Friday, March 11, 2016

DAIRY PRINCESS PAGEANT

This year the Niagara County Dairy Princess Committee will be celebrating their 50th Pageant and our 20th Anniversary as the Niagara Orleans Dairy Princess Pageant! Fifty years ago, Linda Chaffee Rosenthal was crowned the first Niagara County Dairy Princess. The committee is looking for all former Niagara or Orleans dairy Princesses and would love to see all of them attend or at least be included in our program with an update on where they are today and how the program touched their life. Please contact Brian Waters at 735-7113. Each past princess will be given complimentary dinner tickets to this year’s event.

You may ask, what is the Niagara Orleans Dairy Princess program? It’s a lot more than you imagine. The Dairy Princess delivers and promotes the Dairy Industry. It really wasn’t that long ago that everyone worked on a farm or had a family member that was a dairy farmer. Unfortunately that has now become many generations removed from the family farm. But thankfully the Dairy Princess program lives on and is keeping our heritage and our roots deep, strong and alive. The Dairy princesses take part in many activities to help bridge the gap between farmers and consumers. The youth of our program work hard in your local schools and in your community to promote and educate about the Dairy Industry.

The Dairy princess program is an important part of American Dairy Association and Dairy Council Communications team. This is a grass-roots effort to reach consumers on a daily basis. Many educational programs are based for elementary school age children. The Princess and her court travel around Niagara and Orleans County to educate our youth on the industry and its future. They participate at Farm Bureau meetings, Cornell Cooperative Extension Annual dinners, Parades, Niagara County Fair’s Farm City Breakfast and various 4-H animal shows. They do supermarket promotions, radio and tv promotions as well as Environmental days that take place every year at the Royalton Ravine. Over the past 10 years the Princess has went to our local hospitals to welcome the first baby born in June, which is Dairy Month, and presented the new moms with a dairy care package which has included a onesie, bib, and a bottle among other things.

This program helps to build strong, energetic leaders on and off the farms. It has taught public speaking, dealing with difficult and tough questions about farm practices and educating the public on misconceptions about milk and the farming life. Today it is more important than ever to educate people on the importance of dairy in our lives. This group represents a bright and strong future for our New York State farms and farming industry.

This year’s Pageant will be held at the Hartland Volunteer Fire Company, 8945 Ridge Rd, Gasport on April 23 at 7:00. Tickets are $12.00 for adults, children 6-12 are $8.00 and children under age 6 are $4.00. This event is open to the public and if you would like to attend please make checks payable to Niagara-Orleans County Dairy Princess Committee and mail to Lorretta Criswell, 8519 Ertman Rd, Lockport, NY 14094 before April 15th.