Co-Queens To Reign Over Celebration Days

WAITSBURG – If there's ever a fitting time for double the celebration it is this May's Waitsburg Celebration Days weekend, which also commemorates the city's 150th anniversary.

The first-ever Waitsburg Celebration Days co-queens were crowned in a coronation ceremony at the Waitsburg Elementary School multipurpose room on Saturday. In a flashback to 10 years ago, Brittany Artz and Kimberly Smith were crowned co-queens for the 92nd Days of Real Sport in 2005. This year, Devon Harshman and Ashleigh Hubbard will represent Waitsburg as Celebration Days Royalty Queens for the sesquicentennial celebration.

Both girls are eighth graders at Preston Hall Middle School and were selected to Waitsburg's 2015 Celebration Days Court last October. The young ladies, under the direction of Court Advisor Beka Adams, have represented Waitsburg at parades and events since then and were eager to learn who would be named queen at Wednesday's coronation ceremony attended by community members and Milton-Freewater's Pioneer Posse royalty. A spaghetti dinner, musical entertainment and silent auction preceded the coronation ceremony.

Each girl was individually escorted to the front of the room where she gave a brief speech. Hubbard, who lives in Dixie, said she wanted to be a part of the Celebration Days Court in order to improve her public speaking and to get to know the community of Waitsburg better. She rides her 19-year-old appaloosa mare, Bella, and says she enjoys riding western, English, trail and bareback.

Harshman is the current Preston Hall student body president, and is active in Rainbow Girls, 4-H, and school athletics. "But my favorite commitment is big and fluffy and goes by the name of Big Moh," Harshman said, describing her Isabella palomino quarter horse.

Following their speeches, 2013 Celebration Days Queen Emily Adams presented each girl with a "royalty lifesaver kit," complete with bobby pins and Advil, and the queen candidates took turns reading a humorous poem that accompanied the gifts.

Court Advisor Beka Adams addressed the crowd and said that both girls and their families were "awesome" to work with and that there was no way she could decide between the two. "For the first time ever, we will have two Waitsburg Celebration Days queens," Adams said. In her final official act as 2014 Celebration Days Queen, Megan Morrison placed crowns on both Harshman and Hubbard.

"Being chosen as one of the queens is such an honor. What I'm looking forward to is being able to talk to the kids and just being there to help support the community. I look forward to going to the parades and rodeos and having fun with my horse," Hubbard said.

Harshman said the event she anticipates most during Celebration Days is the ATV Poker run. "I'm very proud of myself and Ashleigh for making it so hard for them to decide (between us) and I'm so blessed to go around representing Waitsburg with such an amazing girl," Harshman said.