Butler County Dairy Princess Sydney Rasp, 17, of Evans City stresses the importance of dairy farmers and the benefits of dairy products during appearances throughout the county.

Butler County is filled with a variety of people doing interesting things. This weekly feature offers snapshots of some of them by asking them five questions. The latest installment appears below.

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October is cheese month, and Butler County Dairy Princess Sydney Rasp is getting ready to make lots of appearances throughout the county.

While she didn't want to be a dairy princess, her advisers in Butler County 4-H knew Sydney would be a great candidate to represent the dairy farmers.

“I wouldn't do it at first,” Sydney said. “I wasn't thrilled.”

Eventually Sydney saw how great the opportunity was to speak to the public about the dairy industry and decided to compete for the 2011-12 Butler County Dairy Princess title.

She won the title and went on to compete Sept. 24 in the 55th Pennsylvania Dairy Princess Pageant in Camp Hill.

She received honorable mention in the categories of scrapbook, poster display and radio spot.

Sydney, 17, is the daughter of Carin and Charles Rasp of Evans City.

Her father and grandfather jointly own Rasp Farms, where they have 35 Holsteins and Brown Swiss dairy cows.

She is senior at Seneca Valley High School.

QUESTION: What does a Dairy Princess do?ANSWER: A dairy princess is invited to events, and I mainly talk about the importance of dairy to your diet, how important dairy farmers are to benefit the community and the economy and how important to the environment cows are, because dairy farms are eco-friendly.

QUESTION: What's your favorite thing about being a dairy farmer?ANSWER: My favorite thing is getting to be with all the little calves. I always used to help out with the birth and my favorite part is feeding the little calves their first bottle.

QUESTION: What are you doing for October since it is cheese month?ANSWER: I plan to have a lot more recipes that have cheese in them and when I go to events talk about how important cheese is for your teeth and bones and pass out ‘Ahh the power of cheese' pencils.

QUESTION: What's your favorite kind of dairy product?ANSWER: My favorite kind of dairy is Colby Jack cheese. I like to make quesadillas with taco shells and you sprinkle all the cheese on top.

QUESTION: How do your friends feel about you being a dairy princess?ANSWER: They are understanding of it completely. It might be a pain in the butt and it might be hard sometimes when they want to hang out and I have promotions to do, but they understand.