WELLSBORO — Miss Cameron County, Miss Port Allegany and Miss Smethport are among the 26 Laurel Queen candidates vying for this year’s title at the 79th Annual Pennsylvania State Laurel Festival.
Miss Kaelee Mae Bresslin is representing Cameron County High School and her community. She is the daughter of Mandy Songer of Emporium and Ryan Bresslin of Austin.
Bresslin was on high honor roll and graduated third in her class, was Envirothon team captain and a Spanish Club and student council member. Bresslin was president of both clubs her senior year.
She was a four-year member of the varsity basketball, volleyball and track and field teams and lettered in all three sports.
Bresslin scored 1000 points as a senior basketball player, making her the fifth leading scorer in girls’ basketball history at her school.
In track and field events, Bresslin competed in javelin,100m hurdles, 300m hurdles and high jump. As a senior she earned the most field points in track and the girls track team was this year’s NTL champions.
This fall, Bresslin will be in the accelerated physician assistant program at Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pa. Her career goal is to become a physician assistant and work in dermatology.
Miss Mallory Causer is representing Port Allegany High School and her community as a Pennsylvania State Laurel Queen candidate.
She is the daughter of Melissa Causer of Port Allegany and Martin Causer of Annin Township.
Causer was on the golf team and lettered each year; was a four-year member of the Varsity Club and president as a senior; was a four-year member of the Entrepreneurship Club, French Club (vice president as a senior) and Chamber Singers.
She played basketball from the fifth through twelfth grades, lettered as a junior and senior, and was captain as a senior.
In her sophomore year, Causer performed at Carnegie Hall with the chamber singers and as a soloist with the concert choir at Disney World.
As a senior, she was selected as homecoming queen and for the prom court.
This fall, she will attend Pennsylvania State University’s Behrend Campus in Erie to major in pre-medicine. Her career goal is to become a physician.
Miss Kaleigh Sanderson is representing Smethport Area Junior-Senior High School and her community.
She is the daughter of Debra Meyers of Hamlin Township.
Sanderson was a member of her school’s concert choir, concert band and marching band, which performed at Disney World when she was a freshman. As a sophomore, junior and senior, she was in show choir and a cheerleader on the varsity squad. In her junior year, she was a member of Peer Helpers and was a peer tutor.
This fall, Miss Sanderson will attend the pre-physical therapy program at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. Her goal is to earn a bachelor’s degree and become a traveling pediatric physical therapist.
At 2 p.m. Saturday, the candidates will ride on “Nessmuk” themed floats in the Laurel Festival Parade.
The crowning of the 2021 Pennsylvania State Laurel Queen will take place at 6:30 p.m. on the stage in the Deane Center’s Coolidge Theatre.
