“Strawberry Nights,” the theme for the Strawberry Festival’s 117th year, invites the Strawberry Festival Court to reflect on the iconic film “Grease,” a movie about friendship, confidence, music, dreams, summer memories, school spirit and classic style.
Just like the film’s main characters, each Strawberry Princess is approaching the end of an era to enter the bigger world beyond, marked by a carnival or, in this case, a Strawberry Festival.
Looking back on summer memories, Princess Anne Workman said her favorite is all the lake days and game nights she shared with her family.
“Those were moments we would really bond and have a chance to laugh together before my siblings started growing up and moving out,” she said.
Workman, the daughter of Jerry and Carrie Workman, has seven siblings: Glenn, Emily, John, Amy, Mary, Mark and Ellen.
If she found herself the winner in a fair food competition, the credit for her skill would go to her family, she said.
“Coming from a family of 10, you learn how to eat quickly before the food is gone,” Workman said. “My experience would give me an upper hand on other competitors.”
But it might also have something to do with her tendency to be a bit driven.
The characters in “Grease” are full of school spirit and big personalities, but what calls forth Workman’s own passion and energy is “any sort of game or competition.”
“I am a competitive person, and find it a lot of fun when I am faced with a challenge,” she said.
One challenge she’s about to face will take her out of the country.
Following graduation, the 18-year-old has plans to serve on a mission at the Philippines Puerto Princesa Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for one and a half years. She has begun learning the Tagalog language in preparation for the trip.
When she returns home, she will attend Brigham Young University in Idaho to become a registered nurse.
Workman, who’s been playing piano since third grade, has been serving as her church’s pianist for about five years.
Throughout her senior year at Lebanon High School, she served as a senior senator and a member of the National Honor Society. Workman played tennis on the varsity team, and was certified as a nursing assistant through a school class.
She’s also involved in 4-H, spending eight years raising, showing and selling pigs at the Linn County Fair. This is her second year as 4-H president. On her creative side, Workman created graphics for the school’s athletics Instagram page and helped advertise the T-Mobile contest this past fall.
Outside of school and other organizations, Workman finds she really enjoys hiking, “both for the social aspects in doing it with friends and family, and for appreciating the beauty of nature,” she said.
And just as “Grease” celebrates friendship groups, Workman said she appreciates the support, loyalty and laughter she received from her friends.
“It not only makes it easy to have a good time when around my friends, but they become a backbone to me and the things I go through.”
As a Strawberry Princess, Workman said her favorite and “most impactful” moment was when she participated in storytime at the library, reading to a group of little children.
“Sitting there in front of them, I realized that the last time I had been in that room, I was sitting exactly where they were, singing the same songs and feeling that same excitement.”
To be on the other side now, seeing the moment from a different perspective and being a part of the kids’ childhood was “a cool experience.”
Workman acknowledged her many nieces and nephews for helping her “appreciate the light and joy that kids are,” recognizing that – during that short time at the library – “kids have a bigger impact on the community than we may realize.”
And it’s the community she aims to represent proudly as a Strawberry Princess.
“Representing my community means being someone who gives back,” she said. “I’ve lived in Lebanon my whole life and have been a recipient of all the love, kindness and support our town possesses. I don’t see a better way to represent the community than to serve those around me and help magnify those traits.”