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2022 Royal Court Coronation Coming Up on Friday, Feb. 4
HOLTVILLE — With the 75th anniversary of the Holtville Chamber of Commerce’s signature event, the Carrot Festival, quickly approaching, sisters Erica Thornburg, Emily Allegranza, and Sadie Allegranza recently reflected on how each being named queen has left a lasting impact on their lives.
“This experience contributes to how I go about life now, even five years after my reign,” said Sadie, who was crowned by her sister, Emily. “I will forever be thankful for the experience, and it was truly an honor to represent Holtville as Carrot Queen.”
Come this Friday, Feb. 4, three new girls will get to live the same experience as Sadie and her sisters when the 2022 Carrot Festival Royal Court is named during the Coronation/Citizen of the Year Banquet. These young ladies will hold three positions based on grade level, with the queen being in grades ninth through 12th, princesses being between sixth and eighth grades, and the junior princesses being between kindergarten and fifth grade.
The current Carrot Royal Court of Queen Alexis Piper, Princess Lexee Roeseler, and Junior Princess Brytni Valenzuela has reigned for two years, partly due to COVID. After a lack of interest in 2021 and a 2020 largely devoid of the court attending events, a decision was made to allow them to continue on.
Meanwhile, Emily and Sadie Allegranza are now 23 and 21 years old, respectively, significantly younger than their older sister, Erica Thornburg, who is 31, and all three look fondly on their time as Carrot Festival Queen. Erica took her crown in 2007, with Emily taking hers in 2016 and Sadie following in 2017.
Sadie winning the crown the year after Emily provided Emily a unique opportunity, the ability to pass her crown to her own sister. This was a defining moment for Emily, creating special memories with her sister that will last a lifetime.
“At the end of my reign, I had the privilege of crowning my little sister, Sadie, as the 2017 Carrot Queen. That was a very special moment for me,” Emily said.
Beyond just creating memories, members of the Royal Court are taught valuable life skills through the competition potential Royal Court members participate in, including ticket sales, a speech competition, and a community service project. Potential members of the Royal Court are also expected to do well in school, requiring at least a 2.0 grade-point average in order to qualify.
Life lessons continue even after winning the title, as members of the Royal Court learn how to best represent Holtville, and how to conduct themselves in a professional manner. Members of the court continue this throughout the year, participating in not only all Carrot Festival events, but in Holtville Chamber of Commerce events for the rest of the year.
While eldest sister Erica couldn’t be reached for comment, the Holtville Chamber of Commerce was able to provide a document which was written by Erica in 2020, in which she recounted her experiences being named Carrot Festival Queen 2007. In it Erica outlines the lessons she learned from her time being queen of the Carrot Festival Royal Court.
“The royalty competition was my first real opportunity in gaining skills in sales, marketing, and presenting myself in a professional fashion … The main takeaways from my experience were amplifying my college applications, building my professional resume, and the 25 percent commission that I earned from my ticket sales, which I used to buy my first car,” Erica wrote in the document.
Being a member of the Royal Court thrust the young girls participating into the limelight, making them public figures for as long as they hold their crown. For both Emily and Sadie, adjusting to this newfound attention proved challenging, since both reported being unused to having to interact with so many new people.
“Putting myself out there in the public eye was difficult because I was somewhat shy,” Emily said.
Sadie attributed her overcoming her shyness to selling tickets for the Carrot Festival, since it forced her to approach strangers in order to sell the tickets. Sadie also attributed her time management skills to her being named queen of the Carrot Festival, and her having to balance those responsibilities with commitments she already had.
Both Emily and Sadie reported being very active not only in school, but with several extracurricular activities such as 4-H, a variety of sports, and other school-related activities. Balancing all these activities, according to Sadie, taught her valuable time management skills which she still uses today.
“Making it to all of the events ready and on time is very important. On top of school, 4-H and sports, it was tricky but I managed to make time for everything,” Sadie said.
