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BERRIEN SPRINGS — A pair of Brandywine High School students took home top honors at the Berrien County Youth Fair Royalty Contest.

When the dust settled, Daniel McKee and Laila Roman were crowned 2022 Berrien County Youth Fair King and Queen Friday evening at the BCYF in Berrien Springs.

The event served to officially kick off BCYF festivities. In addition to King and Queen, Prince and Princess titles were awarded by a panel of judges.

McKee has been attending the fair for as long as he can remember and will be showing one market rabbit and show still exhibits, including bump cake and other cakes.

“This is exciting,” McKee said. “It’s gonna be a fun week getting to go to all of the exhibits and barns. I’ve been coming to the fair for 16 years and I’ve never made it to all of the barns in one week, so it’ll be fun to jam pack it all into one week and make it to every show.

Being crowned Queen was sweet for Roman, who moved to Niles from the Detroit area when she was 10 years old. Since then, she has found her home in the Niles community.

“I found my place here,” she said. “This was the first place where I really felt at home. I really felt like I had a family after the move so definitely like such a positive place for me.”

This year, Roman will be showing a wedding bouquet as well as a fresh corsage, events she has earned grand champion honors previously. Roman is a senior at Brandywine and is also a drum major in the Brandywine High School Marching Band.

“August is always my busiest month,” she said. “I just had band camp and now I have the fair this week.”

Roman is proud to represent Niles as BCYF royalty.

“It symbolizes that no matter where we come from, we can come together and we can all be a family and unit, and that’s so important to me.”

2022 Berrien County Youth Fair Royalty

Queen – Laila Roman

King – Daniel McKee

1st Runner Up Queen – Abby Lomoro

1st Runner Up King – Tyler Miller

Princess – Gemma Richards

Prince – Cameron Whitson