15-year-old Kassidy Balulis is crowned 2019 Schuylkill County Fair Princess.
Originally published in the Pottsville Republican-Herald on July 29, 2019.
SUMMIT STATION - Rule number one of going to the Schuylkill County Fair: watch your step. Rule number two: bring a chair, or you’ll be stuck in the cheap seats during the 2019 Schuylkill County Fair Royalty contest. On Monday, the first day of the Schuylkill County Fair, both goats and pageant queens were presented. The goats wore silk leotards to keep them cool and the potential heirs to the Fair throne wore sequined dresses that shimmered in the late July sun.
The contestants were unfailingly cheery cheerleaders, community service volunteers and rabbit breeders, all singing Schuylkill County’s praises. There were three categories separated by age; Little Miss, Princess and Queen (the older the girl, the bigger the tiara).
“I was first afraid of the animals, and they were so stinky,” said Schuylkill Haven Little Miss competitor McKenzie Maley, a seven-year-old swimmer and hip-hop dancer with a pet fish named Blueberry. “But now I like seeing them.”
If Schuylkill Haven Princess contestant Alanza Smith, 11 and making her Fair debut, was in charge of the fair, she said she’d put more focus on the animals.
“They eat, poop and do everything like that,” she said, bouquets of sunflowers resting delicately in her rivals’ laps, “But we don’t understand why we need them.”
Alanza said that while other contestants hide their feelings, she strives to be outgoing.
“I play a lot of sports, so by playing sports a lot of people are automatically gonna rule that I can’t do anything else,” she said. “I know a lot of my friends didn’t believe me that I was gonna do this, but here I am. Half the time they say I play sports so I shouldn’t like dresses, I shouldn’t like pretty things and doing my hair every single day.”
Involved in agriculture since the age of three, when she rode a goat named Belle and got bucked off after three seconds, she now raises several chickens, one of whom she calls Jeff. When she grows up, she wants to be a lawyer, and though people find it weird she has her whole life planned out at sixth grade, she is who she is.
“Be who you are,” she said. “Don’t leave it inside a shell and use something to hide it up. If you need to cry you need to cry, don’t hide it.”
Diligently filming the event was Shirley Antonini of Schuylkill Haven, an elegant woman wearing a black dress, fishnet stockings and an impressive necklace of white stones, tumbling down her neck like barnacles off an ocean jetty. She had a black umbrella that looked like a lopsided pancake, and she was shielding her camera with it more than herself.
“Family. Achievement. History. These words have thrived at the Schuylkill County Fair...” Shirley’s daughter Angelique, 11, intoned as she sashayed in a sea green dress. “On its sacred grounds, memories are created.”
Shirley looked as though she was wiping a tear from her sunglassed eyes, nodding along to the speech. “I grew up here among everything. Cornfields, big cities, our fabulous fair. It’s such a close-knit community where we all know each other. We’re all friends and neighbors and have a love for each other.”
From their births, Shirley wanted to show off Angelique and her sister Antoinette, who also does pageants. Angelique’s first appearance on a pageant stage was when she was six months old, but now she performs “without mother’s guidance.” In 2009, at the age of seven she became the Fair’s Little Miss and started a toy drive for children affected by flooding in Schuylkill County, and in 2014 she won Overall Pennsylvania State Title at the Sunburst Pageant in Harrisburg.
“I love the Schuylkill County Fair with all my heart,” said Angelique, who also wants to be a lawyer. “That’s why I would love to be queen. I want our next fair to have the most attendance, and I would like to attend the most events as royalty. I love competing. I love being on stage. I love people and I love to entertain.”
A former model, in Angelique Shirley sees what her family is meant to be.
“In their generation they didn’t know how to get things done,” Shirley said about her parents. “Angelique took what I could’ve been and moved ten steps past that… “She does get it done. She may be up until 1:30 in the morning but she gets it done.”
“My determination and my tenacity sets me apart from the competition,” Angelique said. “I want to create change, and other royalty they don’t want to make changes. I don’t want to just stand there with a tiara.”
After the speeches, there came the hard part; waiting for the winners to be announced. At 7 p.m., as the Antoninis awaited the announcement of the winner, two women, dressed in inflatable cow and pig costumes, jumped on stage during the New Individuals concert and danced to “Jailhouse Rock.”
“Also, Miss Piggy. We hammin’ it up on that one,” said the band’s frontman Chuck Cahoe to groans from the crowd.
The minutes moved like molasses. The carnival lights turned on, flashing against the pale yellow sunset. Shirley clapped nervously to the music. Finally, 8 p.m. came. Angelique was voted Miss Congeniality.
“I’m very happy,” she said. “I made so many friends.”
The 2019 Little Miss was Madison Purcell, 9, from New Ringgold. The Queen was Madeline Schuettler, 18, from Pottsville.
Madeline Schuettler is crowned Queen.
“I am so excited for the year ahead of me,” said Madeline, who was Princess in 2015. “I guess this year the judges were looking for something I have.”
As Queen, Madeline pledges to put agriculture back into Schuylkill County classrooms.
“I am so very proud of her,” said her mother Billijo. “I don’t have words.”
The Princess was Kassidy Balulis, 15, from Seltzer. Alonza was the runner-up.
“There’s always next year,” Alonza said. “When I come back next year I’m gonna hit ‘em harder.”