State Fair bound

Grundy County Fair Queen Jurane Lizer reflects on her journey from Haiti to the Iowa State Fair Queen competition.
GRUNDY COUNTY – At the Iowa State Fair this year, each of Iowa’s 99 counties will send their fair queen to compete for the coveted title of ‘Queen of the Iowa State Fair.’ Each candidate will share their own story, and what makes them special, but none will have a story quite like that of Grundy County’s fair queen, Jurane Lizer.
Unlike probably any of the other fair queen candidates, Lizer was born and raised in Haiti. It wasn’t until she was 12-years-old that she traveled 2,000 miles from her homeland to take up residence at her new home in rural Grundy County after the Haitian earthquake of 2010 expedited her adoption process.
When she arrived in Iowa, she was tasked with one of the most difficult situations – trying to survive middle school. Except in Jurane’s case, she didn’t know a word of English.
Things started out slow, Jurane’s mother Deb said, but within just six months time, Jurane began to understand and speak English. By the time she entered high school at Dike-New Hartford, she had made a large group of friends, earned herself a spot on the track team, landed a job as a CNA and was accepted into Hawkeye Community College, where she will pursue a degree in Occupational Therapy.
After graduating high school in May and finalizing her plans for college, Jurane’s already busy summer became even busier when she was named the Grundy County Fair Queen. Now, Jurane will go on to compete for the crown at the Iowa State Fair Queen competition in Des Moines.
For the full story, see the August 11 edition of The Grundy Register.