Natalie Pearson: Wenatchee Apple Blossom Royalty Top 10 Candidate

This is a series of interviews with the Top 10 Candidates for the Washington State Apple Blossom Festival Royal Court.  The Apple Blossom Queen and two Princesses will be crowned Feb. 11th at the Cashmere Valley Bank Royalty Selection Pageant at the Numerica Performing Arts Center. Get Tickets here

Meet Top 10 Candidate Natalie Pearson

Natalie is a softball player for Wenatchee High School and with a club team in a traveling softball organization, the Sun Devils.  The Wenatchee based teams has about 85 girls that travel to tournaments throughout the northwest.  Pearson says she started playing T-ball around age 4 but her high school career got off to a rocky start because of the pandemic that wiped out her sophomore season.  Natalie's prowess on the diamond has allowed her to compete at the varsity level throughout high school and she joined the Sun Devil softball organization at age 12.

As far as plans to play softball in college, Natalie says "I've thought about it, I've definitely had opportunities that I could have taken but I have decided on the college I want to attend, which is Eastern Washington University.  Unfortunately, they don't offer a softball program.  There might be a club program there that I can join".   Natalie admits she is still on the fence on the decision at this point.

Natalie plans to attend Eastern to enroll in the Dental Hygiene program. She has thought about the career since getting her braces off "It really changed my confidence level and so being able to help people become confident in their smile and feel good about themselves would be something I'm really interested in" she said with a beaming smile.

Get our free mobile app

Natalie is a big fan of the singer Adele and would trade places for the day with another performer, singer, actress Zendaya who got her start on the Disney Channel in 2010.   "I want to trade places with her because she is such an influential young woman.  She talks a lot about anti-bullying and being proud of who you are"  Natalie imagined if they did trade places for a day, Zendaya (as Natalie) she would start with Running Start classes and a yoga session at Wenatchee Valley College, homework assignments, some household chores and "practice her speech too, right"

Each Top 10 candidate is asked to identify their proudest moment and Natalie explained what she learned about herself coming through the pandemic "I think quarantine was a very difficult time for a lot of people and I'm a very social person, I'm definitely an extrovert and I thrive off of talking to people.  Being isolated for so long is really hard.  The fact that I was able to come out of that and be where I am today, doing something like this, I'm just really proud of myself for growing that much and using that time to become better"

Read Natalie Pearson's full biography here

This is the final installment in a series of interviews with the Top 10 candidates who appeared on The KPQ Agenda program the week of Jan. 30th through Feb. 3rd   Here are links to the other candidate interviews posted on KPQ

Interview with Top 10 Candidate Kendall Flanagan

Interview with Top 10 Candidate Hannia Hernandez-Mendoza

Interview with Top 10 Candidate Finnley Ottley

Interview with Top 10 Candidate Elisha Bartlett

Interview with Top 10 Candidate Taylor Williams

Interview with Top 10 Candidate Rachael Hamilton

Interview with Top 10 Candidate Scarlette Cron

Interview with Top 10 Candidate Dylan Schmitten

Interview with Top 10 Candidate Sophia Kinninger

The Top 10 compete Feb. 11th in the Cashmere Valley Bank Royalty Selection Pageant.  5 out-of-town Judges choose a Queen and two Princesses to reign over the Apple Blossom Festival. The Queen receives a $10,000 Scholarship, provided by the Wenatchee Applarians, and each Princess receives a $5,000 Scholarship. The remaining seven Candidates receive $1,000 each. Six local businesses generously donate an additional $4,000 in Scholarships. Over $31,000 is given out in Scholarships on Pageant Night.