The 67th annual Vermont Dairy Festival began today in Enosburg Falls at the start of National Dairy Month.
As is tradition, it usually kicks off with the Scholarship Pageant Parade, featuring girls from around Franklin County competing for a collegiate scholarship.
But this year looks a bit different. No eligible high school senior girls signed up to participate.
Brent Garrow is the Pageant Director and President of the Lions Club in Enosburg Falls.
Pageant Director and President of the Lions Club Brent Garrow says this would have been the pageant’s 37th year. He’s shocked and said it was “disappointing” to see.
“I met with some of the senior girls and when it came time for the actual meeting, there were three people here at the high school, we sat for an hour, and nobody came,” Garrow said.
The pageant usually features upwards of 20 contestants and Garrow says there are about 200 eligible girls in Franklin County.
Participants are judged in a variety of categories like academic achievement, creative and performing arts, and appearance. The winner receives a scholarship toward college expenses.
“That’s kind of too bad,” said Kristi West, a native of Franklin County. “Because I know some people that have gotten that before. And I think that… you know, helps them with college.”
Garrow couldn’t point to a reason why participants were not interested in participating but hopes the event will rebound next year.
“Sometimes it takes something like this for us to stop and take a minute to appreciate the hard work that goes into our milk and our cheese and all the stuff that we put on our table.”
Kristi West, Franklin County native
In the absence of the scholarship pageant, Franklin County residents say they’re still proud of the dairy festival’s community tradition.
Kelli Garrow, an Enosburg Falls resident, has attended the event her whole life.
“Because it’s a small town, we don’t have much more. So this is the one thing every year that everyone in Franklin County looks forward to,” she said. “People come out from everywhere.”
Kristi West and Kelli Garrow have both been longtime attendees of the Vermont Dairy Festival.
Besides community building, the event highlights the importance of dairy farmers in Vermont. That’s according to Kristi West, who attended the first day of the dairy festival Thursday and watched her granddaughter ride Midway attractions and have a candied apple.
“It takes something like this to stop and take a moment to appreciate the hard work that goes into our milk and our cheese and all the things that we put on our table,” West said. “The farmers put it there.”
The festival runs through Sunday, June 4. Included on the schedule are a milking contest, bingo and live music.
Elodie can be a reporter in addition to producer just for Vermont Community. She earlier worked being a multimedia reporter at the Rapport Monitor, the particular St . Albans Messenger as well as the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, and she’ s freelanced for The Ocean, the Alfredia Science Screen, the Berkshire Eagle as well as the Bennington Advertising. In 2019, she attained her MFA in innovative non-fiction publishing from The southern part of New Hampshire University.
