Caitlin Maust crowned 2022 Ohio Swiss Festival’s queen
2021-22 Ohio Swiss Festival Queen Kayla Gerber’s time as head royalty is winding down while newly crowned Queen Caitlin Maust awaits her chance to visit Ohio and represent her festival and community in the coming year.
While the Swiss Festival may have taken place Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, the newly elected royalty will not take over and begin their reign until Jan. 1.
Thus, 2021-22 Queen Kayla Gerber will have two more months to enjoy her crown before newly crowned Caitlin Maust assumes the throne.
The two enjoyed all the festivities of the annual Ohio Swiss Festival weekend, and Gerber even showcased her Swiss outfit in directing the Garaway High School marching band at the Friday night football game.
She said she will cherish her final two months serving as queen and has experienced plenty of thrills and joy in the past year as she traveled all over Ohio to festivals and events, representing her festival and community.
“I loved the travel, and I enjoyed the experience of meeting a lot of new and wonderful people,” Gerber said. “I went to tons of parades, got a lot of charms and had a terrific experience.”
She said her favorite stop was at Lorain County, where she participated in the parade at the Lorain International Festival in June. She said much like the Swiss Festival, there was plenty of pomp and circumstance around dressing up in the fashions of various nationalities and cultures from around the world. Thus, her Swiss outfit seemed to blend in effortlessly.
“That was a neat experience,” Gerber said. “There were so many cool nationalities represented, and the outfits were all different. They were beautiful and great.”
Gerber said she has grown in many ways through her experience. She said she realized being a queen and traveling to represent others is all about being a role model, both to her community and festival and in serving as someone younger girls look up to.
“I liked that I was someone these little girls aspired to be,” Gerber said. “I hope more girls here have a desire to run because it really helps you grow, helps develop the ability to speak in front of people and is an amazing experience. I am so happy to have the opportunity.”
She said the looming end is bittersweet because while it is enjoyable, the travel can be exhausting.
Gerber, a senior at Garaway High School, plans to attend college next fall, although she is still in the exploratory stage of finding the right college fit and the career she would like to pursue.
Maust, also a senior at Garaway High School, will assume her seat as queen after winning the competition, and with the win, she follows up a former reign as Little Swiss Miss.
She said after enjoying the experience of traveling Ohio festivals as the Little Swiss Miss, she was looking forward to the chance to duplicate that experience as the Swiss Festival queen.
“I think I liked the idea of representing my town and the festival since I’ve grown up and been a part of Sugarcreek my whole life,” Maust said.
Maust said she was nervous prior to the contest, but once it officially kicked off, all the nerves dissipated and she settled in and was able to perform exactly the way she had hoped.
However, she said those final few moments before they named a new queen were a bit nerve-racking.
“That moment right before they named a winner, that was pretty tense, and then I just let out this big release and took a deep breath,” Maust said. “I felt so much better.”
Maust said she was surprised she won, and she didn’t hold any expectations of doing so, all while holding hope it would be her name that would be called in the end.
She will now anticipate a year of traveling, meeting other royalty from different events and thriving in the moments that make being a queen and representing a festival and community worthwhile.
“I can’t wait to experience all of it,” Maust said. “I talked to Kayla before I ran, and she gave me a lot of pointers and helped walk me through a lot of it. She gave me tips on the speech, and that helped a lot.”
After graduating from GHS, Maust plans to attend Ohio University, where she will study biology and work toward what she hopes will be a future in optometry.