Members of the new Osoyoos Royalty were on hand when the City of Kelowna announced its new Royalty team in July. Osoyoos Royalty members include Princess Amara Leeson (far left), Queen Teagen Aspell (fourth from left) and Ali Hutter (far right). (Photo supplied)
Hello Osoyoos. My name is Teagen Aspell and I was crowned as the new Queen of the Osoyoos Royalty program at the Sonora Community Centre on June 30.
The two beautiful princesses chosen were Ali Hutter and Amara Leeson.
Our pageant day included a fun-filled afternoon with our visiting Royalty and Ambassadors from cities such as Kamloops, Kelowna, Keremeos, New Denver, North Thompson, Oliver, Peachland, Penticton, Princeton, Summerland and Trail.
We enjoyed lunch at Kinsmen Park and then spent time at Rattlesnake Canyon, before a fabulous dinner at McKia’s Restaurant, where plates were piled high with delicious food!
Canada Day was such a sunshine-filled, busy day.
All of the candidates met at the Osoyoos Rotary Club’s successful and yummy pancake breakfast.
For the parade, we all enjoyed sitting on the Osoyoos Festival Society’s float (you see it in every town parade).
After that, we were whisked off to Peachland to be a part of their annual Canada Day parade
The first out-of-town pageant that we attended as the new Osoyoos Royalty team was on July 4 – 6, in the beautiful City of Quesnel.
We had an adventure-filled day at Barkerville, one of B.C.’s “Boom and Bust” towns, where we learned about Billy Barker, the town’s founder, and the large resource of gold in the area.
Our Royalty chaperone pointed out the infamous 800-kilometre long Highway 16 is known as the “Highway of Tears.”
This highway is best known for unsolved murders and disappearances of many Aboriginal women.
It was humbling to see the road sign and know some of the facts of the missing women, many around my age.
The newly-crowned Royalty for Quesnel includes a queen and two princesses.
This was a community we all enjoyed visiting. Thank you Quesnel.
July 12 saw the Osoyoos Royalty waving at the crowds in Oliver as part of their Sunshine Festival parade.
We were hot and thirsty, but enjoyed our sweet ride in a new, red convertible Mustang, driven by Jeff Miller and Andy Aspell, my father.
Kamloops, known as the “Tournament Capital,” was the second city for us to visit that same day.
An interesting piece of Kamloops history that I learned was that the busy main street, named “Tranquille”, was named for a chief of the Shuswap tribe of the Interior Salish Nation.
The City of Kamloops crowned a queen and two princesses as their new royalty team.
Thanks to the people of Kamloops for a fun weekend.
On July 18-19, our third trip was to City of Kelowna, for the Lady of the Lake pageant.
Did you know that Okanagan Lake is 110 kilometres long and that Kelowna only receives 28 centimetres of rain annually?
This pageant saw the visiting Royalty escorted into the pageant by a Scottish piper playing the bagpipes.
After the new princess and Lady of the Lake were crowned, we all participated in a parade through downtown Kelowna.
I am looking forward to doing more travelling around the province, representing Osoyoos.
I am gaining an amazing appreciation for why we are called “Beautiful British Columbia.”
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Osoyoos Times
This article was written by newly-crowned Osoyoos Royalty Queen Teagen Aspell.
