Queen Kendyl Stutzman officially kicked off a busy Sportsman’s Holiday after being crowned Thursday evening, July 6, by 2016 Sportsman’s Holiday Queen McKenzie Yoder during the annual coronation ceremonies, held at the Elks Lodge.
“I now declare the Sweet Home Sportsman’s Holiday officially open,” Stutzman said.
Also participating in coronation were princesses Kylie Armstrong, Elizabeth Chelstad, Jessica Coats and Jessi Thomas. Princess Bethany Gingerich had to travel out of town in preparation for college.
Armstrong was named first princess. The members of the court named her Miss Congeniality, and Stutzman sold the most raffle tickets, 3,228. The entire court sold 6,089.
“I think she’s an absolutely worthy choice,” Armstrong said. “I called it. She worked hard. She was always very supportive of me when I was nervous. We had a lot of fun together.”
“It feels unreal, honestly,” Stutzman said. “Honestly, it was such an honor to represent the community at each event we went to.”
The other princesses made the experience “a blast,” Stutzman said, and the first princess is her best friend and attended junior high with her.
“We all go to school together,” said Stutzman, who is a soccer teammate with several princesses and swam a year with Coats. “Every time we were nervous, we just talked each other up and made each other feel better about ourselves.”
The most enjoyable experience, Stutzman said, is when little children who come up and want their photos taken with the queen and princesses.
Four judges selected Stutzman as Sportsman’s Holiday queen from among five princesses appearing at the coronation Thursday evening at the Elks Lodge.
Stutzman, 17, is the daughter of Frank and Jennifer Stutzman. She was active in track, soccer and Key Club. She will be a senior at Sweet Home High School next school year. After high school, she plans to begin college at Linn-Benton Community College and then become a nurse.
The queen will receive $750 in scholarship money. The first princess received $500, and each princess received $250. Miss Congeniality also received $50 in cash, and the princess with the most ticket sales received $100 in cash.
Judges were Mary Sue Reynolds, former court chaperon, former princesses Chelsea Corliss and Sandi Lovely and Chamber of Commerce Treasurer David Jurney. They evaluated the princesses in a number of areas, including raffle ticket sales, sponsorships, attendance at events, speeches, poise, personality and an impromptu question.
Chaperone Kayla Rosa said that 13 girls applied to the court this year. The lowest GPA among them was 3.65. The princesses’ grade point averages were all right around 4.00.
En route to a photo shoot at the Green Peter Lookout in May, the princesses spent part of the trip challenging each other with history and civics trivia questions – and they got nearly every answer right.
“They’re all excellent,” Rosa said during the coronation. “As a mom, I hope I can raise my daughter to be as outstanding as your daughters.”
Don Knight, a pastor at Community Chapel, said that he always writes letters of recommendation for Sportsman’s Holiday Court princesses because all of them excel in ways he can cite in his letters.
“They absolutely represent the best their community has to offer,” Knight said, prior to giving the invocation.
Following the prayer, Mayor Greg Mahler read the annual Sportsman’s Holiday Proclamation.
During the program, the princesses gave speeches about where they would go if they could volunteer anywhere in the world, in accordance with this year’s festival theme “All Around the World.”
Stutzman said she would stay in Oregon and work in local food kitchens, noting that “millions are struggling every day to feed their families while I am thriving (and have never really struggled).”
Minimum wage increases in Oregon will boost the cost of food, making it even harder on those who cannot afford food, she said. They need the help.
She cautioned against mocking the homeless.
“That just isn’t right,” Stutzman said. “People are constantly struggling, and it’s just hard to get through life these days. If you look around, our country is struggling too.”
Among them are veterans who are the “reason I’m free,” she said.
She urged people to spread kindness.
Each princess answered a different impromptu question drawn during the coronation. Stutzman was asked what form of travel is best and why.
“Flight,” she said. “I get very seasick.”
Traveling by sea lacks good scenery, she said, adding that the only view she has traveling by sea is a toilet.
Flying is faster than driving and therefore better, she said, citing a long family road trip to Las Vegas.
The only problem with flying is that “little kid kicking your seat,” Stutzman said.
During the coronation, Karla Burcham, a former chaperon who assisted Rosa this year, outlined the history of Sportsman’s Holiday.
The annual festival began as Frontier Days in 1948, she said. It was created to raise money to build a community swimming pool.
The community raised about $6,000 that year to reach that goal in August 1952.
In those days, the princesses also had a swimsuit competition, Burcham said.
Geraldean Guthary was named “Miss Swimming Pool of 1952” on Aug. 8 that year during the Chips ’n’ Splinters variety show.
The event remained Frontier Days until 1958, Burcham said. The first Sportsman’s Holiday was in 1959.
“Bathing Beauties” were featured on Aug. 13, 1959 at the new Sportsman’s Holiday Chips ’n’ Splinters show. Seven ladies competed for the title of “Miss Chips ’n’ Splinters.”
Trudy Adams was named Sportsman’s Holiday queen, crowned and seated in the royal throne by Hobert McQueary, president of the Sweet Home-East Linn Chamber of Commerce.
Until the 1970s it was held in August and September. It moved to July during the 1970s.
“When I was a kid, I remember greased pig races,” Burcham said. Over the years, the community festival has had a wide variety of related events, from boat racing and the Calapooia Roundup and Sweet Home Rodeo to the Logger Olympics and the Chips ’n’ Splinters variety show and a kiddie carnival.
Other events and features included a kangaroo court that enforced a dress code during the festival, a log truck rodeo, concerts, a buckaroo breakfast, a square dance jamboree, a festival dance and a pioneer picnic.
This year, the festival included the Chips ’n’ Splinters show on Friday evening, with proceeds from the event going to the Boys and Girls Club.
It raised approximately $4,000 for the club, including sponsor donations, said director Shirley Austin. “I thought it went very well.”
The Sportsman’s Holiday Court kicked off the show with individual dances based on the “All Around the World,” theme.
Among performers were Hannah Wible performing Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” and a stand-up comedy routine; Roger Sherman playing guitar and performing “Blue Hawaii,” “Take Me Back to Sorrento” and “What a Wonderful World;” and the Soggy Bottom Boys, Ron Sharrah, Jim Heimbuck and Charlie Williamson performing “Man of Constant Sorrow.”
Saturday, the Boys and Girls Club won the Grand Sweepstakes and the Sportsman’s Holiday Court’s Choice Awards in a 24-entry parade.
“It went really good,” said Sandi Lovely, a volunteer with the Chamber of Commerce. “We had a lot of people show up, a lot of people lining the streets. Overall I think it went pretty well.”
“I thought everything went very smoothly,” said Karla Hogan, a member of the chamber board. “I thought there was a great amount of spectators.”
She tried to get by as many events as possible, she said, and she saw a lot of shoppers at the craft fairs and bazaars.
Down the road, loggers competed in numerous events during the Working Logger Olympics held at the Sweet Home Events Center, 4000 block of Long Street.
CTS, Inc., successfully defended its title in a field of eight contenders in the logger relay. CTS finished the four-part relay in 1:28.06. The four parts of the relay are power saw, obstacle pole bucking, choker setting and hook tender.
Team members were Joe Batchelor, Christian Keeney, KC Cates and Willy Sieg.
“It went great,” said Milt Moran, an organizer and longtime announcer for the event. “We had 81 contestants. It was a very successful event, and everybody had a good time, pretty happy with the results. Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves.”
Full Logger Olympics results will appear in next week’s edition of The New Era.
In the evening, the new Sweet Home Oregon Coalition for the Arts and Scholastic Enrichment (SHOCASE) hosted a street dance in the City Hall parking lot.
About half a dozen participants danced to a variety of music provided by Christie Randolph and Thomas Wisherd with Robert Fisk’s Northwest Karaoke and DJ Services. Bigfoot Burger, which is taking over management and renaming Mr. Lucky’s Deli, provided food, and Terra Bunn (Patti Burchell) provided face painting for children.
Due to the low attendance, SHOCASE organizers will discuss other ideas for next year’s festival.
At the same time, people gathered at Foster Lake for the annual Sportsman’s Holiday fireworks display provided at dusk by the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District Volunteer Association.
Sunday morning, Cera Hartness was feeling nostalgic as the Sweet Home Events Center once again welcomed horses to the field. The events center served as the grounds for the Sweet Home Rodeo until 2011. The rodeo was canceled in 2012.
The former Sweet Home Rodeo Queen was among more than 20 riders with horses participating in the new Open Gaming Play Day, organized by the Rhinestone Riders 4-H club.
They competed in four age divisions in six timed events.
“In many ways I could say going back to so many memories could make me sad, but they are memories I will always cherish,” Hartness said. “I even got to park under the same tree my family and I always camped under for the rodeo. Riding today at the Sportman’s Holiday play day was a blessing. My mare Sadie was in an accident that should’ve left her permanently unable to be ridden again. Riding on such a special horse at such a special place means much more to me than a blue ribbon. Ten years since I’ve ridden in that arena, and I couldn’t be happier to be back.”
“Things went better than we expected for being the first time,” said Roseanne James. She and the Rhinestone Riders organized the event, and Rhinestone Riders did not participate. The riders were all other community members.
“We didn’t have any that I know of pre-registered,” James said. “So we were very glad. We were very pleased with so much unknown.”
She said the group received a lot of good feedback.