Greetings Williams Lake and surrounding areas! My name is Kyra Stuart, Miss M.H. King Excavating Ltd. I am thrilled and excited to be taking part in the 2013 Williams Lake Stampede Queen competition.
I am 17 years old, and born and raised in Williams Lake. My family settled in the Chilcotin almost 100 years ago, it’s safe to say I’ll always call the Cariboo home.
I graduated from Columneetza Secondary last year and am now upgrading and looking forward to starting my nursing degree next year at Thompson Rivers University.
After spending some time volunteering in the Save-On pharmacy and at the hospital, I am I have found my niche in helping others. My family is close knit and my parents, brother, sister and I enjoy camping and rodeos. It’s something we all enjoy and it gives us that little bit of time together to just breathe. No phones, no computers, just us.
With so many different lakes, rivers or rodeos to take in, who knows where you’ll find us throughout the summer. We also enjoy family vacations abroad. We’ve visited Jamaica and Cuba and have plans to continue this family tradition.
As a little girl I had the opportunity to compete in the local gymkhanas. But as we grew and got busier with school and my parents with work, we had to make the hard decision to let go of our horse. This last few months have been very exciting for me as we are now the proud owners of Ace, a five-year-old Appaloosa gelding. He’s giving me quite the refresher course in horse maintenance, and riding! There’s nothing more relaxing than shovelling out a stall at -15C.
I believe that participating as a Stampede Queen contestant will be a mark in my life that I will always be able to look back on and remember fondly as a learning and growing experience. I have been to the Stampede nearly every year of my life. In the early years, I was there with my mom and family anxiously awaiting the bull riding so we could cheer on my dad from the stands. As the years went by, I took notice of the royalty each year and told myself that one day that’s going to be me. And here we are.
A huge hug and thank you to my sponsor Mike and Myles King of M.H. King Excavating Ltd. and to my family for all of their love and support. I wish my fellow contestants, Rachel and Karina the best of luck in the upcoming months.