Walkerton’s Little Royal Fair Ambassador didn’t place at the CNE pageant on the Labour Day weekend, but that’s OK?with her.

“I didn’t want to take it from someone who really wanted it,” Sabrina Clark said last week, just two days after the CNE?Ambassador of the Fairs competition in Toronto.

“To win it, you really had to love agriculture, and I?do like it, but most of the girls that placed were from farms or were going through (school) for something to do with agriculture.”

But this was the only opportunity Clark would have to compete at the all-Ontario ambassador contest, so she took it.

“You only get to go once. I had to take that opportunity,” she said, adding “I obviously wanted to do well and go further, but just going and doing it was an awesome experience,”?she said.

For the pageant, Clark had to have an interview with judges and walk out on stage and give a brief biography. The top seven contestants had to give a speech. Clark wrote hers on agriculture in Ontario, but never had the chance to give it on stage. Based on their speeches, the top three had to answer an impromptu question.

Clark said she was a “bit nervous,” but her chaperone was a former Ambassador of the Fairs winner, and was able to coach them on what to expect.

Aside from the pageant, the 70 contestants also participated in parades around the CNE?grounds, went to different seminars with speakers on volunteerism and agriculture; they even learned some self defence.

She said one of the most interesting parts of the CNE?was that it is very agriculturally-focused, but set in Toronto. “It was neat to see all the city people watch the farm animals. It was like us at the zoo. They were really excited,” she said.