Richard McBride Elementary will be home to the Royal City’s May Queen for the first time in nearly three decades.
The school was the last selected from vials placed in a hat as part of the annual random draw for the New Westminster May Queen Suite. Students in the city’s elementary schools vote for their school’s representatives, with their place in the suite determined by a draw in council chambers each year.
Claire Haffner will be crowned as New Westminster’s 145th May Queen on May Day, which is being held on Wednesday, May 20 at Queen’s Park Stadium. Colburn Connelly will serve as Richard McBride Elementary School’s royal knight.
“Oh man, I’m so excited and shocked,” she told the Record minutes after her name was drawn. “I really wanted to represent my school. My school hasn’t been the top school in 26 years. It’s very exciting. My friends were really hoping it was going to be our school, so I think they’ll be excited.”
Lindsay DeLair, May Day coordinator, said New Westminster has crowned a May Queen every year since 1870, when the Hyack fire department organized May Day to cheer the city’s “disheartened citizens.”
By 1870, the city was no longer the province’s capital, the Gold Rush had ended and the population had plunged to about 500 people.
Joining Claire and Colburn in the 2015 May Queen Suite are: Ayanna Seymour (first Maid of Honour) and Owen West (royal knight) – F.W. Howay; Makena Thomas (second Maid of Honour) and Luca Redford (royal knight) – Herbert Spencer; Summer Loewen (medal bearer) and Hussein Hage-Hassan (royal knight) – Connaught Heights; and Maggie Roest (register bearer) and Kevin Addo (royal knight) – Lord Kelvin.
Also in this year’s May Queen Suite are Charlize Melliza (first flower girl) and Gordon Tan (royal knight) – Qayqayt; Stephanie Joy Fajilan (second flower girl) and Marco Vela-Ruiz (royal knight) – Queensborough Middle School; and Lindsay De Souza (third flower girl) and Nate Akey (royal knight) – Lord Tweedsmuir.
