Single candidate for this year's royalty contest

The Fourth of July royalty contest is a longstanding tradition in Wrangell. Each summer, candidates looking to be named "king" and/or "queen" compete in a fundraising competition to support the city's fireworks show. Last year's competition saw three competitors. This year, however, there is only one person running for queen: Abigail Gerald.

Gerald is a recent graduate of Wrangell High School. She said that she decided to run because it would be a fun way to support her community, as well as to help build up her college fund. The royalty contest raises money for the fireworks through raffle ticket sales, which the royalty candidates sell around town and at food booths they run through the month of June. According to Alicia Holder, with the chamber of Commerce, candidates get to keep about 25 percent of the ticket sales. Gerald said she has a goal of selling 100,000 tickets, which would go a long way to paying for her education at Northwest University.

"I guess you could say that you should just support the community," she said. "I'm running and you have to volunteer for that, but in reality what we're doing is raising money for the community, and providing a service for the community as well, with the food booth. I mean, support me because you're supporting the community."

Gerald has had a busy summer so far. Between graduating from high school, she has also been sending out letters of support, asking for donations for her food booth, and gathering sponsorships from local businesses. She has five sponsorships for her food booth, she said. They are Grand View B&B, 5 Star Fish, Taylor & Sons, the Stikine Inn, and Gig Decker's fishing vessel the "McCrea."

Her food booth will have a wide variety of options for people to choose from, she said, from hamburgers, fried bread, and chili dogs, as well as a daily special menu to pick food from. A full daily menu will be released in the near future, she said. Besides food, people are also encouraged to purchase tickets. Holder said they are $1 each, and help pay for the third of July fireworks, which will be held at Volunteer Park this year.

The royalty contest will have an official kickoff party at the downtown pavilion on May 31, at 6 p.m. Gerald will be running her food booth at the pavilion most days from June 1 to July 1. To learn more about the royalty contest, call the chamber of commerce at (907) 874-3901.