SEQUIM — Another set of teens are ready to become Sequim’s next royalty.
The Sequim Irrigation Festival’s annual scholarship pageant returns with four contestants — Anne Marie Barni, Fred Cameron, Paige Krzyworz and Pepper Reymond — competing at 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, in Sequim High School Auditorium, 533 N. Sequim Ave.
They’ll share creative displays, answer impromptu questions, and perform as they vie to become the king or queen of the 128th festival, set for May 6-13. Through the next year, they’ll represent Sequim at community events and parades, with the king/queen receiving a $1,250 scholarship and each prince/princess a $1,000 scholarship.
Pageant tickets are $10 for attendees 13 and older, and $5 for 12 and younger, and are available at the show’s door, First Federal’s Sequim Avenue branch and from contestants. The event will be emceed by Guy Horton. The Irrigation Festival remains Washington state’s longest continuing festival. Find more about other festival events at irrigationfestival.com.
Contestants
• Anne Marie Barni
Sponsor: Oak Table Café
Parents: Charlein and Michael Barni
Platform: Dispel stereotypes of OCD
Creative display: Anne Marie will show an original hand drawn cartoon she drew with a live original score on the flute.
Anne Marie moved to Sequim a little more than two years ago from Bothell to be closer to her grandmother. She formed a connection with Blue Whole Gallery artists and was the first student artist to return to the program since the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
She looks to join Sequim’s royalty at the recommendation of her friend 2022 queen Isabella Williams. Anne Marie said Williams knew she enjoys extracurricular activities and “thought I’d be a good fit.”
Anne Marie attended festival events for the first time last year and went to the Rhododendron Festival’s Grand Parade in Port Townsend to support Williams and Sequim. Admittedly, she didn’t know there was a pageant until after signing up, but the more she learned about it the more excited she became, she said.
If chosen as queen, Anne Marie said it’d be a great honor.
“Since I moved here, I’ve become enamored with the community,” she said.
Anne Marie added she feels it’s tight-knit here and “I really like this town and would love to represent it.”
After high school, she said she hopes to attend Cornish College to become a professional character designer for animated media and eventually work for a major studio.
Anne Marie recently started professionally selling her art at conventions and holds a first degree black belt in Taekwondo, plays flute, participates in Sequim High School ASB, and works at the Oak Table Café.
Of personal note, Anne Marie said she loves bringing energy to an audience and performing and speaking in front of people with her latest event at the SHS Homecoming football game introducing its royalty.
• Fred Cameron
Sponsor: Sequim Community Church
Parent: Donna Cameron
Platform: Raise awareness of blood disorders
Creative display: Fred will present his Eagle Scout project that he developed.
Fred is a Sequim native and looks to follow the lead of his sister Alicia Pairadee’s lead joining the royalty, after she was a princess in 2020 during a COVID-restricted year for the festival.
He said watching his sister participate, even at just a few events, is one of his favorite memories of the festival.
“They didn’t get to do much, but she was ecstatic and it inspired me,” Fred said.
Joining the royalty has been in his mind for a long time, he said, after seeing the royalty at an event as a young boy in Port Angeles. Fred assumed it was only for girls until a few years ago, when Logan Laxson was named a prince on the same royalty court as his sister.
He hopes to become king to inspire other boys to achieve their dreams and goals too.
Fred said he is fascinated by psychology and how the brain works and hopes to become a psychologist for the military, either in the U.S. Air Force or U.S. Marines. He’s also considering becoming a school counselor.
Fred is active with BSA (Boy Scouts), his church’s youth group and tech team, and an unofficial chess club at Peninsula College. He enjoys reading — mostly fantasy books — as well as playing Dungeons and Dragons, and when time permits, acting, with his most recent performance in “Clue.” He said his acting took him to New York City, where he placed second runner-up for his acting skills.
One silly thing he thought might be funny to people is that he once sold a rock for $1 at a summer camp “No Talent Show” where the worst talent wins.
• Paige “Skylar” Krzyworz
Sponsor: Dungeness Kids Co.
Parents: Heidi and Brian Krzyworz
Platform: Supporting the Sequim Food Bank
Creative display: Paige will play “Coiled” by Bob Upton on the cello.
Paige, also known as “Skylar,” is a Sequim native. You might’ve bought Girl Scout cookies from her as at one point she was the number one cookie seller in Western Washington with nearly 4,000 boxes sold. She earned a three-week trip to Europe, and also threw out a first pitch at a Seattle Mariners’ baseball game.
Active in Girl Scouts for 11-plus years, she credits it for enriching her life and teaching her to strive and achieve her goals.
She wants to join the royalty to “get a new experience, learn great life lessons and be with new people.” Being crowned queen is another goal, too.
“I want to be able to show responsibility and get a new challenge,” she said. “[Being queen] comes with different levels of planning and preparation, including parades and events.”
She fondly remembers attending a Crazy Daze Breakfast dressed as a farmer at about age 5, and her mom sewed a flower costume for Paige’s friend.
“We were so happy,” she said.
After high school, Paige is still deciding on her field of study but might want to teach overseas, or study science or finance “because I love numbers,” she said.
Paige said she takes her academics very seriously to maintain a 4.0 grade-point-average, and she’s active in school as president of her class, organizing student events, and participating in the high school’s bowling team, Book Club, Cooking Club, Interact Club and National Honor Society.
She also plays the cello, works at Dungeness Kids Co., and volunteers weekly at the Sequim Food Bank.
On what she wants people to know, Paige said, “I will never give up.
“I will try my hardest until I fail. Then I will try again to prove that I can do it.”
• Pepper Reymond
Sponsor: Sunny Farms Country Store
Parents: Sally and John Bays
Platform: Partner with CERT volunteers
Creative display: Pepper will sing “Part of Your World” from “The Little Mermaid.”
Pepper and her family settled in Sequim a little more than five years ago after moving many times across the U.S. for the military. She said the royalty scholarship is appealing as she has “big college plans,” but being on royalty has morphed into something more to her.
“It’s a neat community event and I like being involved in my community,” she said.
Being called “Princess Pepper” has “a nice ring to it,” she said, and so does “Queen Pepper.”
“I have little sisters, and I want to show them they can reach for the stars,” she said.
“I just want to be a good role model for them.”
Pepper said she plans to attend a university to get her master’s degree in nutrition and dietetics, as she’s “deeply invested in her future and wants to help make the world a healthier place.”
“I find the science behind food really interesting,” she said.
At prior Irrigation Festivals, she particularly enjoyed the logging show as “those are always intense,” including the spar pole climbing and chainsaw action, as it feels “death-defying.”
Pepper earned a second degree black belt in Taekwondo, has been in Girl Scouts for 11 years and serves as the high school vestry representative for St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Port Angeles, where her family attends. She has worked at Sunny Farms Supplements for about a year, and enjoys reading Stephen King novels, particularly his short stories as she can read them between classes.
One of her dreams is to own a Sphynx cat because she thinks they’re cute.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
