A cloudless blue sky and crisp breeze greeted attendees of the National Cherry Blossom Festival parade and street festival Saturday, wrapping up two weeks of cultural exhibits and events in the nation's capital.
Beginning at 10 a.m. on 7th Street and ending on 17th Street, the parade featured the National Conference of State Societies-sponsored Cherry Blossom princesses, large inflatable balloon versions of Arthur, Bob the Builder and a Chipotle burrito, and marching bands from schools around the country. Crowds 12 rows deep padded the route along Constitution Avenue, and nearly 500,000 passengers had boarded Metrorail trains in D.C. by 7 p.m.
Jessica Dillon, a senior in the School of Public Affairs and Miss Kansas at this year's festival, said her experience as a Cherry Blossom princess was a wonderful opportunity to meet peers from all over the country while working behind the scenes at something "so very D.C."
"The idea behind the entire princess program is we're a way to connect our states directly to the festival," Dillon said. "It's a lot of fun to run into people who are from, in my case, Kansas. The idea that you can be their personal connection to the whole thing was really nice. It's nice to help make people feel a little more at home."
Earlier in the week, Teresa Sablan (Miss Guam) won the coveted title of Cherry Blossom Queen. Melissa Chin, last year's queen, is an AU alumna.
According to Dillon, the queen is selected randomly at the Cherry Blossom Ball, held the night before the parade. The winner receives an all-expenses-paid trip to Japan, where she is treated as a state visitor and meets with the Japanese emperor, prime minister and other heads of state.
"By the end of the week I really, really wanted to be queen," Dillon said. "[But] Miss Guam is fabulous, and I'm sure she'll get a lot out of the trip."
Gabriela Nevarez, this year's Miss Puerto Rico and a sophomore in the Kogod School of Business, used the opportunity to educate the international community about her homeland.
"[I enjoyed] having the opportunity to speak with several ambassadors at different embassies - Slovakian, Hungarian - just letting people know what [Puerto Rico] is and my position in the world," Nevarez said. "And going to the White House and meeting Laura Bush was kind of cool."
Lauren McKenzie, also an AU student, was Miss Texas.
During the parade, the princesses "each marched with a cadet from the Naval Academy carrying our state flag ... and practiced our princess wave," Dillon said. "We got to stay and participate in festival events all afternoon."
Outgoing Student Confederation Vice President Jason Trombley, an intern at the festival, was impressed with AU's involvement.
"There has been a strong, solid AU presence within the festival that I didn't know about, which doesn't surprise me," Trombley said.
Trombley was responsible for supervising the large balloons featured in Saturday's parade. Although he called the festival's demanding schedule "hectic for a college student," he said the beautiful sights were well worth the work.
"The best event was last Tuesday when I was driving with the [festival's] executive director," Trombley said. "It was a clear sunny day and the trees were blooming; it was a pink halo, and I thought, 'This was what we worked for.' It came down to these two weeks."
Dillon said her favorite moment of the two weeks occurred during a lunchtime cruise on the Potomac last Friday, when she encountered a young girl visiting from London.
"[The princesses] were all up on stage dancing and enjoying ourselves, and she was absolutely fascinated with us," Dillon said, recalling she asked the youngster to join the fun. "The opportunity to reach out to her and be that incredible to her was amazing. Her mom told us we made her vacation"
