Above: 2012 Delaware County Dairy Princess Miquela Hanselman and Alternate Dairy Princess Cali Lutz. Photo by Chery Petersen.
On May 25, Delaware County crowned its 50th "dairy princess," 17-year-old Miquela Hanselman.
Cheryl Petersen, who writes for the Delaware County Times, was onhand at the coronation and sent us this photo of Hanselman and her royal alternate, 17-year-old Cali Lutz. Both girls attend South Kortright Central School.
Serving as the Dairy Princess isn't for the lazy. Princesses work as official dairy promotional workers all year, appearing at banks and fairs promoting the virtures of ice cream and cheese. (Franklin and NYC-based photographer Christopher Auger-Dominguez has some great shots of last year's Dairy Princess, Haley Groat, giving away ice cream at the 2011 Delaware County Fair.)
But Miquela knows what to expect.
According to the Daily Star and the Mountain Eagle, she comes from a formidable dairy princess dynasty: her mother, Barbara Hanselman, was a dairy princess in 1978, and her three sisters have also been princesses.
Here's the Mountain Eagle's account of the Hanselman family at the coronation dinner, which was held at Holiday Inn in Oneonta and was packed for the 50-year anniversary of the dairy princess program:
Barb Hanselman was also honored in a special presentation made by her four daughters. Barb Hanselman, then Barb Smith, was crowned dairy princess in 1978. All four of her daughters, with Miquela newly crowned[,] have been county dairy princess[es]; Paige Hanselman was crowned in 2005; Dara Hanselman in 2004 and Chelsea Hanselman in 2002. She has also served as county promotion chairman for more than 20 years and her parents, Don and Janice Smith, of Franklin, have supported it all. In accepting the flowers she was presented, Hanselman said she loves her life as a farmer’s wife and the work in promoting dairy. Her daughter gave an emotional speech about how her mother has supported them all as dairy ambassadors and dairy princesses over the years.
