BROOKINGS – A girl with Brookings roots stepped up to become a “real life” princess last month.

Sarah Schweitzer, who’s studying human biology at South Dakota State University, went to Washington, D.C., April 9-13 to represent South Dakota as the state’s Cherry Blossom princess for the Cherry Blossom Festival.

According to the festival’s website, the annual celebration commemorates the gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Tokyo Mayor Yukio Ozaki to the city of Washington, D.C., in 1912, and it celebrates the continuing friendship between Japan and the U.S.

Each state, its territories and few guest countries participate in the event, with a society set up to determine each year’s princess representing them. Different states can have different rules, but it’s not a pageant by any means. South Dakota has an application process.

“I didn’t have to submit a photo or anything; they didn’t know what I looked like,” she said. “It was just based on our connection to the state and why we thought we would be the best representative for the state.”

A friend of her mother had been a South Dakota Cherry Blossom princess years ago, and this year, there weren’t any applicants in South Dakota. This friend then made the call to Schweitzer, encouraging her to give it a shot. She submitted her application in January and was selected later in the month.

Schweitzer wrote about her family’s connections to South Dakota. Both her parents were born and raised in the state – her mother was raised in Brookings – and they’ve continued to vacation in the state in places such as Yankton and the Black Hills.

She described South Dakota as a second home, and that’s because she’s from the Twin Cities in Minnesota. As surprising as it was for the Minnesota girl to be asked to apply, it was worth the effort.

“I was really surprised. I definitely thought I had a disadvantage against me being a resident of Minnesota,” she said.

Thankfully, professors at SDSU were accommodating of her leave.

“I went in about a month before and warned them. Some of them knew what I had to do right away, and others said to email them two weeks before. So, I was able to get pretty much all of my assignments done prior to the festival,” she said.

The festival kicked off with a lantern lighting ceremony as a symbol of the friendship between Japan and the U.S. From then on, the various princesses from across the U.S., its territories and even from Mexico and Lithuania went on various goodwill missions and public events. Of course, none of the girls knew each other going into the event, but friendships were made among them.

“It’s just trying to be respectful and be the best model for the state. We wore sashes everywhere we went,” Schweitzer said. “You get approached by people who talk to you about your state. I was approached by several people who said, ‘Oh, you’re from South Dakota? Where are you from? I’m a big fan of your state.’”

They visited different embassies where they learned about the respective nation’s culture and planted a cherry blossom tree at the Kennedy School, an educational center for those who have disabilities, ages 6-22.

“We got to go and spend time with the kids and adults, talking and playing with them. That was definitely my favorite part as I want to go into pediatrics and help kids,” she said. “It was nice spending time with the kids and making them smile because they’re meeting ‘real life princesses.’”

They also went to public schools, where they read stories to the children. Schweitzer read a book about South Dakota, and “it was really cool to see people from the East Coast learning about a state they wouldn’t otherwise think much about.”

At the end of the week, the grand ball was held. The night started with a sushi reception, followed by time for socializing. Then the attendees moved to the main area for dinner. After dinner, the princesses and their escorts – Schweitzer was escorted by her father – were lined up in another room and were announced and escorted into the main room, where they were welcomed by speakers who talked about the event.

Then the queen was selected. Since the event is noncompetitive, the selection was up to chance.

“We have this wheel, like the Wheel of Fortune, and at the grand ball, they do two spins,” Schweitzer explained.

The first spin is the runner up, and the second spin is crowned queen, and is sent to Japan to represent the U.S., just as the Japanese send a queen to D.C.

Schweitzer was fortunate enough to be the runner up, serving as an alternate if the queen can’t attend the events scheduled in Japan.

Although she won’t be able to represent the state as the South Dakota Cherry Blossom Princess in the future due to the rules, she floated the idea of helping through volunteer work in the future, schedule permitting.

And she would run again if she could, she said. “Our days were long and tiring, but it was well worth it. I would do it over a hundred times.”

Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.

Courtesy photo