Gilroy
– Sheena Torres is a small-town girl about to be featured on a
big-city show.
The 23-year-old Torres, last year’s Gilroy Garlic Queen, was
invited in November to the Montel Williams Show for the taping of a
story on small towns in America that are recognized for their big
events.
By Kelli Marshall
Special to the Gilroy Dispatch.
Gilroy – Sheena Torres is a small-town girl about to be featured on a big-city show.
The 23-year-old Torres, last year’s Gilroy Garlic Queen, was invited in November to the Montel Williams Show for the taping of a story on small towns in America that are recognized for their big events.
There were numerous small towns featured in the segment, where Torres talked about garlic, garlic and more garlic.
Torres said she had a lot of support behind the scenes, including her friends and family, Gilroy Garlic Festival staff, and Traci Dalke.
“Its very exciting that she was invited to fly over there and do the show,” said Dalke, who taught dance to Torres and coordinates the Garlic Festival Queen pageant. “(The Montel Williams Show) contacted the festival office, who contacted me and then I passed the news onto Sheena. She had been wanting to be a part of the pageant for about three years [prior to her being named queen] but every time the sign-up sheet was sent out, the schedule would conflict with her schooling. She had to wait until after she graduated college to do it and as soon as she finished, she came back to little old Gilroy and did the pageant. This is rare for most people but it was very cool of her to do.”
Throughout the entire queen experience, the surprises continued to pour in for Torres.
“I heard about the Montel show because all of my engagements are approved by the Gilroy (Garlic Festival) office. Traci Dalke called me and told me Montel really wanted to do something on the Gilroy Garlic Festival,” Torres said. “What surprised me was that they only wanted to interview the queen. Usually, in the past, with the PR stuff we do for the festival, they want to talk to the president, and if they can’t talk to him, they talk to the vice president. So, I was surprised that we were going to be nationally recognized and that I would be the one representing us.”
Whether the Garlic Festival received significant air time or just a brief mention depended on whether Torres was able to fly back to New York, she said.
“I was very honored to be the only queen that has ever gotten the chance to talk on national television. Also to be trusted enough to go and exemplify the festival and Gilroy,” she said.
While studying at Pepperdine University, Torres had seen a few television shows filmed live but actually being on the show was something else.
“It was very different being a guest on the show,” she said. “Everything was taken care of for me – my airfare, hotel, and someone picked me up from the airport in a limo and I was treated very nicely.”
Montel staff prepped her hair and makeup, while producers briefed her on the content of the show.
“Then I came out and did the interview with Montel,” Torres said. “What made me nervous was that usually Montel doesn’t do prefaced questions. The producers told me, ‘hey these are things he might talk about’ but there weren’t set questions. So, knowing that, I prepared myself as much as possible but it was very nerve-racking.”
Torres brought Montel gifts from Christopher Ranch: a little basket filled with treats from Gilroy. Garlic olives which were passed around to audience during commercial while Garlic lollipops were passed out to audience after the show.
Producers said the program has not yet been scheduled to air.
