Help Crown the North Fair Oaks Festival Queen

After a rigorous application process, five high school seniors from the area were selected as the North Fair Oaks Festival finalists for the title of “Queen of the Festival.”

The Queen of the Festival scholarship program ultimately selects a winner based on who sells the most $5 raffle tickets, which fundraises for the Festival and ultimately the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Youth Programs. She will win a grand prize of $10,000. The two princesses will win $4,000 and the other two finalists will win $2,000.

Last year's queen, Viviana Tascussi, 19, for the festival.

Raffle prizes include two AeroMexico roundtrip tickets, a digital camera, two iPod touches, two flatscreen TVs, $1,000 in gift cards from Chavez Supermarkets, $1,000 in gift cards from Deseo Tequila Lounge and an Xbox and Kinect.

The Queen will be crowned at the 11th Annual North Fair Oaks Community Festival, a day of entertainment, arts and crafts, food, children’s rides and a parade.

Check out from last year’s festival.

All five girls are university-bound with excellent academic and community service records.

 This year’s finalists are:

• Angela Hernandez is a graduate of Eastside College Prepatory. She plans to attend San Francisco State University. Her professional goal is to become a psychologist. She is in her second year of volunteering with the Girls to Women program, which mentors young women towards success.

• Cadres Alexis Shelton is a graduate of Tracy High School. She plans to attend Menlo College. Her professional goal is to become a manager of a municipality. She has run the Tracy chapter of Becca’s Closet for four years. She also the Chair of the City of Tracy Youth Advisory Commission and volunteers at the No Worries Now Organization.

• Itzel Diaz is a graduate of Sequoia High School and she plans to attend Santa Clara University. Her professional goal is to be a civil engineer. She is a volunteer for the Sequoia DREAM Club and Redwood City’s Immigrant Youth Action Team

• Itzel Gutierrez is a graduate of Menlo-Atherton High School. She will be attending Sacramento State University. Her professional goal is to major in political science and become and immigration lawyer. Itzel is a volunteer with the Violence Intervention Program, Peer Intervention Program, and East Palo Alto for Youth.

• Janice Bonello is a graduate of Summit Preparatory Charter School.  She plans to attend CSU Monterey Bay. Her professional goal is to study psychology and become a social worker. She has been a mentor at Girl Scout – Diamond Crest Day Camp for eight years.

Community members can purchase raffle tickets directly from the finalists at community events or online at http://www.northfairoaksfestival.org/queen-festival until July 31. The next community event will be on Thursday, July 26 at the Movie on the Square: Lion King.

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