Photo by john larson
CRYSTAL DANIELS, CENTER, WITH THE OTHER PRINCESSES ENTERTAINING THE AUDIENCE.
Crystal Daniels joined 21 other girls from around Pierce County for the annual Princess Promenade on Feb. 13. The traditional kickoff to the season of Daffodil Festival events took place at Sharon McGavick Student Center at Clover Park Technical College in Lakewood.
Crystal Daniels was at the event as the princess representing Chief Leschi High School. The evening began with each girl escorted into the room by a teacher and festival representative. Crystal Daniels was escorted in by Amy Thompson, an English teacher at Chief Leschi, and Carol Gregory, a past president of the board of the Daffodil Festival.
Later each girl walked onto the stage to be presented with her tiara and golden daffodil pendant. Board President Karen Baskett did the tapping ceremony, which officially inducts each girl into the festival royalty.
The girls performed two song and dance numbers based on the theme for 2010, Carousel of Spring.
Crystal Daniels knows Wahayla McCloud, who was Chief Leschi’s princess in 2008, and was inspired to follow in her footsteps. Other girls she knows encouraged her to enter the process that selects the school’s
princess.
Crystal Daniels is quite familiar with the festival’s most famous event, the Grand Floral Parade, which runs through Tacoma, Puyallup, Sumner and Orting on a Saturday in April. She is excited to get out to some of the smaller events that will take place over the next two months.
“I am really looking forward to meeting a lot of people, going to the events and giving back to the community,” Crystal Daniels said.
One of the girls will be chosen as queen of the festival during a ceremony at Puyallup Foursquare Church on March 12.
Crystal Daniels said tribal member Ron Simchen, a long-time supporter of the Daffodil Festival, arranged to have Puyallup Tribe cover the cost for her family members to attend the
banquet.
Crystal Daniels is a member of the Aleut Tribe of Alaska. She is the daughter of Candace Daniels and Kamalani Daniels. She has attended Chief Leschi Schools since she was in fifth grade. She is co-captain of the cheerleading squad and teaches cheerleading to elementary school students through Junior Cheer Camp. She participates in culinary arts, speech and debate and Native American leadership programs. She holds a 3.5 grade-point average.
“I appreciate all the support I have gotten from everyone at school,” she said.
After she graduates from Chief Leschi, Crystal Daniels wants to attend either Washington State University or Central Washington University and major in restaurant management or psychology. The princesses receive college scholarships from the Daffodil Festival. For more information, visit http://www.daffodilfestival.net.
