Drew An Brubaker
After being crowned Fair Queen at the West Lampeter Fair last September, Drew An Brubaker, a senior at Lampeter-Strasburg High School, ascended to the title of 2012 Pennsylvania Fair Queen on Saturday.
Her coronation took place in Hershey at the annual joint convention of the Pennsylvania State Association of County Fairs and the Pennsylvania State Showmen's Association.
Fifty-six other contestants from across the state vied for the honor.
"I'm really excited to have an opportunity to promote good values," Brubaker said. "I want to encourage virtues that have made us strong like family and community."
She said she disdains negative thinking and wishes society's role models endorsed more responsible lifestyles.
As a member of the Lampeter-Strasburg Church of the Brethren, where she once led a youth group for junior high-aged girls, Brubaker credited her Christian faith with her ability to diffuse stress, maintain composure and have fun on stage.
"I don't have the pressure to be satisfying everyone around me because I'm fulfilled in God, and I can be confident in that," she said.
Her new responsibilities as queen involve traveling the state as an ambassador for the fair association and representing Pennsylvania's agricultural heritage.
In particular, she will be visiting elementary schools and distributing sunflower seeds, which children are encouraged to grow and then bring to next year's county fairs.
Brubaker remembers receiving a sunflower seed of her own when she was in second grade, she said.
She will also visit Washington, D.C., for a taste of political activism.
"After I finish all the homework I missed, I'll be going to a few events in the capital and meeting with a couple of senators," Brubaker said.
There she will support a current bill that advocates additional funding for fairs.
As for college, Brubaker is unsure where she will attend, but is considering Hofstra University, University of Pennsylvania, William & Mary and Templeton Honors College at Eastern University.
She plans to major in psychology and Chinese, the latter of which she studied last semester at Franklin & Marshall College's Early to College program.
She anticipates that she will begin her freshman year with 15 credits, she said.
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