hershey Lodge to vie for Pennsylvania State Fair queen, and it was one of the best experiences I had as queen.

Lucky for us, we get to relive that experience through this year’s Farm Show Queen Morgan Reighard, who recently traveled to Hershey to compete at the Pennsylvania State Fair.

Reighard is the 19-year-old daughter of Brian and Lisa Reighard of Williamsburg. She is attending Penn State University for early childhood education while managing to have two jobs – one at the university and the other at a local convenience store.

“The best thing so far about being the Farm Show queen is having the honor of representing my town of Williamsburg,” Reighard said. “I have been blessed to have so many wonderful opportunities to get to show off my town. The pageant was just the foundation of getting to show off the Farm Show, which we should be proud of in Williamsburg. The pageant experience in all was very fun – getting to hear about all the different fairs all over Pennsylvania was very educational. I made lots of new friends and learned so much about Pennsylvania,” she said.

The pageant experience consisted of essay writing, the interview portion, the stage introduction and a speech based on the Williamsburg Farm Show.

“While in Hershey, I got the opportunity to learn about all the different fairs in Pennsylvania,” Reighard said. “There are 107 fairs in our state, and that’s a lot of time and money that goes into making the fairs what they mean to each town. Getting to learn about how different they are was also very interesting.”

Reighard said her favorite part of the Hershey experience – besides the chocolate of course – was having a pizza party with the former Pennsylvania State Fair queen.

“All 58 contestants finally got the chance to get to know each other,” Reighard said. “I got the opportunity to hear about all the other fairs, and it was a great way to get to know the other contestants rather than just being a number.”

Another event Reighard says she enjoyed was getting to listen to Denise J. Leigh – another former PA State Fair queen – who gave a presentation about how to make the most of being a fair queen.

“She talked about how being a woman and someone who represents your town can be something to be grateful for. She also encouraged us that no matter if we win or lose [the pageant], when you go home, you are still the queen of your town. Go represent it just as hard.”

Reighard credits Kristy Bigelow as serving as her mentor throughout her pageant experience, and continued time being the Williamsburg Farm Show queen.

“She has just helped me so much through this experience,” Reighard said. “Giving me pointers, helping me with my speech, and supporting me through this entire experience. She was also a former Williamsburg Farm Show queen, so she gave me lots of advice to help me make the most of it.”

For those wanting to become Williamsburg Farm Show queen in the upcoming years, Reighard said, “to just make the most of it. Have fun! It is such a wonderful experience and you make so many memories. I love representing my town, and getting to see things from behind the scenes. I hope whoever I get to crown this August takes it with pride as I did from Charlotte – goes to all of the events big and small, and makes just as many memories as I did. Another big plus is getting to flaunt an awesome crown.”