New Hampshire Names Its Cherry Blossom Princess
WASHINGTON, April 6 – It may still be a bit chilly in New Hampshire, but Washington is knee deep in cherry blossoms. Packed with sushi, sake and a whole lot of princesses, the annual Cherry Blossom festival is a celebration of states, and of everything Japanese.
The annual festival celebrating the blooming of the city’s thousands of Japanese cherry trees draws tourists from all over the world. Akin to New England when the leaf peepers show up in the fall, Washington is overrun by those wishing to see the city in pastel pink. The three-week festival, which is almost 70 years old, opened on March 25 this year with the annual kite festival on the National Mall and ends Sunday with the closing ceremony.
Each year, the National Conference of State Societies sponsors the Cherry Blossom Princess program, honoring young women of accomplishment from each state. The granite state program is organized through the New Hampshire State Society in Washington, an educational organization that focuses on providing stipends to students from or studying in New Hampshire who are interning in the nation’s capital.
This year, Kathleen Tobin, an office manager and scheduler in Rep. Charles Bass’s Capitol Hill office, is New Hampshire’s 2006 Cherry Blossom Princess.
The 21-year-old Newmarket native graduated from Boston University in December 2005 with a degree in journalism and political science. Tobin said academics have always been her focus, so it was a nice change to participate in the festival. “I never got to do anything that was completely out of my realm, different than anything I’ve ever done before, and this was,” she said.
Michael McBride, the New Hampshire State Society’s president, said that unlike other state societies that are more focused on social events, his group is education-oriented.
Christina Thornton, New Hampshire’s 2003 cherry blossom princess, who now works in Sen. John Sununu’s office as well as being involved with the society, said that the major recruiting for the cherry blossom festival is done through a press release. The society forms a princess committee that reviews the applications, which include an essay and biographical information, and the committee then holds interviews with finalists.
To be selected, Thornton said, a young woman needs “some sort of tie to the state where we feel they would represent our state well and are knowledgeable about New Hampshire and represent what New Hampshire is.”
Sending in her application “was sort of on a whim,” said Tobin, who came across a press release from the New Hampshire State Society while she was sorting e-mails in Bass’s office. Tobin said she was joking about applying with another staffer, who suggested that she seriously consider it.
The essay topic that Tobin had to write focused on what New Hampshire meant to her. “I was born in New Hampshire, raised in New Hampshire, my family still lives in the same house I was born in, so for me, it is literally everything,” Tobin said.
Thornton said she was very impressed with Tobin’s essay. “She has a very strong academic portfolio and has been involved in several leadership organizations, and she just had a lot of enthusiasm for wanting to represent New Hampshire,” Thornton said.
McBride, who joined Thornton on the selection committee, said that Tobin’s application was fantastic. “She’s very articulate, excited about the prospects of being the princess., and we just thought that she met the qualifications very well and that she would represent the society very well.”
“It’s not a beauty contest, which is one of the nice things about it,” Thornton said. “It’s based on their achievements and the leadership roles that they’ve had.”
Tobin said one of the traditions she was looking forward to is the exchange of gifts between states. “Each representative brings a gift for all the other Cherry Blossom princesses. Being from New Hampshire, I have a little bottle of New Hampshire maple syrup,” Tobin said. “But each state brings something, so basically I’m going to have something from every state.”
According to the National Conference of State Societies, the blossoms history has been rooted in Washington since 1912, when Helen Taft, the wife of the president, brought her love of the trees to the city.
Having lived in Yokohama, Japan, for a short time, Mrs. Taft wanted to bring the blossoms to the swamp land that is now the Tidal Basin area. At her request, 3,000 trees, which are not native to North America, were donated to the city by prominent Japanese. The first two trees were planted by Mrs. Taft and the wife of the Japanese ambassador, Viscountess Chinda, on March 27, 1912, in West Potomac Park. Ninety-four years later, the two trees still reside on the Tidal Basin.
The Cherry Blossom Festival found its beginnings in the 1920s and 1930s, when school groups would sponsor informal ceremonies while the trees were in bloom. The princess program began in 1939, when some state societies in Washington began recruiting female college students to represent their states during the festival. During the Second World War, the festival was cancelled and did not resume until 1948.
Now, in addition to parades, dinners and public events, the princesses also visit congressional offices, embassies, national memorials and have a visit with Laura Bush in the White House.
“A lot of it’s becoming familiar with the Japanese culture and building relationships with the individuals that are part of the festival,” Thornton said.
At the Cherry Blossom Ball, held Saturday night at the Fairmont Hotel, a Cherry Blossom Queen was scheduled to be selected by spinning a wheel.
“What they do is spin the wheel and whoever it lands on is chosen to be the Cherry Blossom Queen,” Thornton said. “If they’re chosen, then they’ll actually be sent to Japan for two weeks later in the spring to represent the United States and their state in Japan.”
New Hampshire’s never had a queen, Tobin said, adding that if she was the winner, she would have to get her passport renewed because it has expired.
Tobin originally came to Washington as part of Boston University’s Washington Journalism Program, where she covered Capitol Hill for the Union Leader.
“When I came down here I was dead set on being a reporter in D.C., so I knew that. this would be a great way to get some experience, get some clips and make a lot of contacts that I need,” Tobin said.
But she found that getting a job as a reporter in Washington was more difficult than she originally expected.
“When I was here last semester I really enjoyed being on the Hill, I really like being in the middle of it all, understanding why and how bills become law, how legislation is processed,” Tobin said, adding that this was what led her to a job on Capitol Hill..
Although Tobin is enjoying her time in the Capitol, she said that she misses many aspects of the granite state. “I miss being with my family,” she said. “Everything’s so different there; just the whole lifestyle feels so much more relaxed there. You can have just as much stuff to do, but it’s so much calmer that I feel much more relaxed.”
Tobin will return to the region in the summer when she will be getting married across the border in Maine. But the reception, she said, will be in New Hampshire.
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