In The News: Two-thirds of county fair's ambassadors from Newberg

Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic 

Courtney Croft and Samantha Roff chosen to represent fair

A pair of Newberg teens are among the three youths chosen to serve as ambassadors for this summer’s Yamhill County Fair and Rodeo.

Courtney Croft and Samantha Roff graduated from Newberg High School on June 10.

“I want to demonstrate the history of Yamhill County’s youth and agriculture and to promote its future,” Croft said in a statement. “The fair brings our community together and teaches our youth lessons they can’t learn in the classroom. I want to represent my school and my county as a role model and show other students how we can achieve any goal – or dream – we constitute.”

“For the past nine years, the Yamhill County Fair is a week that I have always looked forward to and I am honored to be given the opportunity as an ambassador to represent the fair that has made my summers exceptional,” Roff said. “The fair is week-full of endless fun, best friends and horses. There is nothing about it that I don’t absolutely love …”

Croft and Roff join Erin Rush as ambassadors of the annual summer rite, slated for Aug. 3-6. Rush graduated recently from Yamhill-Carlton High School.

The trio’s main duty is promoting the fair and rodeo via appearances in parades and at festivals throughout the county, as well as speaking before various service clubs and civic organizations.

“All of the applicants would have been excellent ambassadors, but we could only choose three of these outstanding young people,” said Don Parrish, the fair board vice-chairman and a member of the panel of judges.

Croft, a member of the FFA chapter at NHS, is also secretary of the Hog Heaven 4-H Club and her fair projects are raising and showing meat goats and market hogs. She said she enjoys mentoring younger 4-H members and has served as the student representative on the Newberg School District board for the past two years.

She has competed in varsity softball for the Tigers for four years, fishes and hunts. She volunteers tutoring younger students in math and Spanish; assisted in clean-up efforts at Trask Mountain; and volunteers at Habitat for Humanity. In September she will head to Eastern Oregon University to major in agriculture and play softball. She plans a career as an agricultural safety consultant.

Roff is member of the Rocking Rowels 4-H Horse Club and has competed at the county fair and the state fair in various horsemanship classes. She was awarded the 2015 Yamhill County 4-H Member of the Year and the 2014 Yamhill County 4-H Horse “All-Around Youth” award. She was elected this year as secretary of the 4-H Horse Leaders Association, serves as a 4-H Advisory Council member, is a Yamhill County 4-H Ambassador and a Junior Fair Horse Superintendent.

Roff has participated in more than 50 community service projects from collecting coats to raising money for an African orphanage. She is captain of the NHS equestrian team, active in Key Club and a member of the National Honor Society. She plans to attend Oregon State University to study veterinary medicine.

Each Ambassador is awarded a $1,000 college scholarship, sponsored by donations from businesses and other groups from across the county. Clothing, belt buckles, photography and a parade car are also sponsored by county businesses as well as the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners.

The ambassador program is open to junior and senior high school students in Yamhill County – from a public or private high school or home school – with a GPA of 2.5 or higher. Applications are available via the fairgrounds office in January.