Adams Selected To Fair Court

WAITSBURG - A lifelong dream has come true for Waits- burg High School student Beka Adams. Ever since she was a little girl, Adams said she dreamed of being part of the Walla Walla Fair and Frontier Days Royalty Court and now, at age 16, she beat out the competition for a spot.

Adams, the daughter of Ann and Lanny Adams, said her big- gest influence in being on fair courts was her older cousin who was Miss Pro West in the 1990s.

"She was my inspiration," Adams said.

Adams, who has been riding horses since before she could walk, has been on various local courts to boost her skills and resume to one day be on Walla Walla's court. She has been a member of the Palouse River Ropers Association of Colfax, Milton-Freewater Pioneer Pos- se, Valley Girls Barrel Racing Association, Saddles-n-Spurs 4-H, and Waitsburg FFA.

Adams has been consistently entering horse shows since age 5 and she has taken home the honors of Overall High Point and Overall Grade Horse. She also was the Waitsburg Queen of Days of Real Sport in 2010 and the Dayton Days Queen in 2011. In 2012, she took one year off from courts and came back successful two weeks ago.

Adams competed against six young women to be one of three on the Walla Walla Fair and Frontier Days Court. To apply, she had to submit a resume and letter of interest, just like apply­ing for a job, she said.

Tryouts, which were held two weeks ago, including per­forming a riding pattern on her horse "Moose," being inter­viewed and giving a speech. She found out later that evening that she was chosen as one of the top three to be on the court.

Adams was the only one from Waitsburg who tried out and her other court members are Kindall Cooper, from Pome­roy, and Kendra Torrey, from Milton-Freewater, Ore. At age 16, Adams is the youngest on the court.

Adams said she hadn't been nervous for tryouts for the court. She had been in Indiana the days leading up to the tryouts for the National FFA Convention.

"I think I was too tired to be nervous," she said with a laugh.

She felt comfortable doing the riding pattern and her horse had lots of experience. However, her parents were allowed to sit in on the speech portion and that made her a little nervous, she admitted. Her speech was on the history of the Walla Walla Wagon Wheelers, a local service organization. Once she began talking her nerves eased and she felt more comfortable, she said.

The court's Royalty Direc­tor Steve Harvey said Adams is "awesome" and that the direc­tors had seen her involved in other courts and activities for years. He knew she had flown into Spokane from Indiana and driven all night to make the tryouts.

"She was tired and she did a perfect job," Harvey said. "She has a great family and good support."

Her duties as a court member began just three days after be­ing selected. Adams, Cooper and Torrey were representatives at Baker Boyer Bank on Hal­loween night for the downtown trick-or-treating event.

"It was fun and the weather was decent," she said.

Coming up next weekend is a modeling and etiquette clinic for the fair court. Adams said Miss Rodeo Washington from the 1980s is traveling to Walla Walla to teach the young ladies some modeling techniques and some proper etiquette. Adams said she has been wondering how to do things like "grace­fully eat a taco" and she's ex­cited to learn.

She does know that she's go­ing to have a blast with Cooper and Torrey this year because she has known them previously from 4-H and FFA activities. Adams actually started out raising and showing poultry and goats in 4-H until she got her first horse at age 5.

"I've just been getting horses ever since," she said.

Now, she spends about 2.5 hours every day taking care of the horse, grooming them and just being friends with them.

And she'll be working hard at every fair court event until Feb. 28 when the queen of the group will be crowned at the Showcase Party. Adams said the directors and the advis­ers will be watching how the court members perform and present themselves and they will decide who will be named queen.

"I think I have a fairly decent chance," Adams said.

And after her year on the court, she said she will be fo­cusing on finishing high school and going off to college. She hopes to be accepted at Eastern Kentucky University, which has an equine-based recreational therapy related program.