Hello. My name is Kera Bentz, I am the 18-year-old dairy ambassador on the Juniata Dairy Promotion Court. I have participated on the dairy court for six years now, and every year since I have learned and grown a passion for the dairy industry. My journey started in 2019 as a 13-year-old dairy maid. Having very little background in dairy beforehand, I lacked knowledge of the industry. I did get lucky though as I had a wonderful team of mentors who helped me learn more about the industry and its importance to our community.

My first year as a dairy maid, I accompanied our dairy princess at the time, Faith Berrier, to numerous dairy promotions, including handing out ice cream at schools and community events, handing out ribbons at our county fair dairy show and reading children’s books about dairy at daycares. Along with that I was able to attend the state dairy promotion mini seminar where I was able to learn how to answer consumer questions, proper dress code for events, public speaking tips and general dairy knowledge. This event was my stepping stone into the dairy world. After my first year, I really grew an interest in dairy and wanted to learn more. This was also the point when the court stopped having a dairy princess and promotions were tasked to younger court members and myself. Throughout the rest of my years, I continued to learn as I did more promotions on my own or with other court members while adding new promotions to my resume, including giving speeches at the Holstein Banquet and going to state dairy promotions such as Farm Show, Ag Progress Days and even going to Hershey Park and playing trivia games. These state events allowed me to make many connections and meet with all the state dairy royalty and along with this came a goal. A goal that at some point in my dairy career I wanted to be the dairy princess and run for state princess. Since then, I have taken every learning opportunity about dairy; taken many speech and presentation classes to learn how to teach people about dairy and even started working on a dairy farm to understand from a farmer perspective of taking care of a dairy farm. I currently work on a 100-head dairy farm and lease cows for show purposes.

To sum up my experiences, going to schools, daycares, community events and our county fair is something I look forward to everyday. I appreciate the opportunities I have and what I have been given through being on the dairy court, and even when my time on the court is over and I wear my dairy sash and crown for the last time, I will never stop advocating for the dairy industry because it is important. Dairy provides food to millions of people every day and the hard work that goes into it should not go unnoticed. The dairy industry affects everyone whether you’re the farmer that produces the products or the consumer who eats it. Appreciate the industry that gives you nutritious and delicious foods to add to your dining table.