Palmer at the Washington County Fair Queen Pageant. Photo by Sam McIntosh

Washington County will be represented at the Iowa State Fair with the queen contest taking place this weekend.

This year’s county fair queen is Katie Palmer of the Lime Creek Limelights 4-H Club. While she is preparing for the state fair queen contest, she’s also getting ready for her freshman year at Central College, where she plans on studying elementary education with a reading endorsement. Palmer shares what sparked her interest in elementary education, “I love reading with kids and watching them learn to read themselves because they take a lot of pride in that when they can start to figure out what those words mean.”

The Iowa State Fair Queen Coronation takes place at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Anne & Bill Riley Stage at the fair. The Iowa State Fair continues through August 19th.