Published: September 19, 2008 10:23 am         

Apple Festival gets a queen

Ashlea Romano was crowned the 2008 Miss Apple Blossom Queen Thursday evening, opening night of the 33rd Nappanee Apple Festival.

Ashlea is a recent NorthWood High School graduate and is a freshman at Indiana University South Bend.

Six young ladies participated in this year’s pageant.

Ashlea will receive a $1,000 college scholarship. Second runner-up Rachael Hall, a junior at NorthWood will receive a $500 scholarship and first runner-up Lindsey Kaufman, a senior at NorthWood will receive a $750 scholarship. The girls also received a gift basket filled with products from local salons.

The judging was based on four categories for a total of 200 points. Those categories are biographical information and grade point average, judges’ interview, stage presence and essay.

Master of ceremonies Brad Houser, former NorthWood High School band director, returned this year and explained that the panel of three judges were also looking for who could best represent Nappanee at the county and state level and someone with a high level of communication and public speaking skills.

New to the event this year was bringing the pageant to the festival itself. Also a country western band called Bootleg played before, during and after the pageant.

There was a western theme to the pageant and the contestants were introduced wearing western gear-cowboy hats and blue jeans. That was followed by the evening gown event and the contestants each reading their 500 word essay “Why I like the Apple Festival”.

In her essay Ashlea said that community, pride, unity and excellence were words she’d use to describe the festival. She related an embarrassing costume changing moment from a year when she had moments between participating in a cheerleading event and a Dawning Generation event.

She said, “I can’t think of a better way to thank the festival and the community than to carry the title of Miss Apple Blossom with honor.”

After being crowned the queen Ashlea said she was “Speechless. I’m still shaking! It’s been a great opportunity.”

Romano said she’s never entered a pageant before and it was a great experience. She said she’s looking forward to her duties during the festival. All the pageant participants were assigned specific events. One of the events Ashlea is overseeing is the frog jumping contest and she can’t wait.