The 94th year of the Rose Festival Court at Cleveland has begun.
An iconic tradition, the Portland Rose Festival was established in 1888, founded by Georgiana Pittock, wife of Oregonian publisher Henry Pittock. She created a tent for a rose festival to support her church and from then on it was continued as a monumental tradition. Each year Portland-metro high schools elect one student to be their Rose Princess.
According to teacher Lurena Weesner, “The Rose Princess leaves school for traveling in May and does not return for the rest of the school year. They also get a $3,500 scholarship and a full traveling wardrobe.”
Weesner, who coordinates the event for Cleveland, continued, “This year’s winner will be Cleveland’s 94th Princess. How the court members are selected and the court itself has changed dramatically over the years and is now really focused on female empowerment. It is definitely not a beauty pageant as some believe.”
The selected students prepare speeches to give at multiple events around Oregon and offer networking and mentoring opportunities to outstanding young women.
This year the two people running for Rose Princess are senior Safia Aweys and junior Zora Forsberg.
Aweys shared that she is “excited. I am ready for the competition. I think it’s a great opportunity. It takes a lot to give a speech in front of the whole school. I am ready. My opponent is great, it’s Zora, she’s cool,” she said.
When asked about a sneak preview of her speech she responded, “You will just have to wait and see!”
Forsberg told the Clarion that she is “excited for the opportunity, and I think it is a great opportunity that addresses a lot of things that we need in our community. Helping women specifically and financial literacy because they are partnering with UNITUS to do a mentorship program with the winners.” She continued, “I am very excited about the upcoming elections, but I am also very nervous about it as well. Safia is a really strong speaker and she is very charismatic, but I am excited to do it.’
Emily Welch, Cleveland’s 2023 Rose Princess, said that her time spent interviewing and giving presentations helped give her confidence.
“It was such a unique, impactful experience that genuinely helped me grow so much in many different ways. For one thing, I got to meet 15 other girls who I never would have met otherwise and now I can confidently say that we are bonded for life after getting to go through this journey together. Not only did I get to feel myself grow and expand in my new friendships with these girls, but I also learned so much about myself,” said Welch.
The assembly for the candidate’s speeches has been moved to Wednesday, March 6 at 10 a.m. Due to missing school because of the ice storm, it will no longer be a school-wide assembly, and instead, teachers will be encouraged to bring their classes. The announcement ceremony will be held on Thursday, March 14, at 3:15 in the auditorium, Weesner said.
Welch said that she has enjoyed telling people about her experiences and recommends that girls who want to carry on the tradition should consider doing it.
“One of my favorite things about having gone far away for college is getting to tell people about my experience as a Rose Princess and sharing the magic of the entire Rose Festival Tradition. That isn’t something that all cities have, so definitely take this opportunity to engage in such a unique experience. The advice I would give to those that are running is to embrace the challenges that come with it, (it’s difficult to put yourself out there and try something so new) and allow yourself to grow with the experience,” Welch said.
You can find the important Rose Festival dates including the Portland City Fair, Starlight Parade, and Grand Floral Parade at https://www.rosefestival.org/.