A Day in the Life of Princess Kay

Earlier this Summer, I became the Minnesota Dairy Princess Coordinator. I told you all about it in my blog post 12 Good Reasons.

On the eve before the start of the Minnesota State Fair, Kyla Mauk became our 62nd Princess Kay of the Milky Way, Minnesota's dairy ambassador. Congratulations to Kyla!

One of my duties as Minnesota Dairy Princess Coordinator is to chaperone Princess Kay and the eleven princess finalists at the Minnesota State Fair, so from August 26th to September 8th, I packed my bags and moved from the farm to a hotel near the state fair to spend morning, noon, and night with 12 of the best Minnesota farm girls I know!

So what does Princess Kay and the finalists do for 12 days of the Great Minnesota Get-Together? 

Princess Kay, and each of the finalists get their likeness carved from a 90 pound block of sweet, creamy butter. This tradition has been going on for 40+ years, and Princess Kay is tradtionally carved on the first day of the Fair. While fairgoers watched, six to eight hours of Princess Kyla's first day of her reign were spent in a 40 degree, rotating cooler as sculptor Linda Christensen worked her magic.

 Every afternoon Princess Kay climbed aboard the float with State Fair mascots Fairborne and Fairchild for some fun during the daily parade.  

 Each day there were amatuer butter sculptures to be judged,

presentations to be given,

 and thousands of fair-goers to greet...and lots of photo opportunities!

 Sunday morning was spent handing out chocolate milk to re-fuel the runners at the finish line of the annual "Milk Run."

   There were also many chances for Kyla to share about dairy farming and dairy foods as she was scheduled for many media appearances. Whether it was a cow milking contest-

a radio interview-

handing out Salted Caramel Puff Malts-

or helping out the local weather man-

it was always done with a smile!

As Princess Kyla looks forward to the upcoming year of representing Minnesota's nearly 3,400 dairy farmers, I look forward to watching her journey, as I am proud to say she's representing the dairy community I love!