14 year old Jennifer Nauss of Mechanicsburg played her heart out at the PA State Grange Annual Session Talent Festival held on Saturday, October 23^rd at the Middletown Area High School.

Best of Show winner Jennifer Nauss (second from left) with her family, mother Anna May (left), brother Andrew (second from right) and father Brad (left)

One of the highlights of the annual PA State Grange Session is the Saturday evening Talent Festival (competition).  The Best of Show winner from the adult competition goes on to the National Grange Convention to be held this year in November in Rochester, N.Y. to perform.  At the state level, the competition is broken down into three categories: Vocal, Instrumental, and Variety Acts.  This year’s competition saw three entries in the Variety Acts, two contestants in the Vocal category and three in the Instrumental category, all who played the piano.  The competitors are chosen earlier in the year from four regional competitions held around the Commonwealth.

Two years ago Jennifer Nauss competed in the Junior (up to age 14) Talent Competition at the PA State Grange Annual Session held in Washington, PA and placed second in the instrumental category for her piano recital.  This year, she competed in the adult instrumental competition (age 14 and up). She played “New England Memories” by Gayle Kowalchyk and took first in the instrumental division and “Best of Show” overall.

Not only did Jennifer win Best of Show, at least one of the three judges noted “Flawless” on her score sheet.  She beat out Sharon Kimmel of Bucks County who was declared the Runner-up of the competition.

Runner up Sharon Kimmel

Jennifer is a 10^th Grader at Mechanicsburg High School.  She is the daughter of Brad and Anna May Nauss of Mechanicsburg and she has a brother Andrew.  Jen has been taking piano lessons in the area for 9½ years.  She is a member of Valley Grange #1360 in Lewisberry, York County and was recently elected to their office of Lecturer.  She had been very active in Valley Grange’s Junior Grange until she turned 14 and graduated from the Junior Grange to the Community Grange.  Jennifer’s late grandfather, Luther Snyder was a past State Master of the PA State Grange.  She is also a member of the Mt. Zion Lutheran Church outside Lewisberry.

The Grange is a family fraternal organization dedicated to the betterment of rural America through community service, education, legislation and fellowship.  The Grange includes members of all ages from their Junior Grangers (ages 5-14), Youth Members (ages 14-35) and Regular Subordinate (Local) members (age 35 and up).  The Grange represents approximately 16,000 rural Pennsylvanians across the state.  It is the oldest agricultural organization of its kind in the United States. The National Grange (Patrons of Husbandry) began in 1867 and the PA State Grange was chartered in 1873.