Coover chosen Benton County Fair Queen; Hager named Princess

2010 and 2011 Royalty. Queens Taylor and Dani and princesses Abby, Paige Sears and Emily Schmidt.

2010 Queen Taylor Davis discusses the duties with 2011 Queen Dani Coover.

The royalty and candidates pose with contest organizer Angie Becker Thursday after the coronation.

2010 Fair Queen Taylor Davis helps 2011 Princess Abby Hager show off her not-so-formal footwear.

Dani Coover of Belle Plaine is 2011 Benton County Fair Queen; 2010 Queen Taylor Davis crowns her.

Abby Hager choose comfort over style when choosing the shoes to go with her prom dress for the Benton County Fair Queen contest Thursday: She wore sneakers with her formalwear.

Those sensible shoes will serve her well this week, as she fulfills the role of Princess. Hager is a friend and fellow Union High School alum of 2009 Queen Erin Sears, who was seen placing duct tape on her toes while trying to wear formal shoes during livestock shows that year. When Hager told Sears about her footwear choice, the former Queen expressed her approval.

Dani Coover of Belle Plaine was selected as the 2011 Benton County Fair Queen; the two will work throughout the week of the Fair and then spend the next year representing the fair in parades, stock car races and othe events throughout the county. Coover will also compete in the Iowa State Fair Queen contest.

Third Runner Up was Gabrielle Breja. Second Runner Up was Rylie Pflughaupt. Willow Huber was First Runner Up.

Due to the weather, Vinton Today was late in pubishing the biographies of the Queen candidates. Here is the information about this year's nine candidates for Benton County Fair Queen. Angie Becker, who has organized the Fair Queen contest for the past several years, collected this information from the candidates and passed it on to area media.

Gabrielle Breja

Gabrielle is the daughter of Dave and Mary Breja of Keystone. Gabrielle has two siblings, Melissa and Joshua. Gabrielle attends Benton Community High School in Van Horne where she is going to be in the 12th grade. When she graduates, her plans are to go to Kirkwood or Ellsworth Community College and then go to University of Northern Iowa for teaching or Iowa State University for animal science. In school, she is involved in FFA, track and field, concert, show choir, and on the honor roll. Gabrielle has been in FFA for three years. In FFA she is the Sentinel Officer and has received a Star Award in AG placement and outstanding sophomore and Junior Award. Last year she was the junior class officer and has done Adopt-A-Highway, donated food to the Benton County Food Bank, made and donated blankets for the fire department. Gabrielle has been in the Homer Helpers 4-H Club for eight years where she has shown cattle for seven years, and has been the club’s treasurer, photographer, president, vice president, historian, secretary and this year the reporter. She has volunteered for the Keystone Bible School for six years and volunteered at the new daycare that started a few years ago.

Danielle Coover

Danielle is the daughter of David and Jean Coover of Belle Plaine. Danielle has two siblings, Emily who will be a junior next year and an older brother, Davis, who is attending Kirkwood Community College. Danielle attended Belle Plaine Senior High School and will be going to UNI this coming fall to major in psychology and minor in music. She has a strong interest in music therapy and would like to work in the field with children or possibly traumatized soldiers when she graduates.

Danielle has been a member of the Iowa Ever Readies for 10 years and mainly shown her horse, Honey, with a few other side projects. She is also a member of BEHIP, the Benton Equine Interest Program and was honored to represent her county and state at the National Western Rodeo in the Equine Quiz Bowl in 2008. She is active with the Red Cross as a volunteer and blood donor. Danielle belongs to St. Michael’s Catholic Church. In school she was involved in sports, band, choir, and a class representative. She has received many honors during her school career, Girls State attendee, National Honor Society, SICL first-team honors, district and regional team honors in basketball, a state champion on the sprint medley team, and a state track runner-up as a hurdler and as an overall team. She has received honors from the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union for excellence in academic achievement for four years in three sports. She received the Bernie Saggau Award from the IHSAA, National Scholar Athlete from the U.S. Army, “Semper Fidelis” in musical excellence from the Marines, distinguished Athlete from the Marines, the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award, the National School Choral Award, the Jeannie Formanek Drama Award, she has been a four-year academic letter winner and a four-year letter winner in band choir, track, cross county and basketball

Abby Hager

Abby is the daughter of Ron and Brenda Hager of LaPorte City. Abby attended Union Community School and recently graduated. Her future plans are to attend Kirkwood Community College for two years and then transfer to Iowa State University to complete her four-year degree. While at Kirkwood She had the honor of being on the cheerleading squad. Abby has participated in many different activities. She has been active in 4-H, where she has shown bucket bottle calves, swine, and horses. She has also been active in the La Porte–Dysart FFA Chapter serving as vice president, competing in various contests and earning her Iowa Degree. She also served at the Southwest Vice President of the Northeast District FFA. In school she participated in volleyball for two years, cheerleading and soccer for four years.

Felicia Hertle

Felicia is the daughter of Loraine and William Bruns of Cedar Rapids and Kevin and Teresa Hertle of Keystone. Felicia has a sister, Alexandria, and three step-brothers, Travis, Devin, and Tanton, and a half-sister, Brook. Felicia will be a senior at Kennedy High School, where she has been an honor student. She is involved in volleyball, golf, Iowa Elite Cheerleading, softball, cheerleading for school, along with Best Buddies. Felicia has taken dance at Cooling’s Dance Center in Vinton since she was three years old. She plays piano, trumpet, flute, and the clarinet. Felicia is an active member of the St. John’s Lutheran Church in Newhall and a member of the Eldorado Young Master Farmers 4-H Club since the fourth grade where she had several of her projects go to the Iowa State Fair and has received county honors in home economics classes and showmanship winners with her horses. Felicia works at Zio Johno’s in Marion and loves to laugh and have fun.

Jamie Hodnefield

Jamie is the daughter of Brent and Christy Hodnefield of Van Horne.

Jamie has a sister, Arial, and a brother, Brice. She will become a student at Coe College this fall. Jamie will be playing soccer and participating in the choir and plans to major in biology and pre-medicine with the hopes of becoming a doctor. While attending Coe, Jamie will be working at St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids. Throughout her adolescent years she has involved herself with many activities and organizations. She has been active in FFA, National Honor Society, academic honor rolls, health science academy, football manager, competition cheerleading, wrestling cheerleading, homecoming queen, show choir, dancing for Christine’s Dance, singing for numerous school choirs and church, soccer, youth group, church, community work, and assistant coaching B-Bops cheerleading competition squad. Her summers are busy with vacation Bible school, charity, community work, 4-H, and showing at fairs. Jamie has had many leadership rolls through numerous sports as captain, in 4-H as president, vice president, and secretary for her club the Leroy Luckies, in FFA as secretary for the Benton Community FFA Chapter, and also at home working in the barn. She prides herself in everything that she has accomplished so far and is looking forward to continuing the hard work.

Willow Huber

Willow is the daughter of Jim and Conni Huber. Willow has two sisters, Rose and Ivy. She is 16 years old and attends Vinton-Shellsburg School. She is active in many school activities. including band, color guard, large group and individual speech, FFA, plays and debate. Outside of school she is involved in 4-H, Girl Scouts, and dance. Willow loves being with her family, friends, music, and playing outside. She has been involved in the fair ever since she started Clover Buds and the open division contests. She is excited to run for fair queen.

This year Willow is serving as the Vinton-Shellsburg FFA Chapter Secretary and also serving the Northeast District FFA as the Southwest vice president. Her passion for FFA started when she attended the 83rd National FFA Convention as a member of the National FFA Honor Choir. Willow has also been very active in her 4-H Club and has shown rabbits at the fair for seven years and poultry for one year. She also has shown photography and food and nutrition projects, and participated in Share the Fun. In her free time she loves biking, eating, pretending she can play guitar, singing, dancing, blowing bubbles, shopping and writing. In the future, Willow plans to attend a four-year college for theater arts, agriculture communication, or fashion design.

Jessi Junge

Jessi is the daughter of Jerry and Crystal Junge of Keystone and Brenda Junge of Cedar Rapids. Jessi is currently a senior at Benton Community High School in Van Horne. She plans on graduating in May and then plans to attend Kirkwood Community College for liberal arts and then hopefully transfer to a university.

Throughout her four years in high school, she has participated in a variety of sports and clubs such as track, soccer, speech and FCCLA. In FCCLA she has helped put on the bus driver dinner where they made and served dinner to all of the bus drivers to thank them for all they do for the students and the school. She has been involved in speech her sophomore and junior years. Jessi is a member of the Homer Helpers 4-H Club and member of the Keystone Legion. She helped clean up after the flood in 2008. This year she attended Relay For Life in Cedar Rapids and participated in the running or walking in the 2011 “Run the Flood.” She was also selected to attend Iowa Girls State in Ames. Jessi has shown her horses at the Benton County Fair.

Sara Petrzelka

Sara is the daughter of Bruce and Virginia Petrzelka of Norway. Sara has two older brothers, Matthew and Nathan, and a younger brother, Adam. Sara will be a junior at Benton Community High School in Van Horne. She has been involved in many different service groups and activities. In school, she participated in basketball, track, volleyball. She is also active in FFA where she serves as the Chapter Reporter. She has received the Greenhand and Chapter degrees and has attended both National and State Conventions and other activities. She has been involved in the Especially for You Breast Cancer Walk, and assisted her mom with her involvement in the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program. Sara has been an active member in her 4-H Club for six years with the Florence Hawkeyes, where she serves as the club treasurer. Sara loves to spend her free time boating and camping with family and friends.

Rylie Pflughaupt

Rylie is the daughter of Joe and Traci Pflughaupt. Rylie attends Vinton-Shellsburg High School. She plans to attend Iowa State in the fall. Rylie was involved in choir, speech, golf, mentor group, lettered in golf, speech and choir as well as 4-H, FFA, bowling and Bridging the Generations.

News : Coover chosen Benton County Fair Queen; Hager named Princess

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