Enumclaw’s Elizabeth Birklid was crowned Washington State Alternate Dairy Ambassador June 19.

Melissa Cook, 18, was crowned the 2009 Washington State Dairy Ambassador. After three vigorous days of competition including speeches, outreach events and interviews, Cook was selected from a strong pool of eight contestants all vying for the crown. She represented the dairy farmers of Snohomish County as the 2008-09 County Dairy Ambassador.

Cook has been involved in 4-H, FFA and the Holstein Association and has worked on the Groeneveld Dairy for three years. She is a recent graduate of Snohomish High School where she was on the high honor roll all four years. She was also a member of the tennis and trapshooting team. She has shown numerous dairy projects and was selected to attend the 4-H National Dairy Conference. She has competed at national contests for judging and quiz bowl as well. She enjoys riding horses and running. She plans to study abroad in college and eventually become a large animal veterinarian, specializing in bovines.

As Washington State Dairy Ambassador, Cook will represent the Dairy Farmer’s of Washington promoting milk as a healthy necessity for the body’s diet.

Birklid, 19, was the 2008-09 dairy ambassador for King-Pierce counties. She will share the alternate ambassador honors with Shelby Hansen, 21, from Skagit-Island counties. They will help Cook across the state with events.

Others competing for the title were Maija Haggith from Whatcom County, Roseanna Larson from Lewis County, Emily Kytola from Clark County, Hannah Gordon from Grays Harbor and Krystal Leyendekker from Yakima Valley.