by Tom Chillemi –
Courtney Harrow was crowned Queen of the 65th Urbanna Oyster Festival and Kayleigh Carias was crowned Little Miss Spat at the Urbanna firehouse on Friday, Nov. 4.
As the 2022 Urbanna Oyster Festival Queen, Courtney received a $5,500 college scholarship and received a $250 scholarship for having the overall best community service project, and a $250 scholarship for the academic achievement award.
As the 2022 Little Miss Spat, Kayleigh Carias received $150.
Gracie Wynberry was the Queen first runner-up and received a $4,000 college scholarship.
Makayla Seamster was the Queen second runner-up and received a $3,000 college scholarship.
As the first runner-up in the Little Miss Spat competition, Piper Gill received $100.
Lucy Myers was second runner-up in the Little Miss Spat competition and received $50.
The foundation of this competition is character building and community service. Each Queen contestant must volunteer a minimum of 25 hours benefiting Middlesex County. This year’s Queen and Spat contestants volunteered well more than the required time, completing over 251 hours and donating more than $12,100 for the betterment of this community.
The other 2022 Queen contestants were Sara Hale and Abigail Smiley; and the other Little Miss Spat contestants were Julianna Gobush, Olivia Payne, and Finley Welch. (One queen contestant dropped out leaving a Little Miss Spat contestant that was paired with queen contestant Abigail Smiley.)
The Queen contestants were judged in five areas. These include:
- Individual community service project.
- Individual judges’ interview.
- Academic achievement.
- A spontaneously written response to a random question.
- Overall participation in the competition.
Community service
The Queen contestants are judged separately from the Little Miss Spat contestants.
However, as it turned out, Courtney Harrow and her Little Miss Spat contestant Kayleigh Carias worked together in the community this summer to raise money and awareness for Alzheimer’s disease. Courtney lost her grandmother to Alzheimer’s disease in 2017 and wanted to help the organization find a cure by raising money.
Courtney discovered the perfect opportunity to raise money for the organization through an Alzheimer’s promotion of “The Longest Day,” which is celebrated on June 21 on the summer solstice, the day with the most sunlight, but runs from May to the end of July.
It is a global call-to-action event for people to help raise money to find a cure for Alzheimer’s.
This event was the perfect opportunity for Courtney and Kayleigh to raise money and awareness for their cause and gave them the chance to meet some amazing people from the Alzheimer’s Association.
Beginning their events, the pair organized a kids’ half-mile fun run followed by a 5K run/walk to end Alzheimer’s at Middlesex High School’s Syd Thrift Sports Complex in Saluda, where they held a bake sale as well. They had prizes for the kids half-mile run, and Courtney created medals for the first, second and third place runners for each age group and gender.
With the guidance of teacher Matthew Short, she was able to complete approximately 36 medals over the span of four days. John Gordon, the owner of Chick-fil-A in Gloucester, donated 20 sandwich or nugget gift certificates for the kid participants.
Next, Courtney and Kayleigh prepared an auction and spaghetti dinner event. Courtney created a Facebook group where Kayleigh and she would post the auction items businesses had donated to their cause. Their auction was conducted online for a period of time and then conducted in person at Lower Middlesex Volunteer Fire Department in Deltaville, where they prepared and served spaghetti dinners. They visited many local and surrounding businesses from Middlesex and Gloucester counties, including Urbanna and Kilmarnock, and by the end of their journey had more than 30 donations.
In July, they conducted an informational session, dinner, and bake sale at Something Different restaurant, where two Alzheimer’s representatives educated guests on the disease. The restaurant served the guests a barbecue dinner, as Courtney and Kayleigh managed their bake sale and had informational pamphlets available. They handed out the remaining baked goods to the residents and staff at the Saluda Riverside Convalescent Center the next day they volunteered.
Courtney and Kayleigh dug deeper into their community and wanted to help local Alzheimer’s patients. Local 7-Elevens and the Horn’s Ace Hardware allowed Courtney and Kayleigh to set out donation jars for supporters to donate for their cause.
They also conducted a bake sale at the Middlesex County Sports Complex and used money from other bake sales and donation jars to purchase items for local Alzheimer’s patients at the Saluda Riverside Convalescent Center. The money raised for the Riverside Convalescent center was used to purchase craft items for the residents, which included some Alzheimer’s patients.
Courtney and Kayleigh spent several days working on different crafts they purchased for the residents, helping them paint, color, and build the different crafts they brought. They got to experience many different aspects of the nursing home and had many conversations with the loving residents. On July 4, Courtney and Kayleigh created Fourth of July cards and baked goodies for the residents at the convalescent center. They walked through the facility visiting rooms and bringing smiles to everyone.
Fundraising
They raised more than $4,100 in the entirety of their fundraiser to give back to the Alzheimer’s organization and Alzheimer’s patients in the community.
Courtney and Kayleigh thank all of the following businesses and people for the generous donations, help, and support through their project — Urbanna Market, Deltaville Market, Food Lion, Piankatank River Golf Club, Hurd’s Hardware, Rivah Time Boutique, M&M Building Supply, YMCA, Vashti’s, NNK Popcorn Bag, Up South, Marshall’s Drug Store, Bristow’s Store, Chick-fil-A, A Moments Peace, Horn’s Ace Hardware, Dano’s, Mi Jalisco, Salon By The Bay, Debbie’s, Cafe By The Bay, River Birch, Madison, Douglas, John Gordon, Matthew Short, Kayleigh’s parents, Courtney’s parents and Courtney’s brother, Andrew Harrow.
Learning
What Courtney enjoyed most about the competition was being able to spend time with her spat, Kayleigh, and learning more about Alzheimer’s. Courtney and Kayleigh made countless memories at playgrounds, the splash pad, and jamming to music in the car. She could not have been more grateful for the time they spent together.
Madison, an Alzheimer’s representative, showed Courtney many ways to help educate herself and her community, and helped guide her learning of the disease. She was so glad to have had this opportunity to make an impact on the organization and her community.
School
Courtney, a senior at Middlesex High School, has played on the softball and volleyball teams since eighth grade. She attends Chesapeake Bay Governor’s School and is a member of the National Honor Society and Spanish Honor Society. During her rising sophomore year she worked at J&W Seafood in Deltaville and junior year she worked at Bethpage Camp-Resort Poolside Cafe. During her rising senior year she began working at
Bethpage Cafe, and The Table restaurant in Deltaville.
Courtney maintains above a 4.0 grade point average. She has been awarded director’s list recognition every semester at Governor’s School and all A’s honor roll every nine weeks at the high school. She will be obtaining her associate degree from Rappahannock Community College (RCC) at the end of the school year. She plans to attend Randolph-Macon College to pursue a degree in Nursing. Her long-term goal is to become a nurse practitioner at Riverside Hospital.
Courtney is the daughter of Jennifer and Gregory Harrow, granddaughter of Diane and Garland Harrow, and granddaughter of the late Jo and Dwight Wood.
Kayleigh Carias, Courtney’s Little Miss Spat, is the daughter of Kelley and David Carias, granddaughter of David and Charlene Williams, and the granddaughter of Ramon and Mariline Carias. Kayleigh enjoys playing outside, arts and crafts, baking cakes, listening to music, and spending time with friends and family. When she grows up she wants to be a teacher, baker and dress designer.
