Photo and story by Rick Hiduk
(Also published in the Susquehanna County Independent)
Among the large number of dairy royalty at this year’s Pennsylvania Farm Show are many ambassadors, whose job it is to help the Dairy Princesses with their duties of promoting dairy to the general public. Susquehanna County Dairy Ambassador Charlotte Quick was given two opportunities to do that this week.
On Saturday, Charlotte spoke to a small but attentive crowd about raising dairy heifers and discussed common dairy breeds.
She was slated to take the stage again on Wednesday to present a shorter version of that speech and also explain to visitors the benefits of milk and other dairy products.
Charlotte already has experience promoting milk in schools, where she reads children a book about cows and helps them with a dairy related craft. This is her first year serving as an ambassador in front of the much larger and diverse Farm Show audience.
“I talk about the products that people think are dairy but really aren’t, like margarine and Cool Whip,” Charlotte explained. “Then I explain the benefits of real dairy to them.” Part of Wednesday’s planned talk, in fact, was titled “Nine Nutrients in Milk.”
“There is more calcium in an eight ounce glass of milk than in 10 cups of spinach,” she offered as an example.
Charlotte is the daughter of William and Allison Quick of Tunkhannock. She got started in 4H in Susquehanna County, where she still has family and friends and leases heifers at the Aldrich Farm in Montrose.
Of her first official Farm Show experience, she said, “You get to meet a lot of new people, and there’s a lot of animals too.” Charlotte admits to being a bit partial to the animals.