Cover Girls Compete In Four
Events, Thursday Night

 

by: Bobby McDonald

 

After having survived the difficult Tractor Driving Contest, on Tuesday night, the seven Cover Girl contestants were back at the Hopkins County Civic Center, Thursday night, to compete in four more events. The events included bottle feeding a baby calf, hand milking a cow, saddling a horse and mounting, and the ever dreaded, cutting up a chicken. "The cutting up of a chicken is a skill that most Cover Girl contestants are doing for the first time in their lives," explained 2006-07 Cover Girl, Helena Wall. "Most of us just don't cut-up many chickens and many times, when you ask your mother, she doesn't even know how. However, you can always go to your grandmother or some elderly neighbor and they can tell you exactly how it is done!"

 

 

"There are eleven different pieces that you need to have, when you get your chicken cut-up," explained Cover Girl Coordinator, Tracy Dennis. "In the day and age of fast food, it becomes a challenge to learn the parts of a fryer and how they are suppose to be cut. I think everyone, even in the audience, breath a sigh of relief, when the last girl gets her chicken completed."

 

 

 

 

The night began with each girl "getting friendly" with a Jersey milk cow, that was provided by the Koon Jersey Farm, of Brashear. Girls were given a milk bucket and encouraged to get as much milk as possible during the allotted time. The volume of the milk was measured and the girls placed according to the amount they had in their bucket.

 

 

Then, the milk was poured into calf bottles and each contestant was given one. A Jersey baby calf waited each contestant and the quicker you could encourage your calf to drink, the better you placed in the contest. Some of the contestants were seen "begging" their calf to drink, while others had a greedy calf that drank the milk quickly.

Once the bottles were empty, contestants moved on to the third event of the evening, as they were required to saddle and mount a horse. Don Meeks, of Como, provided the horse, that endured the current Cover Girl and seven contestants saddling him and mounting. Contestants received penalties for not getting the blanket straight enough to cover the horse's withers, or not placing their feet correctly in the stirrups.

 

 

 

 

They brought kitchen knives, axes, machetes, and just about every cutting instrument imaginable and with fortitude and determination, each girl "tackled" the task of cutting-up her chicken. A cheer went through the crowd when the last contestant, Ariel Darden, got her chicken finished and no one had cut a finger or had an accident.

 

 

Cover Girl contestants had a busy day on Friday, when they were to attend all of the many events at Fall Festival, where they were to serve as ambassadors to the many guests that were exhibitors and attending the Fall Festival. Each girl is required to get a sheet of signatures from all of the many, many activities associated with Fall Festival. "This encourages the girls to be outgoing and to meet and greet those who attend all the events," explained Dennis. "We want our Cover Girl to be someone who is comfortable with meeting people and serving as an ambassador for Hopkins County!"

The new Cover Girl will be crowned following the naming of the World Champion Stew Cooks, on Saturday, from the Coca-Cola Sound Stage.

 

 

 

Best of Luck to all of
our Cover Girl Contestants!!!

 

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