Sheena Torres didn’t know that during her reign as Garlic
Festival Queen she would travel to the nation’s capital to talk
about the Garlic Capital of the World on national television.
Gilroy – Sheena Torres didn’t know that during her reign as Garlic Festival Queen she would travel to the nation’s capital to talk about the Garlic Capital of the World on national television. That wasn’t part of the job description, but her duty as the 2006 festival emissary was to represent the festival, Now, Torres, 23, will be seen on the Montel Williams show, talking about small town America and how the Garlic Festival represents the Gilroy community.
The show was taped in November, and now after seven months Gilroyans will get to see themselves on TV eating garlic ice cream or enjoying themselves at the festival along with the rest of America on Friday, June 22.
“(The Montel Williams Show) contacted the festival office, who contacted me and then I passed the news onto Sheena,” said Traci Dalke, last year’s pageant chair.
The show is on small towns in America that are recognized for their big events.
Aside from looking into your own backyard for a good time, Montel Williams thought is was neat that Gilroy had a Queen for a food festival, and highlighted the importance of that.
“It’s such a huge event that raises so much money for the community, and the spokesperson of the festival happens to be the Queen of Garlic, and they thought that was a unique quality of our particular food festival,” Torres said.
But Torres wasn’t the only queen of a food festival recognized.
The Queen of the Turkey Trot Festival in Yellville, Ark., a town of 2,000 people, was mentioned as well. The town also has a “Miss Drumstick,” a competition that selects the woman with the best looking legs.
But Gilroy’s Garlic Festival remained unique in that there are more than 4,000 volunteers involved.
“I felt proud to be able to say that about Gilroy and the Garlic Festival, that we really do have a lot of dedicated people who are willing to put in so much time and effort every year to make it bigger and better,” Torres said. Other festivals, such as the Duct Tape Festival, have no idea about the number of volunteers. The Duct Tape festival features duct tape sculptures, games and crafts, and duct-tape fashions.
Other small town festivals featured on the show include the Tug Fest in LeClaire, Iowa. This annual festival is a tug of war between two small towns on opposite sides of the Mississippi River. They spend one to two days competing in a tug of war contest using a rope that crosses the river. Folks on both sides take turns pulling while enjoying a festival. The event ended in a tie last year.
The Punkin Chunkin festival in Lewes, Del. features contraptions to chuck pumpkins the farthest without using explosives. Some are chucked as far as a mile.
Most festival representatives brought gifts, and Torres brought Williams gifts from Christopher Ranch, a little basket filled with treats from the festival. Garlic olives were shared with the studio audience during a commercial, as well as garlic lollipops.
“I hope that with this well-known TV interview, we’ll be able to use the Queen as an avenue for public relations in the future, and hopefully this will be a stepping stone to lead to bigger and better public relations,” Torres said.
on the air
What: 2006 Garlic Festival Queen Sheena Torres on the Montel Williams show
When: Episode will air Friday June 22
Where: Local Cable (Charter): Channel 2 (Fox/KTVU) at 4pm
Dish Network (viewers who don’t subscribe to the local channels): Channel 248 at 3pm
Direct TV: Channel 389 at 3pm
This year’s Gilroy Garlic Festival runs Friday July 27 through Sunday July 29
