Dayton Woman’s ‘Dream’ Came True as 2015 Fair Queen

by Jonathan Weaver

While competing with 4-H, a young Kara Zolocsik always looked up to the Great Dayton Fair Queen. She enjoyed it even more when little girls admired her after she won in 2015.

“It (was) a dream of mine,” Zolocsik recalled.

But, the 2015 queen admitted her fear of public speaking almost never got her there.

The lessons she learned from three years of competing for the crown made this past year all the more memorable, Zolocsik said less than two weeks before she has to give up the crown.

“I gained a lot of interview skills through that and public speaking skills through the speech. I know I was (nervous) – my mom had to encourage me a little bit to turn in my application,” Zolocsik recalled. “Once I talked to the queens that were crowned the other two years and they said ‘You’re so close – you just have to do a little bit of tweaking here and there.’

“It’s definitely a good experience. The skills and stuff you learn from it is once-in-a-lifetime.”

Zolocsik’s public speaking experience so far has helped her successfully become a part of the Pennsylvania Beef Council’s ‘Millennial to Millennial’ (M2M) 2.0 Program - a program that, according to the organization’s website, “creates beef community advocates for use at large consumer events and speaking engagements, educating the public about beef and beef production.”

Even though there is not an FFA organization at Penn State, Zolocsik is part of a different livestock club and is the legislative representative for Collegiate CattleWomen and the secretary of the Collegiate Farm Bureau.

Sunday, fair queen contestants will be interviewed and give a 3-5 minute speech to judges at the Marshall House before the August 14 crowning at the grandstand on the Dayton Fairgrounds - something Zolocsik recalled being nervous about at first but valued.

Zolocsik, 20, said she personally will know five of the 2016 contestants - after showing animals with them as part of 4-H – while she times the contestants. She encouraged this year’s crop of hopeful queens.

“If it’s something you had a dream of doing since you were little or its been a passion of yours to run, don’t give up if your first year doesn’t go as planned. It takes a lot of guts to get up on stage and talk to as many people as are in those grandstands Sunday night.

“To go out and meet all these people that you’re going to meet that will change your life, the memories you make through this, it’s definitely something that, if it’s a dream of yours, you don’t want to pass up on.”

The soon-to-be past queen also has shown cows, steers and pigs the past two years. This year, she will show two pigs – which she said took about six months to prepare for.

“Last year, I did show my pig in my crown because I had to hand out ribbons during the pig show,” Zolocsik laughed.

The small beef cattle farm (which now has six cattle and three pigs after she has left for school) was actually the brainstorm of Kara and her 22-year-old brother, Nathan – a tractor salesman in Shelocta.

Altogether, Zolocsik competed for a dozen years - with 4-H for 10 years and this will be her second with Future Farmers of America (FFA). Participants can only show at the fair until they are 21 years of age.

While she was a Marion Center student, Zolocsik was a member of Triple-S 4-H club and Marion Center FFA (in FFA she won the Greenhand, Star Chapter Greenhand and Star Chapter Farmer awards).

The soon-to-be junior at Penn State-University Park studying Animal Science with a minor in agricultural business and veterinary and biomedical science , Zolocsik’s last appearance as queen was during last weekend’s Clearfield County Fair – when Clearfield Queen Abby Jamison gave up her crown.

“I told my mom and dad the other day ‘I’m going to try very hard not to cry during my farewell speech, but it’s probably going to happen,’” Zolocsik said.

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