Carmi Corn Days has a theme. Dig out your bunting, get out your leftover hand sanitizer, your favorite mask and prepare to decorate a float celebrating getting out of “Corntine” a take on one of the buzz words of 2020 “quarantine”. The theme was announced at the conclusion of Thursday afternoon’s Carmi Kiwanis Club meeting.
Kelsi Kessler will go down in the history books. She has the distinction of serving as Illinois County Fair Queen for not one, but two years thanks to the pandemic. The White County Fair Queen turned State Fair Queen was the speaker at Thursday’s meeting and she detailed her experiences so far and what she’s looking forward to most in the upcoming year. The prompt to enter the county pageant…
Kessler is also one of a select few pageant winners following their mother who also won the county pageant. She says that provided her with some extra motivation when she got to the State level of the pageant.
The busy summer Kessler was supposed to have last year is about to get underway.
When Kelsi isn’t representing the Illinois County and State Fair Association, she’s a student at the University of Illinois and is eyeing a degree that she hopes to come back home an use.
Kessler also used her platform to launch a YouTube channel aimed at helping young girls.
In addition to several county fairs this summer, Kessler will also reign over both State Fairs in Springfield and DuQuoin.
