Taking advantage of a bit of sunshine Tuesday, people line up for lunch outside of Charley Seddon and Hailie Davis' queen booths at the corner of Lynch and Front streets. Most every day, the two will be offering up different menu items throughout the month of June. For every three dollars spent on food and drink, patrons get one ticket for the big July 4 prize drawing.
2016 Queen Alex Angerman and 2016 Princess Kyla Teat pose together at the 2017 Royalty Kick-Off last week. The two together broke fundraising records for the annual competition, which supports Wrangell's Independence Day celebrations.
Royalty candidate Hailie Davis (at the lectern, at left) addresses a group at the July 4 competition kick-off event upstairs in the Elks on May 31. The catered reception launched a 33-day long contest between Davis and Charley Seddon, with proceeds to be divided between future Fourth festivities and their college goals.
Candidates for Wrangell's annual Fourth of July Royalty Competition kicked off proceedings in an evening event at the Elks last week.
Members of the Chamber of Commerce put together the May 31 presentation, catered by the lodge and which saw remarks from organizers and the competitors themselves, recent graduate Hailie Davis and incoming high school senior Charley Seddon.
The contest is a big fundraiser held to support July 4 festivities and to benefit the youth who are involved. "It started as a way for high school aged girls to raise money for college," explained Chamber president Christie Jamieson.
Since its start in 1950, the competition has expanded its scope to include young people of either gender, raising money for a variety of goals. In 2015 for example, a group of 16 girls ran as one candidate to raise money for their Athletic Amateur Union basketball team.
Thirty percent of what contestants raise goes back to them as a scholarship, usually helping to pay for college or some other form of higher education. A percentage also goes back to the candidates' campaign managers, usually a parent, sibling or family friend.
The competition can raise considerable sums, with contestants Kyla Teat and Alex Angerman breaking records with over 126,000 tickets sold.
"Those girls worked so hard last year that we were able to raise our winning ticket amounts this year," explained Cyni Crary, Chamber executive director.
Tickets sold by the candidates are entered into a drawing held on July 4. Drawing prizes this year will be for $5,000, $4,000, $3,000 and $2,000, which overall is $5,000 more than last year.
Seddon and Davis began their competition on June 1, running food booths on Front Street through the month and selling tickets through July 3. Additionally, the girls' teams will be holding several fundraisers, raffles and even going door to door in an effort to sell the most tickets. Whoever sells more will be crowned this year's Queen.
"A lot of preparation work goes into this royalty contest," Crary said at the kick-off event. The road ahead will be a grueling one, with many hours put in by the candidates, their family and friends. But both girls said the work would be worth it, and that the competition will be their way of thanking the community.
Updates on the contest will be kept on the http://www.wrangellchamber.org website, but the individual contestants have their own pages on Facebook. Check out "Homegrown Hailie Davis for Queen" and "Charley Seddon for Queen 2017" for daily menu details, event information, photos and more.
Reader Comments(0)