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A “dream come true” for the 2017 Stampede Royalty winners

Jul 16, 2017 | 8:57 AM

 

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The Cypress Centre Auditorium erupted with cheer Saturday evening as the 2017 Medicine Hat Exhibition Stampede Queen and Princess were announced. 

Lacey Palichuk was crowned Queen and  Ava Padfield was named Princess.

“Honestly I got the biggest butterflies in my stomach,” Palichuk said after hearing her name being announced. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I just won Queen.’ This is truly a dream come true.”

A series of competitions took place throughout the week in order to crown this years royalty. They competed and were scored in horsemanship, speech category, fashion, and personality. 

Personality made up half the points where judges followed the eight contestant for an entire day and rated them on a high point system from one to eight. 

Palichuk won the award for best personality, and said the honour means the world to her.

“It was a super warm feeling I got when I received  personality,” she said.  “It’s a quite an honour because all eight girls were super genuine and it was blast hanging out with all week, so it was truly an honour to win personality.”

Princess Padfield won in the speech category as well.

“It means the world to me.  This has been my dream ever since I was a little girl and to be able to be a role model for the other young people in Medicine Hat, it’s a dream come true.”

The Medicine Hat Stampede Royalty will travel around South Eastern Alberta and into Saskatchewan representing the city and the stampede over the course of the year.

Donna Kirchner, past-chair of Queen Committee said “they are absolutely incredible ambassadors promoting rodeo as well as the city and the exhibition.”