New for this year’s annual Whitefish Oktoberfest was that the crowned Hop Queen gets to choose a charity to donate $500 to, in addition to receiving $500 in personal winnings.  

This year’s reigning Hop Queen Casey Shelton split funds between two – Code Girls United and DREAM Adaptive – and presented a $350 check to each nonprofit last week. 

"Our Hop Queens are deeply involved in our community and want to raise public awareness of our local nonprofits," said Lauren Walton, former Hop Queen.  

Shelton is a business analyst for a software company in Kalispell. She enjoys skiing, hiking and paddling the North Fork of the Flathead River. 

“I am a big nerd also. I love excel spreadsheets,” Shelton said, who’s been involved with Code Girls United by helping to volunteer teaching intro to coding every Monday.  

She hopes to get involved with DREAM this winter season as well.  

Shelton has a German heritage. Her mom’s family immigrated to Illinois in the mid 1800s. Her dad’s mother was born and raised in Germany and married an American solider during World War II.  

“Oktoberfest is something to get excited about,” Shelton said. “I was interested as soon as I moved here, about four years ago. The first year I went, I saw the stein holding and thought, I’m going to do that.”  

She even rallied support going into this year’s Oktoberfest by hosting stein holding at her office on Friday’s prior to the event.  

“My favorite thing about Oktoberfest here specifically is that it’s the start of that shoulder season. We start to breathe again and you see people that have been busy all summer again. We made it through the summer and get to look forward to ski season,” Shelton said. 

    Lauren Walton, Marianne Smith of Code Girls United and Casey Shelton present a hop queen donation check to Code Girls. (Photo provided)