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No longer first runner up, Campbell takes the crown
Jacie Campbell named 2024 Miss Sweet 16
MT. PLEASANT — After a long week of volunteering throughout Midwest Old Threshers, Jacie Campbell could not contain her excitement as 2023 Miss Sweet 16 Charissa Wissman crowned her as the newest Miss Sweet 16.
“It was exciting,” Campbell said after her win. “It wasn’t like it was something I was begging for, but I wanted it in the sense that this is my grandma’s dress.”
Campbell, a student from Mt. Pleasant, is the daughter of Jason and Melissa Campbell, and her roots with Old Threshers and Miss Sweet 16 go deep. According to Campbell, at least seven of the women in her family have competed in the contest and none had placed until now.
“I thought it would be so exciting to be the first one to place,” Campbell said. “To be Miss Sweet 16 is even better, because I wouldn’t have expected that, that’s for sure.”
While the Campbell family have a solid history with the Miss Sweet 16 program, Jacie says she didn’t really start volunteering on the grounds until she was about 12-13 and could get herself there. Throughout the entirety of her volunteering with Old Threshers, Campbell has put in over 100 hours of work.
“Jacie was our strongest presenter during our board meeting,” Miss Sweet 16 Coordinator Danielle Davidson said. “During our dinner with the board of directors, she was not scared whatsoever to make conversation with anybody. She jumped in, interacted as a group, interacted on the side, and even had a 45-minute conversation with our horse director.”
Davidson commended Campbell on her ability to balance her FFA duties at Old Threshers with her 15-hour volunteer days for Miss Sweet Sixteen. Campbell says she loved the whole experience, especially as an “Ag Girl.”
“Everything in my life is agriculture related,” Campbell said. “My favorite part about this week was exchanging experiences in agriculture with all the new people that I met.”
This is not the first contest of this kind for Campbell as she has participated in the Henry County Fair Queen contest many years and always walked away with first runner up, including this year.
“It’s funny because we had a long-running joke that I was going to get first runner up,” Campbell said with a laugh.
Alongside Campbell Zenlynn Lee, from Mt. Pleasant, also impressed the judges and earned the title of 2024 Miss Volunteer. According to Davidson over the course of her volunteer career at Old Threshers Lee has served 311 hours.
“She's polite. She volunteered 15 hours a day. She likes to stay busy,” Davidson described Lee, “She's the first one in the morning that would say good morning, the last person at night that say good night, asked if I needed anything, took out the trash. I never had to give her directions. She bailed me out when I made a really dumb mistake …”
The rest of the 2024 Miss Sweet 16 court includes First Runner Up Meadow Carter of Mt. Pleasant and Second Runner Up Roma Bride of Macomb, Illinois.
Comments: AnnaMarie.Kruse@southeastiowaunion.com
