Even before she was announced the 2015 Florida Strawberry Festival Queen, Samantha Sun stood in the center of the newly established court of five, her emerald green dress matching the brilliance of a charismatic smile that wowed the judges from the start. It was as if it was her natural place in the hierarchy of the competition.
The grandstands at the Grimes Family Agricultural Center were bursting Jan. 31. They were all there to support and to see who would take home the sought-after crown as valuable as gold in the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World.
The emcee stalled. The girls laughed nervously at his obvious jokes. And finally she was revealed.
“You’re 2015 Florida Strawberry Festival Queen is — Samantha Sun.”
The audience exploded. Sun gripped the hands of the girls on either side of her as if the world was spinning, and she might fall. Indeed, her world was spinning.
2014 Strawberry Queen Jessi Rae Varnum fixed the crown on Sun’s head, careful not to ruin her immaculate chignon hairstyle. Sun covered her beautiful grin with her acrylic nails, staving off tears. She stepped forward, regal and powerful. She waved.
“(There was) a lot of shock,” Sun said, recalling the event just days after the crowing. “I wasn’t really sure what was going on. All I knew was I just wanted to be in the court because I knew this was going to be a great experience. I never expected to be picked as Queen. I couldn’t even think.”
The Strawberry Festival Queen Competition is more than just a beauty pageant. The scholarship program grants the winner $1,000 from the Lions Club. The contestants have a list of accomplishments that never ends. Sun herself plays piano, is the MVP of Plant City’s varsity tennis team and has had her art shown in the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg.
During the competition, the contestants also undergo two ambitious rounds of public speaking: first a commercial for their sponsors done live on stage, then an impromptu interview question snagged from a glass bowl.
“To be able to speak to the judges during our interview portion as real people — it’s hard to be able to overcome that and the nerves,” Sun said. “I worked with my coach really hard with that. It’s going to be able to help me a lot throughout life.”
The town of about 35,000 just outside of Tampa revolves around the Florida Strawberry Festival. It is a tradition that dates back 80 years as a desire to celebrate family values and agricultural heritage. Since then, it has grown into an 11-day triumph of country music stars, shortcakes, vendors, swine and steer shows and roller coasters. It’s easy to say the festival is the most anticipated event of the year. But the Queen competition is a close second.
Sun, like so many other girls growing up in Plant City, has always found the tradition of the Queen and her court to be inspirational.
“I’d always looked up to all the girls of the court and the queen,” Sun said. “I can’t wait to be a role model to all the little girls like the past Queen and court were to me.”
But, she never expected that she, too, would enter one of Plant City’s treasured history books as a Florida Strawberry Festival Queen.
“I, for a long time, had never imagined myself doing something like this,” Sun said. “I’ve never really been a pageant girl, but this past year, I looked into it, and a lot of people encouraged me to do it, because it’s a great experience and, no matter what happens, you always learn something.”
Sun moved to Plant City when she was 6. But the close-knit community has embraced her since the start. She even pointed out during her on-stage interview that her family, friends and church had come out to support her.
“I may not have been born here, but I feel like I’ve grown up here in Plant City,” she said. “And these people and this place is my family. I’m so glad to be able to have that for the rest of my life. It’s just a really exciting thing to be part of such a huge Plant City tradition.”
The 17-year-old is also the first Asian Queen.
“I’m half-Chinese,” Sun said. “I’m really proud to be the first Asian Strawberry Queen. I love how we’re diversifying as a town. It really shows how we’re modernizing in our ways with the world.”