1-28-08 St. Paul Winter Carnival Coronation

This past week brought in a ton of new people and events into our ambassador world. First of all, we added a second Captain (there typically would be two because we escort two princesses....nice math right?). His name is Rob Mauzy and he's the husband of our Promotions Director at WCCO, Amy. Rob is perfect for the role....very sociable and always very prepared. He's a terrific addition.

He stepped in just in time to join us for the festivities surrounding the St. Paul Winter Carnival. Those began last Thursday night with the coronation which was held at the Rivercentre (part of Xcel). Before I get into that, I have more introductions to do though....meet the princesses:

From left to right, Jenna Forstner of Gibbon, MN, Tzveletina Pramatarov of Anoka, MN, Charissa Pederson (Queen) of Monticello, MN and our Commodore, Mary Niemeyer.

We met at the St. Paul Hotel before hand and got to know each other a bit before heading over to the reception at Rivercentre. For Rob and I, our duties are to be escorts for the princesses. Basically, that means be a gentleman....open doors, pull their chairs out, get them beverages, etc. If they need something, we help them out with it.

I want to say one thing about these young women before we get to far into this and you start to think it's just a "beauty pageant" (and that's the last time I use those words). These are young women that are all obviously very pretty. They don't just stop there. All three are in college (Jenna and Tzveletina at St. Cloud State, Charissa at Northwestern College in St. Paul) and their intelligence, maturity, poise and elegance shows through immediately. These are the girls you want your sons to find. They are all bound for big things after their Aquatennial duties wrap up. Had to get this in because it's very important for people to realize this and it's why we all do this. Check out their bio's on the Aquatennial Ambassador site for more info (plus you can see mine and wonder just like me what I'm doing here!).

I should also mention we have Senior Ambassadors with us....I had mentioned our Aquatennial Queen, Ann Hair but we also have an Aquatennial Senior Princess, Judy Holmquist, Aquatennial Senior Commodore Douglas Anderson and Aquatennial Senior Vice-Commodore Patrick Bohmer. You can also check them out on the bio's page.

Here's the whole group!

At coronation, the Winter Carnival introduces a brand new royal family and also chooses its 2008 Queen of the Snows and Princesses of the Four Winds (they have a HUGE group of people and for the whole history, check out their website here...it's actually quite the legend and a worthy read). Our role in this is to be visiting dignitaries....along with other festivals from around the state and even from around the country (Winnipeg, Macon and San Antonio are just a couple that send representatives).

We get brought up on stage and introduced to the crowd...in line with the usual protocol of the Aquatennial, the Captain does the introductions. That would be me. This was the first time I've had to do this and I was a bit nervous. I'm not a person who gets nervous in front of a crowd or anything like that but I did not want to screw up a name or title (Tzvetelina Pramatarov, cough, cough). I was able to get through it however and Mary said a few words and off we went. Not bad for what was really our first time all together.

This is me going through the intros on stage....quite the good looking crew!

This was followed by a reception at the Landmark Center where we were able to welcome the new Winter Carnival Royal Family and meet them face-to-face for the first time. This is a group of people we will be spending a TON of time with over the next year. One thing about the Winter Carnival...they always have a lot of fun! I'm sure this group will be no different.

No sign of the Vulcans for now....we'll hear more from them next week.

From there it was home to rest up for the rest of the weekend. Next up, the Winter Carnival Grand Day Parade.