Et cetera : Meet the 2016 Benton County Fair Queen Candidates

Bobbie Hilmer

Payton Sash

Julianne Martin

Keri Webster

Carly Selken

Elizabeth Martin

Macy Arbuckle

Daisy Johnson

The new Benton County Fair Queen will be crowned next Thursday, July 14, during the traditional Thursday night activities at the Grandstand. Below, in alphabetical order, are profiles of the eight 2016 Benton County Fair Queen candidates:

Macy Arbuckle

Macy Arbuckle is the daughter of Jim and Carol Arbuckle of Vinton. She has four siblings, Brittany, Cali, Nash, and Mili; she is also a proud aunt to her two nieces, Tenli and Zayli. She is homeschooled along with her two other siblings still at home. Macy is 17 years old and will be a junior this coming school year. At this time she is unsure what she wants to do after high school but hope to spend some time exploring different career fields and maybe even getting some hands-on opportunities.

Macy likes to keep active by jogging with her dog, taking long nature walks, and kayaking or canoeing. In her free time she enjoys beekeeping, reading a good book, and playing her musical instruments, which include piano, guitar, ukulele, Cajon. Hanging out with friends and family is another on her favorite past times, especially when there is a fun activity going on. Most of all she loves to embrace opportunities in which she can learn or try something new.

She is a member of the Eldorado Young Master Farmers 4-H Club and has been in 4H for the past 7 yrs. Besides entering projects in the 4H exhibit building, she also shows chicken, rabbits, and her dog. The Dog Obedience Trainer Class, given by Patty Peterson, is one of the most highly anticipated events she and her dog Tank take part in. Along with her 4H club, Macy has lot of fun taking part in an annual service project in which they canvas the town of Newhall, handling out poppies for the American Legion Auxiliary and collecting pop can donations to support the Ronald McDonald House.

She enjoys taking part in the yearly homeschooled drama production and helping out as a director for the junior drama troupe. In 2013, Macy received a scholarship from the Iowa Honey Producers Association to set up a bee hive while being mentored. She has continued beekeeping and has taken on the task of teaching and mentoring other about bees. She loves helping out at her church. Oak Grove Church. She serves in different capacities including running sound and lights, assisting with children’s programs, and aiding in prep and clean up at various events Macy also loves working at her job at the Frank’s Dairy Farm by Newhall where she feeds baby calves and does other various chores. Macy is excitedly looking forward to the fair and the new opportunity to be involved in the Queen Competition.

Bobbie Hilmer

Bobbie is the Daughter of Robert and Kimberly Hilmer of Dysart, and has one sister Katie. She is currently attending Union High School. She is involved in various including National Honor Society, World Food Prize, Borlaug Scholar, State Individual Speech, FFA, Band, color-guard, jazz band, tennis, theater, Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP), academic decathlon, “A” team/honor roll, and silver cord volunteer program at Union. Outside of school she is involved in the Bruce Boosters 4H club, Benton County Youth Council, volunteer camp counselor, helping with various Club Dysart activities, an she is employed at the Playhouse Daycare and Dysart family ear, she Aquatic Center. In Addition she is a five year member of her 4H Club and has served as treasurer and reporter during her 4H career. At the beginning of her

Freshman year, she became involved in the LA Porte- Dysart FFA Chapter, and after she attended her first National Convention she was hooked. Bobbie has participated continuously in her chapter and she is currently serving as vice president. She has also participated in contest throughout her FFA career, including Conduct of Mattings, Parliamentary Procedure and the making of the chapter display board, Bobbie has received several awards for her projects at the Benton County Fair, “I dare you” Award, participant in the High School Leadership Institute, treasure Book Award, fifth place team at State Academic Decathlon, and Athletic, Service and academic Varsity Letter Winners.

Daisy Johnson

Daisy is the daughter of Jeanne Johnson and the late Steve Johnson. She has two siblings Kort Johnson (age 16) and Charlee Johnson (age12) of Vinton. She attended Vinton-Shellsburg High School. She was a senior and plans to attend University of Northern Iowa in the fall. At UNI she is pursuing her dream of teaching and plan to major in Elementary Education.

In her High School career she has been involved in many activities. She was on the Varsity Dance Team four years and was voted captain her senior year. She received a varsity letter in four years of wrestling managing as well a varsity letter in four years of soccer. Other activities that she is involved in are FFA four years and served as the 2015-2016 Chapter Secretary. She has been on the honor roll all four years of her high school career along with earing an academic letter each year.

She has been a member of 4H for 9 years serving many offices over the years including Secretary, Vice President, and President. Through 4H she has entered many projects in the areas of photography, woodworking, visual arts, and child development. She has also shown swine and sheep for all nine years.

Elizabeth Martin

Elizabeth is the daughter of Don and Cari Martin of Norway. She has three older siblings, George 23, Katy, 22 and Juli 18. She has just finished her junior year at Benton Community High School. After school she plans on attending Wartburg College, where she will study to become a preschool through 2nd grade teacher. She loves the idea of working with children and helping them set goals and learn.

She has been a member of the Florence Hawkeye for Six years and this years, this will be her seventh year.

Elizabeth is a member of the Clover Ridge United Methodist Youth group and has been for five years. She enjoys helping people in her community with the youth group. She also volunteers to run the sound booth during worship services and performances at her church. This has taught Elizabeth lot about technology and computer programs.

She enjoys spending a day a week volunteering at Hospice Care Initiatives; she started volunteering their last year. When she volunteers at the Hospice Care Initiatives, she spends her time visiting with the different patients that have been assigned to her. She started off with two patients and then she was assigned two more. She is currently volunteering with two new patients.

Elizabeth is a manager for football, basketball, and soccer, she films the varsity games of football and basketball for the coaches to love over and review. For soccer, she keeps stats of the varsity games. She also lettered in basketball managing. She has received three Academic Awards for maintaining a 3.5 GPA average for four consecutive quarters. She has also received a Distinguished in Academic Achievement award from the Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union for being a part of girls’ basketball team and the team maintaining a 3.25 GPA. She is a first year member of the Benton Community National Honors Society.

Julianne Martin

Julianne “Juli” is the daughter of Don and Cari Martin of Norway Iowa. Juli has three siblings George 23, Kathryn 22 and Elizabeth 16. She attends Benton Community High School in Van Horne as a senior. She plans to attend Kirkwood Community College in the fall of 2016. She will attend Kirkwood for two years while studying Criminal Justice after her two years at Kirkwood are completed she will transfer to Upper Iowa to complete her bachelor’s degree. Once she is finished with her degree she plans to become a Deputy for a surrounding county.

She has been involved with 4H since the fourth grade, every year in this organization she has entered projects in multiple areas such as; woodworking, sewing, welding, and self-determined. She has also always shown livestock. From fourth grade until tenth grade she showed cattle in bucket bottle, market and breeding. Her final year she has switched to showing hogs this is because she has always had an interest in showing them and cattle was becoming a harder option in her family.

She has also been involved with FFA since freshman year, in this organization she has been very active with activities and competitions. Her freshman year she received a leadership award for being the fifth most active member. She has gone to three national conventions, two state conventions and three district competitions. Within our chapter she has helped with staff breakfasts, donuts, for student’s day, kiss the pig money raising during homecoming week and many other volunteer opportunities.

Although she was most active in FFA throughout high school she also participated in some sports. She played volleyball for three years, softball for two, track for two, and golf for one and she was a cheerleader for one throughout her high school career. She tried a little bit of everything to see how she liked it.

Another thing she is actively involved with is donating blood at local blood drives. She has been donating since she was sixteen years old. When her father first introduced her she was not very thrilled with the idea but after she tried it she realized it was not painful and the rewarding feeling of helping others through it is worth it. She has recently just completed donating her first gallon of blood. This is very exciting for her because there is a program called “Gallon Grad” the only requirements to become a gallon of grad is to donate a gallon of blood before you graduate high school. Because she accomplished this she received a certificate at her senior awards banquet and got the honor of wearing a red cord at the graduation ceremony.

Payton Sash

Payton is the daughter of Kevin and Mary Jo Sash. She has two younger sisters, Olivia, and Rylee.

She lives on a small goat farm in La Porte City and currently plans on going to Iowa State to major in Agriculture in Society or Agricultural Business.

In school, she is involved in the fall play, group speech, and individual speech, cross country, golf, Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP), Future Problem Solvers (FPS), the volunteer program, and band color guard. Payton is also a member of her FFA chapter were she is currently serving as officer at large. Some of her favorite activities through FFA has been competing in Parliamentary Procedure helping with their greenhand camp, and running for district office. She has recently been inducted into her schools National Honor Society which she has begun volunteering. She has been a part of A-Team and Honor Roll throughout her high school career. She has worked hard on her grades ever since beginning school, she is part of the Bruce Booster 4H Club and the Benton County Council. She is excited to be a camp counselor for 4H Junior camp this summer.

Payton is also very busy with work, as she has worked as a lifeguard for the past

Two summers at the Dysart Family Aquatic Center and a cashier before that. However, her biggest accomplishment as well job has been her time as an employee at the Iowa House of Representatives. While there she was a page for the 86th general assembly where she assisted the representatives at all times, helped with meetings, and organized bills.

In the past years she has had the hone or receiving her chapter’s star green hand award and the state runner up in FFA goat proficiency two years in a row. She has received the Mother Moon Scholarship Award for her volunteer service to her community. She has also had the honor of attending the Iowa Youth Institute World Food Prize after conducting research on water sanitation in Uganda to discuss how to better serve our world.

Carly Selken

Carly is the daughter of Bill and Teresa Selken. Carly has one brother Connor who is a senior at Iowa State he is currently majoring in Ag Studies. She lives on the family farm outside of Keystone. She attends Benton Community High School where she will be senior in the fall. She stays very busy with activities in and out of school year round.

She is a part of her FFA Chapter. This past year she was her chapter’s reporter and this coming year she will be serving as the vice-president. FFA keeps her extremely busy and always doing something. She has been awarded a gold leadership award for the last three years, Scholarship award 3 years, Outstanding Green hand, and Outstanding Junior award. This spring she received her Iowa FFA degree at the State FFA Convention. She participated in Career Development Events at the sub-district level. She is part of the Homer Heroes 4H club for the past 8 years. In that time she has served as her club president for three years, reporter 1 year and treasurer 2 years. Currently, she is serving as her club’s President. It is fun to watch all the younger members become involved and get excited about their projects and the. I attend youth group at St. Michaels Catholic Church. For the past five years she has been on her schools cross country and track team. She was voted as one to the team captains for this upcoming cross country season. Throughout her past years of high school she has been involved in Silver Cord and volunteer whenever she has time. This spring she was inducted into her schools National Honor Society Chapter.

Some Community Service activities she has participated in are: Garden in the Glove at Garrison Fun Days, 3rd grade Ag Day, Spring Livestock Show. Veterans Benefit Breakfast, Service Auction, adopt-a – highway, canned food drive, toys for tots, teacher appreciation breakfast, senior breakfast, Valentines for Veterans, Feed our Farmers, Party in the Park, St. John’s Lutheran Church Vacation Bible School leader, Keystone PTO babysitter and concession stand worker, Keystone Nursing Home Volunteer, and St. Michaels fall dinner volunteer.

In the summer she likes to work with her animals outside and spend time with her friends and family. This year she will have projects in photography, cooking, and visual arts along with her cattle. Her future plans are to attend Hawkeye community College and transfer to Iowa State University to major in Agricultural Education/Ag Studies. She is excited to spend a wonderful fun filled week at the Benton county Fair!

Keri Webster

Keri is the daughter of Kevin and Rachel Webster of Brandon. Her biggest supporters are her parents. The person who keeps her life interesting is her big brother Ryan Webster, 22 years old.

She has been a lifelong resident of Benton County and Vinton/Shellsburg Community School District.

Her journey started in 4th grade when she joined the 4H club Harrison Willing Workers. After 4 years of trying many things she discovered her passion for horses so she joined BEHIP 4h Group. When she entered into High School she met the FFA advisor who fueled the flame for her passion of horses and Agriculture. So she made the decision to join the Vinton/Shellsburg FFA Chapter. While in FFA she had the privilege to assume the officer position of Co-reporter.

Continued on her journey through High School, she served in the National Honor Society and as the President of the Brandon United Methodist Church Youth Group.

Throughout her schooling she has received all three Presidential Awards, three academic letters, and even two academic All-State awards in volleyball and as wrestling manager.

Starting in 7th grade, she made the decision to start Barrel Racing so she bought her first Barrel horse. As she progressed through middle school and High School she reached new heights and achieved goals that she didn’t think possible before she started barrel racing. She now races two horses in the National Barrel Horse Association. She hopes to continue her career in Barrel Racing in college, where she plans to participate on the Iowa State University Rodeo Team. All while she is continuing her education and majoring in Animal Science.