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CapitalPress.com
Friday, January 3, 2020
Dairy ambassadors add royal touch
By MITCH LIES
For the Capital Press
They’ve spent several
months honing the skills
necessary to be crowned
Oregon’s dairy princess,
and on Jan. 18, one of three
young women will earn the
honor.
The next state princess,
who will be crowned at the
Oregon Dairy Women spon-
sored coronation banquet,
will be either Araya Wilks,
representing
Tillamook
County; Jamie Evers, repre-
senting Klamath County; or
Taysha Veeman, represent-
ing Marion County.
“It’s anybody’s game
at this time,” said Becky
Droz-Albeke, state director
of the Oregon Dairy Prin-
cess Ambassador Program.
“The girls have had a
busy year,” Droz-Albeke
added. “They’ve done a
Oregon Dairy Ambassador Program
The 2019 Oregon dairy princess ambassadors were from left, Emily Henry, state
princess, Jamie Evers, Taysha Veeman, Araya Wilks and Natalie Berry. Either Evers,
Veeman or Wilks will reign as the 2020 state princess. The coronation takes place on
Jan. 18.
lot of work with kids pre-
school through eighth grade
talking about nutrition and
animal care, what hap-
pens on a dairy, essentially
explaining how milk gets
from a dairy to the table.”
Droz-Albeke added that
the young women “have
done a great job.”
“They get close to 70
hours of intensive training
on things like hot topics and
social graces and fine-tun-
ing their speech,” Droz-Al-
beke said. “They’ve done
tours of dairy farms and
dairy production plants,
so they are getting a good
basic awareness of each
step of the process from
farm to table. And that
has really helped them
as they have given their
presentations.
“They are doing a great
job. They learned a whole
bunch this past year and
they are very confident,”
Droz-Albeke said. “I am
excited about this year.”
Droz-Albeke, who took
over as state director in
April for Jessica Kliewer,
knows something about the
program. Droz-Albeke was
Oregon state dairy princess
in 1978. Being back in the
industry has been reward-
ing and enjoyable, she said.
“It is good to be back
involved in the dairy indus-
try,” Droz-Albeke said.
Droz-Albeke noted that
the Oregon State Dairy
Princess Ambassador pro-
gram can be intense and
time-consuming, but it is
well worth the commitment
for the young women who
participate.
“It is a great scholarship
program and a really fun
year,” she said.
The State Contest and
Coronation Banquet will
start at 5:30 p.m. Saturday,
Jan. 18, at the Salem Con-
vention Center. Tickets may
be purchased by Jan. 6 at
oregondairywomen.com/
events.
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