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Watermelon Festival Court 2006
Queen Leticia "Letty" Santana
Raised money for the
Verdugo Hills Family YMCA
Councilwoman Wendy Greuel helps Master of Ceremonies Lion John Severino pin the Queen's Sash on Letty Santana.
Queen Letty loves to swim, work out and play soccer, but her family is the biggest love of her life. The youngest of nine children, she thinks her 17 nieces and nephews are the most fun in the world. Letty is proud to be a native daughter of the Verdugo Valley and has lived here all of her 19 years of life. She just celebrated her birthday with a trip to Mexico the weekend before the Watermelon Festival!
You see bi-lingual Letty hard at work at her job as a receptionist at the Verdugo Hills Family YMCA. A 2005 Verdugo Hills High School graduate, she is attending Pasadena City College and is undecided about her major - she just knows she wants to spend her life working with kids. At the Y she has volunteered to work with the pre-school and after-school day care program in addition to her duties on the front desk.
Queen Letty has had a lot of fun campaigning and wanted to do it again next year - until she found out she had won! Now she wants to help the YMCA's candidate for 2007! She has lots of good ideas and commented that the campaign has really given her a lot more self-confidence. She is also happy that she was able to raise money for the Y and is continuing to sell raffle tickets until the last drawing.
 Princess Mayra Flores
Sponsored by PJPs Thrift Store Foundation
Mayra lives in Tujunga with her aunt and works as a data processor at Galpin Ford where she met her boyfriend Jose.A graduateof Polytechnic High Schoolin 2003, she enjoys working out, bowling, going to museums and hanging out with her friends at coffee shops or her favorite tea shop, Chai's, in Pasadena. Mayra is a real movie fan! She loves Marilyn Monroe, comedies, cartoons, black and white or silent movies. She is into anything "50s", especially the music, movies and clothes. Most of all, Mayra loves animals - she has 7 dogs, 1 cat , a snake, andseveral birds. Frogs are her favorite animals. She would like to go back to school and take classes that would help her work with animals. She would love to have a big home where she could have a lot of animals. Her other dream is to travel all over the world.
Mayra loves carnivals and had so much fun riding in the Fourth of July Parade and working in a food booth at the Watermelon Festival last year, she quickly said yes when her former boss, PJ Williams of PJP's Flowers From the Heart, asked her if she would run for queen this year on behalf of the PJP's Thrift Store Foundation.
Meet the Junior Queen
Queen Candice Torrez
Sponsored by the Blue Shadows Equestrian Drill Team
Junior Queen of the Watermelon Festival, Candice Torrez, loves horses! Fourteen years old, she's been a member of Blue Shadows Equestrian Drill Team (her sponsor) and ETI (Equestrian Trails, Inc.) since she was seven. In ETI she competes in the Junior Ambassador Girls where there are three classes of competition: Written test, Poise and Personality, and Horsemanship Test. She was also chosen as one of the Junior Miss Princesses this year, and was named Miss Poise and Personality for several years. In her spare time, she is active in the Blue Madonna Mariners Girl Scouts and spent a week this past July in Washington sailing on an old schooner.
She has been in the scouting program since the first grade. Candice is a graduate of Patrick Henry Magnet School (middle school) and will be a sophomore at Verdugo Hills High School where she played volleyball last year. She is a member of JROTC. She likes watching CSI on TV and is thinking about a career in criminology. As part of the curriculum at Patrick Henry her class took field trips to visit different colleges around the state, including a trip to the Bay area where they toured UC Berkeley and Stanford. Right now, though, she doesn't really want to think about choosing a college - it's enough to think about high school!
Our Junior Queen lives in Sylmar with her parents, Pete and Carla, and an older brother P.J., who is a senior at VHHS. She is a typical teenager with lots of friends, lives on the phone, her cell, and the computer! A long-time fan of Johnny Depp, she has a collection of his films and pictures. She has two dogs, Toby (a mixed Terrier) and Gizma (a Pekinese/Chihuahua mix). Her favorite colors are Hot Pink (check out her hair) and Lime Green.
The Blue Shadows Equestrian Drill Team has been a long-time supporter of the Watermelon Festival, often selling the most tickets and naming the Queen of the Festival. The Drill Team is an equestrian organization for youth, teaching horseback riding, competition and leadership skills. Members of the Team may be seen at the Festival running the goldfish booth
Go to Tom-Cat Pet Food Warehouse at 8756 Foothill Blvd., Sunland, to buy tickets in support of Blue Shadows. (Bottom level of the Ralph’s complex)
 Junior Princess Kaci Hori
Sponsored by the NoHo Speech and Debate Team
Kaci is a sophomore at North Hollywood High School and a member of the Speech and Debate Team, an after-school volunteer program. The Team frequently participates in speech contests or provides programs for organizations anywhere within driving distance. The tickets they sell on behalf of Kaci helps them finance their trips to compete in many speech contests, including the National Forensic League finals in Philadelphia. Two students and their coach, John Bernabei, recently returned from that competition with some well-deserved awards.
Junior Princess Eryn Severino 
Sponsored by Boy Scout Troop 315
Eryn, a graduate of Our Lady of Lourdes School, is a sophomore at Notre Dame High School and a Girl Scout with Senior Troop Mystic Yankee. She enjoys traveling, listening to music, going to movies and hanging out with friends. She has participated in Notre Dame’s basketball and swim teams and is currently a host sister to a Lions Club Youth Exchange Program participant from Finland and a young lady from Spain who is in California as part of EF (English First) Educational Homestay Programs. Eryn would like to become a forensic scientist and is interested in attending Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.The members of Boy Scout Troop 315 were proud to sponsor Eryn Severino as their candidate for Junior Queen. The money they raise will be used to provide camperships and allow the troop to defray scouting expenses for members who need some financial help.
To support Boy Scout Troop 315, tickets may be purchased at The Patchwork Penguin, 6540 Foothill Blvd., or call Scoutmaster John Severino for tickets at Symphony Mortgage Co., 818-367-4235.
Gift Donors
Gifts donated to the winners of the contest by local merchants:
Hair styling and make-up donated by Debra Jones, Image West Salon and Day Spa, Sunland
Formal portraits by Michael Lucas, Deja View Photography, Sunland
A watermelon rhinestone necklace given by Megan Bassin, Cookie Lee Jewelry
Gift certificates from Annie's Scandal, Montrose, Melody Nails and Nana Beauty Supply, Tujunga
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