1st time a charm for festival queen, court

The first time was the charm for the new Florida Strawberry Festival queen and court members.

Queen Natalie Burgin, first maid TyLynn Eben and court members Dayla Dementry, Rachel Hallman and Ashlyn Robinson were named festival royalty the first time they competed in the pageant.

Sandee Sytsma, who has coordinated the court for nine years, said this may be historic.

"Usually one year is kind of the trial run," Sytsma said.

Last year, for example, three of the five court members, including queen Lauren Der, had tried for the title previously, she said.

There was no single reason why they entered this year. Dementry said she "chickened out" last year but was talked into competing in 2010 by friends and family.

All five are lifelong Plant City area residents except for Eben, who was born in South Korea and came to the United States as an infant. Many girls in Plant City grow up dreaming of one day wearing the crown.

A panel of five judges selected them from a field of 24 contestants.

"It's so exciting," said Burgin, a 17-year-old high school junior who is homeschooled.

All five say they were shocked when their names were called as the Feb. 6 pageant drew to a close. They said they felt fortunate to earn spots as festival royalty.

"There are no words to describe it," said Hallman, an 18-year-old Hillsborough Community College student.

Dementry, an HCC sophomore and at 19 the oldest member of the court, said earning a spot in the festival royalty seems "surreal."

"We're just excited to be representing the community," said Robinson, a 17-year-old Plant City High senior.

Eben, a 17-year-old Durant High senior, said she hopes her selection as first maid is an inspiration to others. She is the first Asian-American court member in about 10 years. She was adopted by American parents about three months after her birth in Seoul.

"It doesn't matter what you look like or where you come from, you can compete," said Eben, who moved to Plant City with her adoptive parents when she was 2.

Eben said she has enjoyed the local celebrity status that came with being a part of festival royalty. All five agreed they are looking forward to representing the festival, the city and its top crop.

Although this was their first year in the queen's pageant, they have been active in the festival in various ways.

Burgin has shown steers in the festival livestock shows, and Hallman has shown pigs. Dementry once entered the festival's shoebox float competition. Robinson has clogged during the festival and Eben has danced.

The pageant is for young women 16 to 20 who live in the Plant City area.

The queen and court made their first official public appearance at a Feb. 9 meeting of the Plant City Lions Club, the pageant sponsor. In an interview before the meeting, the new festival royalty shared what they considered an interesting fact about themselves:

•Burgin comes from a large family; she's the second youngest of Tom and Ricky Burgin's seven children. Sundays are family time, and with grandparents living in her home and marriages and births adding to the circle, there are sometimes 15 to 20 people there.

•Eben said she likes acting and is co-president of Durant High's thespian troupe. She is active in Plant City Entertainment, the local community theater. Her favorite play at Durant has been her appearance in "Seussical! The Musical," where she played a character named JoJo.

•Dementry said her selection to the court defies the notion that only young women who come from wealthy, well-connected families can successfully compete for strawberry festival queen. Dementry said she was raised by her mother, Kim, and earned the money to pay for all of her own pageant expenses, such as the clothing she wore. "I come from a single-parent home and I paid for everything on my own," she said.

•Hallman is fluent in American Sign Language. She decided to study the method of communicating after babysitting deaf children at her church, Midway Baptist. She plans to pursue a degree in interpretation and communication at the University of South Florida.

•Robinson is a fifth-generation Plant City resident. Her family still lives on the same land where her ancestors settled many years ago. The property includes a citrus grove farmed by her father, Michael.