Tehama County Fair royalty crowned

At the age of 8 years old, Monica Day lost use of her right arm and hand.

On Thursday, at the age of 16, she was crowned 2012 Miss Tehama County.

"She has had a lot of challenges to overcome," said Day's aunt, Jeannie Garton. "But she has overcome every one of them and tonight is proof of that fact."

Day, of Red Bluff, the daughter of Ronnie and Marcie Day, won the Miss Tehama County Scholarship Program judges over with her poise, singing talent, academic achievements, community service, speaking abilities and personality. Former state Sen. Doug LaMalfa served as one of the judges.

"I didn't really expect to win," Day said. "And when they called my name, I thought I was being punked or something. I just couldn't believe it was true."

She believes her win is further proof if you want to do something you can do and never let someone tell you that you can't.

Two Corning girls who were contestants in the event didn't go away empty handed. Krista Mae Lucier, 19, was selected as Miss Tehama County first alternate, and 18-year-old Tina Acosta was crowned Miss Congeniality.

"This is great," said Acosta. "We are best friends who did this for fun, and we are really happy with the way things turned out."

Kayla McCoshum, 16, of Red Bluff, was crowned Miss Tehama County second alternate.

During the competition, each girls performed a talent, answered an extemporaneous question and introduced their community advocacy.

Day did a wonderful job singing "Mr. Sandman," and said her community advocacy is mentoring children. In fact, along with winning the crown, Day won the event's Jenna Brewer Community Service scholarship.

Ernesto Miles Leyva, 17, of Red Bluff, the lone competitor for the 2012 Tehama County Ambassador title, was also honored with the Academic Achievement scholarship and the Jennifer Williams Talent scholarship.

The first official duties of the newly crowned court will be to reign over the rest of the Tehama District Fair, which is in its third day today and closes Sunday night.

One of the fair's highlights start at 10 a.m. today as hundreds of 4-H, FFA, and independent club members will be selling their lambs, pigs, steers, rabbits, goats and poultry at the Tehama County Junior Livestock Auction.

The auction is the completion of these youths' countless hours of raising, training, feeding, cleaning and preparing their animals in an effort to become champions and make a little cash.

Andrew Turri, 15, of Corning High School FFA will be selling his Market Class first-place Red Angus steer today.

"This is the sixth year I have shown and sold a steer at the fair," Turri said. "I'm pretty pleased with how well I've done so far this year."

Another Corning youth to be selling at the auction is Dakota Deines, a 16-year-old Corning High School student, who has raised a lamb. This is the first time Deines has ever brought an animal to the fair, and he said it has been a rewarding challenge.

"I've learned animals are a lot more work that I had figured," Deines stated.

His friend Tucker Carter, 16, of Corning's FFA, is an old hand at raising animals.

"For the past five years I raised and sold steers at the fair, but this year I decided to raise a lamb. We'll just have to wait and see how I do at the sale to find out if this was a good choice or not," he stated.

Other highlights of the Tehama District Fair include the carnival rides, midway games, food of a vast variety, a lion exhibit and show, rodeo, destruction derby, corndog eating contest, art and craft exhibits, and much more.

Tonight's live entertainment will be provided by the Inside Strait Band starting at 9 p.m. at the midway stage, and tomorrow's entertainment starts at 7 p.m. with the Fiesta Latina dance.