Plowing Match 24: Rachel Wilts spends incredible year as match's Princess
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
Since winning the Huron County Princess competition last summer, St. Anne’s Catholic Secondary School student Rachel Wilts has had the opportunity to positively engage with the local community for almost an entire year. Her reign will soon be coming to an end, which means it’s a perfect time to take a moment and reflect on the year that was.
“It feels like I just got crowned yesterday, and all the events I’ve been to just fly by,” she remarked.
Wilts took home the title of Princess after her speech about the difference between soil and dirt won over the judges at last year’s Huron County Plowing Match. “My dad first gave me the idea, and I was like ‘soil versus dirt? Like, what?’ But once I started doing research on it, I ended up learning a lot!”
After her win, Wilts was thrown right into the world of agricultural advocacy by going on the annual fall fair circuit. “I started off with the Seaforth Fall Fair parade,” she recalled. “And then for the Brussels Fall Fair I had a cake-decorating competition - not to brag, but I got first place.”
She also attended the Huron County Federation of Agriculture’s annual meeting. “I don’t go to a lot of meetings, so I don’t really know how they run, but it was cool,” she said.
Also last autumn, Wilts traveled to Dufferin County to check out the International Plowing Match (IPM). “That was fun. That was my highlight, I think. That’s my favourite thing I went to. I walked all around the tented city, and I was there to listen to the Ontario Queen contestant speeches, which was interesting. And I watched the rodeo, which was fun - my brother’s in the rodeo. And then I made my way to the banquet in the evening, and got to watch Mel [Karpenko] get crowned, and that was really cool.”
Then, over the holiday season, Wilts was in no less than three Santa Claus parades - one in Blyth, one in Clinton, and one in Brussels.
She also attended the summer parade at Wingham’s Homecoming where she listened to the Ambassador speeches.
When she’s not out and about, Wilts loves to spend time at home on the family farm. “I love going for walks, so I’ll go all through the bush, and through the field and everything, and just see it all.” Her favourite cash crop is corn, but not because of its agricultural value. “It’s just more fun to walk through when it’s really tall,” she quipped.
While the Princess program is all about public speaking, Wilts has also found that meeting so many new people as a representative of agriculture has really helped her improve her ability to articulate her thoughts in any situation, not just when she’s in front of a crowd. “Like, I always know what I mean in my head, but I’m not always best at saying it. Any type of speaking is an important skill - otherwise, you don’t know how to communicate with other people... I’ve lived on this farm all my life, and I thought I knew a lot about agriculture, but then I went in the Princess of the Furrow competition, and listened to all the other girls’ speeches on agriculture, and then the Queen speeches the next day, and then the Ontario Queen contestant speeches - I got to learn so much, when I thought I already knew a lot. But really, there’s so much more!”