GREENFIELD — For Riley Festival Queen Pageant winner Avery Spencer, receiving the crown was the fulfillment of a longtime dream.
“Riley Festival is a big part of my family through my life, growing up,” Spencer said. “It’s really exciting to be able to be the queen because I’ve always looked up to the queen growing up as well.”
The new queen of the Riley Festival was chosen Sunday at Greenfield-Central High School from among 13 contestants, high school and college students from around Hancock County. As the winner, Spencer will serve as an ambassador welcoming visitors to the Riley Festival Oct. 3-6, as well as representing the festival at the Indiana State Festivals Association pageant in January.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“It was so fun getting to meet all the new girls that were in the pageant, getting to meet the judges. My interview with them was so much fun,” Spencer said. “With the girls, we’ll probably have friends outside of this as well.”
Spencer, a senior at Greenfield-Central High School, plans to study kinesiology at Purdue University and eventually become a physical therapist.”
“I was very surprised that I won,” Spencer said after the pageant. “There were a lot of beautiful girls that I was up against to get the role.”
The event’s presenting sponsor, manufacturing company Keihin North America, presented the Personal Choice award to contestant and Ball State University student Lydia McIntire. Delanie Melton received the Miss Congeniality award, voted on by fellow contestants.
“Miss Congeniality is the best award you can win, over queen, over princess, anything,” said Melton, a student at Northern Kentucky University. “That the girls picked me literally matters more than the two judges we saw. It just means more because I’ll see these girls, I’ll see them in the community, I’ll see them outside of school, outside of class, at Walmart, I’ll see them everywhere.”
Melton and McIntire were chosen as members of the court, along with Ivy Tech Community College student Megan Roberts. Anderson University student Cassondra Jones was chosen as the princess. All of the winners will join Spencer as part of the festivities at several Riley Festival events, including the traditional Parade of the Flowers, where they will accept bouquets from local children.
“It’s last and final year to participate in the pageant due to age requirements, so I am very excited to continue being on the court and being with all these girls,” McIntire said. She was a member of the court as well as Miss Congeniality at the 2018 pageant. “It’s been an amazing experience. I’m very excited to meet all these new people. There’s so many different people from all walks of life who come to the festival.”
McIntire said it was particularly exciting when her younger brother, Nathan McIntire, was named Little Mister in a separate category for children. Isabella Savage was named Little Miss.
“I wanted to run onstage and hug him, but I knew I couldn’t,” she McIntire said of her little brother.
Jones said it was an honor to be chosen as princess and that she looks forward to spending more time with Spencer, a close friend. She said all of the contestants bonded as they prepared for the pageant.
“I like to prepare ahead of time; I am kind of a perfectionist, so I like to work on things way in advance. I usually Google pageant questions beforehand, honestly. We were doing that, actually, backstage. We all got on Google and were answering questions like, ‘oh, I found this one! How would you answer that?’”
While contestants appear at the pageant in both evening gowns and an outfit of their choice that represents a personal ambition or passion, the highest proportion of their score is based on an interview that takes place before the event.
Contestants were questioned by Tia Jackson and Stacy Alldredge of Bonfire Training, a professional training and coaching company based in Carmel, about their knowledge of Riley Festival history as well as the personal information they presented on their applications.
“We were looking for who would represent the Riley Festival the best, whether that’s their personality and their poise, their ability to be confident,” festival coordinator Nancy Alldredge said. “What we were amazed about is that it’s 13 girls that could represent the community, and really love the community and the Riley Festival.”
Jackson said what impressed them most about Spencer was her “confidence and strength.”
Jones said her favorite thing about the pageant is that it gives girls from around the county opportunities to meet and make lasting connections.
“I think it’s important for more girls to get involved,” Jones said. “They meet so many people, and I have met lifelong friends thanks to pageants. Having these girls come together and share their love of community or love of James Whitcomb Riley is really great.”
