This year there are seven queen contestants, each of whom has at least one Little Miss Spat contestant. (A spat is a baby oyster.)
The 2024 Queen contestants and their Little Miss Spat contestants, in alphabetical order, include:
- Hailey Bruce and Leah Fuccella
- Anna Crown and spats Holden Sweeden and Charlee O’Bryan.
- Elena Fomin and Josie Anton
- Zikirah Morris and Felicity Acevedo
- Kayleigh Moye and Rosie Robertson
- Karli Parker and Monroe Hudnall
- Cheyenne Sears and Scarlett Ebinger
The Sentinel is running stories on the contestants as they are submitted.
Anna Crown, Holden Sweeden and Charlee O’Bryan
Urbanna Oyster Festival Queen contestant Anna Crown and her Little Miss Spat contestants Holden Sweeden and Charlee O’Bryan raised stroke awareness and funds for handicap amenities at public places in Middlesex County. Specifically, their project work since this past spring targeted awareness for younger generations regarding the symptoms of a stroke and the actions to take when one occurs.
This project is in honor of Anna’s grandmother, who suffered a severe stroke while babysitting Anna. As a 7 year old, Anna saved her grandmother’s life with her previous knowledge that she learned from her grandmother, a nurse, of the symptoms and how to respond during such a medical emergency. This experience inspired Anna to help younger generations understand what to do in case they are ever in a similar situation.
Queen contestant Anna Crown of Wake is the daughter of Michelle and Bubbie Crown, granddaughter of Rochelle Payne and the late Bobby Payne and Mary Almond and the late John Crown.
She is a senior at Middlesex High School. She enjoys spending time with her friends, family, and animals, as well as baking and playing tennis. She volunteers with the Colonial Seaport Foundation as an educator raising knowledge about maritime history.
She is also a student representative at the Middlesex County School Board meetings. She plans to attend college to study education and become an elementary school teacher. Her favorite part of competing was spending time with her Little Miss Spat contestants, sharing the honor of local service with them and making a difference in the community.
Little Miss Spat contestant Holden Sweeden of Hartfield is the daughter of Tasha and Jessica Sweeden; and the granddaughter of Mike and Lupe Sweeden and Alfis and Pam Jones.
She enjoys going to the beach, making art, and playing soccer. When she grows up, she wants to be a lifeguard and Lego engineer. Her favorite part of competing was helping make cake pops for the Urbanna Farmers Market bake sale with Anna and Charlee.
Charlee O’Bryan of Topping is the daughter of Heather Killian, and the granddaughter of the late Barbara Killian and the late Charles Akers, and Reese O’Bryan.
She enjoys riding her bike, swimming, gardening and fishing. When she grows up, she wants to be a teacher. Her favorite part of competing was spending time with Anna and Holden especially playing putt putt at Bethpage Camp-Resort.
Anna and her Little Miss Spats worked diligently on their awareness campaign at Middlesex Elementary School (MES) and at community events throughout the spring and summer. Before the end of last school year, Anna and one of her spats made posters for MES about stroke awareness. They subsequently spoke with fourth and fifth graders in the gym about the signs, symptoms and actions to take.
These students were very receptive and engaged in acting out emergency scenarios. They gained confidence and understanding of what to do. Prior to this, Anna created the Facebook page for their project, which consistently promoted awareness and all related activities, events and fundraisers.
Anna, Holden and Charlee enjoyed participating in lots of events to promote awareness and fund raise for their project. In June, they had a booth at the Urbanna Farmers Market and the Second Saturdays evening gatherings, selling homemade baked goods and sharing with the public about their project.
Holden and Charlee painted and decorated donation boxes that the three of them in turn placed at various business locations for the month of July. Anna appreciates and gives recognition to the following local businesses for this — Where the Sidewalk Ends and Marshall’s Drug Store in Urbanna, Dano’s Pizza and M&M Building Supply in Hartfield, and Hurd’s True Value Hardware and Deltaville Yachting Center in Deltaville. On each box, there was a small paragraph describing the project, awareness campaign, and reference to their Facebook page, which displayed all events.
During the month of August, Anna and her Little Miss Spats participated in and hosted numerous events. They participated in the Urbanna Founders Day, which was a good day of sharing their service project awareness and promoting events.
Their biggest event was a Nautical Trivia Night Competition and seafood dinner on Aug. 9 at the Deltaville Maritime Museum. This included a small silent auction table of generously donated local art. The following Sunday evening, their next fundraising event was a candle making and “mocktail” night at Something Different in Urbanna.
Finally, on Aug. 17, at the Middlesex Family YMCA, they hosted a doubles pickleball tournament. Anna appreciates the generous support of local businesses for the pickleball tournament as well. These local businesses received recognition on the pickleball participants’ “swag”: promotional sweat towels.
In conjunction with stroke awareness, Anna’s collective fundraising efforts, more than $5,000, went toward purchasing tangible items of need. Specifically, she bought and has installed ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant swings for the Urbanna and Deltaville public playgrounds. The rest of their fundraising is donated to the Deltaville Community Association (DCA), earmarked for handicapped access, and a sloped entry ramp for the Ricky Taylor Memorial Community Swimming Pool. Anna will continue to work directly with the DCA between now and next spring to achieve this goal.
Anna, Holden and Charlee sincerely hope this awareness benefits future stroke victims and their families throughout Middlesex, and provides easier access to fun outdoor activities for handicapped or disabled people of all ages. Besides her grandmother, Anna is close to several stroke survivors and they each have one thing in common — staying active despite their physical challenges. From this, Anna feels very strongly about the importance of this project overall and is humbled by the success of the activities and positive responses from our community.
