A Royally Wonderful Summer on Rice Street
Growing up I remember going to parades and seeing the princesses on the floats, I always thought it looked cool, but for a while, I was way too scared to be in front of so many people.
I remember New Brighton Royalty coming to my marketing class as a junior in high school to recruit. At that point, I was probably too busy to work it into my schedule. But the thought of trying out for royalty stayed with me.
So this spring when I noticed that the current Rice Street Royalty (RSR) were looking for women 20+ and I admittedly had some time this summer, wanted to finally try candidacy and thought I could do a lot of good in their organization I decided to apply. Additionally, I knew two of the current ladies when I applied – I went to high school with the queen, university with one of the princesses, and was fortunate enough to get to know the second princess during candidacy.
Meeting the other candidates for the first time was a unique experience in and of itself, I had never known these ladies before but we all were kind and encouraging to each other from the start.
Our first event I was largely prepared for outside of not realizing that there would be over fifty visiting royalty, countless guests, and sponsors present. Talk about being thrown in the deep end of the pool! But it was the challenge I kind of needed admittedly at the start and it was fun after all. I got to be introduced and speak in front of the crowd, plus I got the chance to sell my home-baked cookies in the dessert auction. Additionally, all of us candidates were knighted by Boreas Rex and the winter carnival royal family, which I hadn’t expected either admittedly.
The following Saturday brought a leadership seminar. Talks about community involvement and mental health as well as getting to know my fellow candidates and the RSR committee members better.
Going to another city’s coronation for the first time I didn’t completely know what to expect though admittedly I’ll warn y’all they are longer than I expected, but it was fun to see new girls crowned. It was also nice to get another chance to hang out with the candidate and current royal ladies once again though.
Later that week we were in a parade for the first time as a group! We rode the Titan truck (Prince of the North Winds) as RSR has a great relationship with their alumni and graciously made room for our group! It was fun to be in a parade in a different capacity than I had been in one previous;y. My first experience was up North in Grand Marais on the float for my grandparent’s resort during Fisherman’s picnic in Grand Marais. Over the years I was involved with my mom for political candidates’ “floats”. Then I had the chance to ride my unicycle in “floats” for Twin Cities Unicycle Club (TCUC). For TCUC it was so fun to learn the routine meet other unicyclers, and ride through a parade doing something people find fun to watch and I find fun to do.
We went to our second coronation that weekend as a group for the Kaposia Days Ambassadors. We even had our first round interview that weekend with our great judges – this was the first time we met them and talked to them – round-robin style. It was nice to have done a couple of job interviews at this point, and this interview also helped me with my subsequent job interviews.
RSR partners with Little Canada Canadian Days, and so as part of the partnership our group also helped assemble button pamphlets for the events they would be hosting in July. It was a fun evening at a lake home with the other candidates.
First, up in July was the fashion show fitting, and then the actual show – We shopped a local mall for updated looks to showcase followed by a personality outfit – which for me was made up of a youth ministry t-shirt, my swing dancing skirt, my pink leather jacket, my bag from Italy, and my favorite heels. The idea was to bring together your favorite things, and elements that display who you are, not just your favorite outfit that showed your style – as I admittedly had to clarify. Followed by a reused formal dress, for mine I wore my senior year prom dress that my mom made for me, it was fun to get to wear it again.
One of the more exciting events was the Minnesota Twins Sparkle Night – a dedicated game where royalty from all over the area show up in their sparkly crowns and even in some cases walk around the field as a parade of sorts – getting introduced on the jumbotron. I was the only candidate who was able to make it on the field due to traffic before the game among other hiccups, but it was still a treat – I had never been on a pro baseball field, and I even caught one of the baseballs being thrown during the royalty parade.
One of our fundraisers was selling buttons with the RSR logo and year as tickets to our coronation, but our other primary fundraiser was a car wash one beautiful Saturday in July. We all drove down to an auto parts store willing to host us in their parking lot on – you guessed it – Rice Street in Saint Paul, and got to work for 5 hours hosing down each car, scrubbing, rinsing, and drying. It was fun to hear at the end of it that we had raised the most ever of a RSR car wash that day!
The following Monday we drove to the the capitol building in Saint Paul for a tour of the lovely building with one of our judges. She also shared some details about some artifacts and spaces. I hadn’t been there since I was a homeschooler and my mom took my sister and I.
Next up was a lovely ladies’ lunch called Queen’s Tea, that I even got to invite my mom to join me at, it was a beautiful garden party, with yummy food brought by former royalty – we got to meet each other’s moms (and some friends), and then each of us candidates answered what was called a “fishbowl” question – a thought provoking, question about either our lives, memories, ambitions, or interests, where we did not know which question we would be asked when we walked to the front of the room. It was a good challenge for me, and thankfully I was able to put together an answer in a reasonable couple moments.
About four hours later we went to an event center to have our second interview this one was in front of a panel of the judges with each of us candidates going into the judging conference room separately to be asked questions about our experience, readiness, and other various points. I was a little anxious for this but it was a nice time to talk with the judges and be honest about my thoughts.
Our other Sparkle night was a St. Paul Saints game where all of us candidates and the currents walked the field and enjoyed the game together. We got plenty more pictures and I got the chance to ask some of the alumni a lot more questions about their experiences which was fun to hear.
The Thursday before coronation was our rehearsal evening – a chance to walk the stage in our coronation shoes, and to learn what the order of events would be as well as the staging, process, and schedule were as a whole.
The weekend brought Little Canada Canadian days one evening of events and two morning/middays. The first evening was mostly our group volunteering at the corn feed as servers, transporting freshly cooked corn, and buttering it for the guest. The second day we worked at a pancake breakfast, I sold buttons/tickets for a majority of it but I also served up beverages. Before lunch we helped with the kiddie parade through the festival grounds, and after lunch we got to look around at the classic car show as a group – so many beautiful cars were on the festival grounds to see – that said I’m excited to see the stockyard days antique car run in New Brighton this month. On Sunday we went to a pre-parade get together before lining up for the parade and heading out to the route, at this parade my familiy was on the sidelines watching for me and I was so happy I spotted them!
Monday August 1st brought the official coronation, so many visiting royalty groups showed up in support of Rice Street, a lot of ladies I had seen throughout candidacy in fact. After the current royalty, all of us candidates were escorted to the stage by the St. Paul winter carnival guards, and titans. Each of our bios were read and we answered the question: “What does being a leader mean to you?” My answer centered on looking after those who follow you, mentoring them, looking for the best in them, as well as how their talents and strengths can work with everyone elses (not my exact words that evening to be clear). After the other royalty were introduced and the outgoing royal ladies had their farewell speeches. After that it was pretty much time to line up for awards and crowns, there was a most buttons sold prize, and a Miss Congeniality Prize that us candidates voted on. The two princesses were then announced, followed by the Queen! I was so happy that both my parents, my amazing friends Laura, and my boyfriend Nick were able to come and be a part of the evening.
Even though I wasn’t crowned it was all in all a wonderful experience that I’m really glad I decided to apply for and thankful I was welcomed to officially be a candidate. I will always remember this wonderful summer, and I will always remember when the Rice Street Royalty Candidate #6 was me! 😉 What a great experience it was!
Thank you so much to the entire RSR team, and 2021-2022 royal ladies who made it a memorable, fun, and challenging learning experience, I’m thankful that I was given a chance to grow in my confidence, leadership and speaking thorughout summer and that I got the chance to try something new. Thanks to my candidacy sponsor Minnesota Fishing Company. Thanks to co-president Elaina for lending me her dress to use for coronation. And thanks to my friends and family that bought a button, came to an event, or supported me in doing this otherwise! Congrats to the newly crowned ladies: Queen Chloe, Princess Taylor, and Princess Annie! I’m truly excited for these women and am very much excited to remain friends with them!
If you’ve ever thought about applying for royalty candidacy, I hope you now know a little bit more about what to expect from the experience. I think it’s a cool opportunity for anyone of almost any age to try at least once if at all possible.
#ricestreetroyalty #strengthinsisterhood
