SEQUIM — Four Sequim High School contestants are preparing to compete in a pageant for queen of the 116th Sequim Irrigation Festival.
As the first event leading up to the May 6-15 festival, the royalty pageant and coronation will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26, at the Sequim High School auditorium on North Sequim Avenue.
The scholarship event selects the royalty that will represent Sequim in the community and accompany the festival float as it travels around the state.
The new float will be officially rolled out Saturday, March 26, at the kickoff event at Club 7 Room at 7 Cedars Casino, a major fundraiser for the festival and the first introduction of the 2011 royalty, pioneers and parade grand marshal.
The pageant contestant are:
• Stephanie Laurie, a 16-year-old Sequim High School student, is the daughter of John and Josephine Laurie. Her sponsor is Hurricane Coffee Co.
“It’s always been a childhood dream I never let go of” to be royalty at the Irrigation Festival, she said.
• Abigail Vidals, a 17-year-old senior at the high school, is the daughter of Gerardo and Ino Vidals. She is sponsored by V&S Ace Janitorial.
“It will be a nice, cool, fun experience,” Abigail said. “I thought that for my senior year, I would go all out.”
• Marissa Haner, a 16-year-old junior at the high school, is the daughter of Jeff and Danette Haner. Her sponsor is Sunny Farms Country Store in Carlsborg.
“I thought being in the royal court would open my horizons,” she said.
• Taylor Willis, a 17-year-old high school junior, is the daughter of Vance and Sherry Willis. Her sponsor is Hi-Way 101 Diner.
“I wanted to do the pageant because it was a better opportunity to get to know the people here and represent Sequim,” she said.
Cindy Bacon is the pageant coordinator.
Advance tickets for the pageant can be purchased at Solar City, 135 W. Washington St., and Kitsap Bank, 1320 W. Washington St. General seating is $5.
Kitsap Bank is the pageant sponsor.
The Irrigation Festival celebrates the initiation, development and support of the irrigation ditches that brought water to the once-dry prairies of the Dungeness Valley, the result of the Olympic rain shadow created when the Olympic Mountains lift and separate rain clouds around the valley and to the northeast.
The theme for the 2011 festival is “One Hundred and Sweet Sixteen.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.