VIDEO: WATCH HER BE CROWNED | Meet the final outer East Portland 2023 Portland Rose Festival Princess for this season – Lilly Santangelo St. Martin …
Students and staff make their way into the Library at Leodis V. McDaniel High School, there to learn who will be their ambassador to the 2023 Portland Rose Festival.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Although the sky was dark, overcast, and threatening to rain on Thursday, March 23, the lighting inside the Leodis V. McDaniel High School Library made a cheery setting for the Portland Rose Festival Princess Announcement.
Some of the library’s tables had been pushed away from the center of the space to create an area for the ceremony.
The announcement was originally scheduled for the Wednesday of the previous week, after school, which would’ve allowed for more students to attend; classes were in session during 1:45 p.m. the announcement program, so many students could not attend.
Watch this brief-but-delightful ceremony, as Leodis V. McDaniel High School learns who their 2023 Portland Rose Festival ambassador will be during the celebration:
“These two candidates are wonderful! In fact, each is perfectly representative of our student body,” remarked McDaniel Vice Principal Travis Johnson before it got started.
“Both of them are caring and are hard-working,” Johnson elaborated. “These are people who love their community, and want to get back to the community; and that’s what we look for,” he told East Portland News.
Candidates Lilly Santangelo St. Martin and Lucy Shields take their seats as the program begins.
Vice Principal Johnson started the program by welcoming those present, and the Portland Rose Festival Foundation and Royal Rosarian dignitaries were introduced.
Unitus Community Credit Union “Princess Mentor” Jessica Brown gives the two Princess candidates a souvenir keepsake.
McDaniel Vice Principal Travis Johnson then announced the candidate who was selected to be the school’s 2023 Portland Rose Festival Princess – Lilly Santangelo St. Martin.
Lilly Santangelo St. Martin shows her surprise as she learns that she was the one selected to be the 2023 Portland Rose Festival Princess representing Leodis V. McDaniel High School.
2023 Portland Rose Festival Leodis V. McDaniel High School Princess Lilly Santangelo St. Martin receives her coronet from Vice Principal Travis Johnson.
After the program, Princess Lilly told East Portland News, “I’m really excited; and I hope that I can represent McDaniel well. We are a really awesome school; a real community – we’re the ‘McFamily’.
“McDaniel is a really lovely and accepting community; I found ‘my people’ here,” she added as her official photo session began.
We learned that Princess Lilly enjoys working on the school newspaper, and participates in other after school activities — including being part of the McDaniel Varsity Golf Team.
Congratulations to the 2023 Portland Rose Festival Princess representing Leodis V. McDaniel High School, Lilly Santangelo St. Martin.
She plans to attend Portland State University to earn a Bachelors and perhaps Masters Degree in the public health field. Princess Lilly’s higher education aspirations will be supported by the $3,500 scholarship awarded by The Randall Group.
Celebrate Princess Lilly at the 2023 Queen’s Coronation on Friday, June 9 at 11 a.m. in the Oregon Plaza at NE 8th Avenue and Holladay Street. For more information about the 2023 Portland Rose Festival, CLICK HERE to open their official website.
© 2023 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
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