Published: 7/22/2020 2:39:23 PM
Modified: 7/22/2020 2:39:16 PM
ORANGE — This town of roughly 8,000 is a proud farming community. So it’s fitting that one of its residents represented Massachusetts at the National Miss Agriculture USA Pageant.
Clayre Ames, the 2020 Massachusetts Teen Miss Agriculture, and her family traveled to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, the weekend of June 25 for the second annual event. She participated in several pageant competitions and placed fifth in the interview portion.
“It was a great experience,” the 17-year-old said. “I made so many new friends.”
Started in August 2018, Miss Agriculture USA is a national nonprofit organization Clayre said is dedicated to teaching girls and women about agriculture, leadership and self-esteem. The first pageant was held in Orlando, Fla., in June of last year.
“I loved the experience,” Clayre said of this year’s pageant, “and I’m really excited to, hopefully, go back next year.”
The pageant’s competitions consisted of introductions, formal wear, on-stage questions, interviews, photogenic (submitted headshots) and state fun fashion (clothing representing the contestants’ home states). The interview portion is a one-on-one session with the pageant’s judge.
Clayre said 47 of the nation’s 50 states were represented and the pageant had categories for girls as young as 2 or 3 years old and women in their 50s and 60s.
Clayre’s mother, Patricia Ames, said the experience was worth the 10-hour car ride, and the family got a lot of great photographs.
“It was pretty exciting,” she said.
Clayre, who owns beef and dairy cows, is a member of the Athol-based Happy Helping Hands 4-H Club and recently finished her junior year at Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in Northampton. She said she wants to attend the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she hopes to join the Belted Galloway cattle show team. She aspires to become an animal geneticist so she can improve the appearance, bone structure, meat and milk production of various breeds of beef and dairy cattle.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.