18 past Liberation Day Queens to join 4th of July parade

Eighteen former Liberation Day Queens will be joining this year’s Liberation Day parade that will start as early as 9am and will begin from Quartermaster Road all the way to Garapan Fishing Base on July 4.

According to Liberation Day Queen committee head for past Liberation Day queens Carmen Gaskins, this year’s Liberation Day Committee invited these former queens to join this year’s parade as a show support and gratitude.

“Because the Liberation Day is actually a fundraising event and the Liberation Day queens are usually the ones who have fundraised more, we want to show them our gratitude,” Gaskins said.

The funds raised by the Liberation Day Queen candidates go into the Liberation Day Committee’s chest and the winning candidate receives about 20 percent of the funds earned while the rest goes to the expenses of hosting the Liberation Day celebration.

Gaskins noted that the third Liberation Queen ever, from 1957, Concepcion Ada Torres, will be joining past Liberation queens on the parade. The past Liberation queens will be on a float of their own.

According to Saipan Mayor Marian Deleon Guerrero Tudela, it is good for the former queens to join the parade because “it shows they are very proud of the tradition.”

Tudela said those who could not join have either passed away or have gone off-island.

“But we are going to recognize them,” Tudela told Saipan Tribune.

Gaskins is also asking the families of past Liberation Day queens to help the former queens in setting up their float for the July 4th celebration.

Former Liberation Day queens joining the parade include: Concepcion (1957), Frances Sablan (1960), Annie DLG. Hayes (1971), Patricia Rasa (1972), Piding Tenorio (1974), Pauline Kapileo (1973), Julie T. Lieto (1975), Juanita Crisostimo-Aflague (1976), Josephine Togawa-Plinske (1980), Clarissa Bearden (1986), Michelle Iginoef (1996), Leiana O. Saures (2004), Yvonne Passi (2005), Janelle Reyes (2007), Peachy Quitugua (2010), Joni Castro (2011), Lydia Pangelinan (2012), and Nicole Sablan (2013).

July 2 coronation night

According to Liberation Day Queen committee chair Joan Aquino, the 2014 Liberation Day Queen and her royal court will be crowned two days before Liberation Day on July 2.

Coronation night will take place at the Garapan Fishing Base across Kristo Rai Church.

“The reigning queen for 2013, Sablan, and the royal court as well as the 2013 Liberation candidates will be joining.”

Aquino noted that parents will be the ones to crown their daughters if they were to be chosen for 2014 Liberation Day Queen and the royal court.