One by one, 24 high school senior girls knelt on the stage last Saturday at Clover Park Technical College’s event center and were officially named this year’s Daffodil Festival Princesses.

“The heart of the Daffodil Festival is the young ladies who make up the royalty,” said Kristina Stambaugh, master of ceremonies for the event.

As the ceremony began, each girl entered the hall, one arm linked with a member of the Daffodil Festival, the other with her chosen Educator of the Year.

Educator of the Year is a title which each girl gives to one teacher she has found particularly influential.

Each princess wore a floor-length, deep golden-yellow gown, and their hair was pulled into a bun. Some wore classic styles and others had cascading and elaborate looks.

As the princesses reached the front of the room, they stood while a unique stack of academic and extra-curricular achievements were read to the audience. They ranged from Emerald Ridge Princess Katey Della-Giustina’s letters in cross country, fastpitch and wrestling, to Bonney Lake High School Princess Angela Crone’s National Honor Society membership and her time spent volunteering at a 24-hour veterinary clinic.

After each had been presented, the girls were called up to the stage by Festival President Susan McGuire. Each princess was given an official crown and had a golden daffodil on a black ribbon tied around her neck.

Then, McGuire gently tapped a sword on both of each kneeling girl’s shoulders.

“With this golden daffodil placed over your heart, I, as president of the Daffodil Festival, proclaim you to be an official princess of the Daffodil Festival,” McGuire recited.

The tapping ceremony took an especially poignant turn when McGuire teared up as she performed the ceremony for White River High School Princess Megan McBarron. McGuire serves on the school board for the White River School district, and McBarron is the first princess from White River High School, which became part of the festival this year.

At the end of the ceremony, McGuire proclaimed the girls to be official princesses, a moment they had been waiting for.

“At Puyallup High School, the Daffodil Festival is a big deal ... it’s just a really big tradition in Puyallup, and I really wanted to be part of it,” said Puyallup High School Princess Megan Gimmestad, who has two former princesses in her family.

After a break for dessert, the princesses were bestowed with the honor of being Pierce County’s official Goodwill Ambassadors, an honor which will be enjoyed by princesses in the coming years, too.

“It’s so inspirational,” said Chief Leschi High School Princess Alexandra Tyler Cole.

Cole, who already was looking forward to doing community service, said she’s excited about the extra title and about getting out into the community.

“I know a lot of children don’t have someone to look up to, a positive role model ... and I would like to be that person that they can look up to and come to whenever,” she said.

The evening concluded with the first public performance of the princesses’ routine, centered around this year’s festival theme, “Don’t stop Believing.” The princesses formed a three-layer choir and sang and danced the song, originally by Journey.

“I had always seen the float and the girls in the pretty yellow dresses,” said Sumner High School Princess Carly Lange, but she added that she wasn’t hooked on being a princess until she heard a former princess speak about the community service aspect of princesshood.

“What really spoke to me is that she was out in the community and reading to children,” she said.

Meredith Lawrence is a freelance reporter for The Herald.