PHOTO PROVIDED Miss Central Mountain, Emily Everett, is pictured.

PHOTO PROVIDED
Miss Bucktail, Rossella Tarantella, is pictured.

The 83rd Annual Pennsylvania State Laurel Festival with activities for all ages gets underway this Saturday, June 14, and continues through Sunday, June 22 in Wellsboro.

Kicking off the festival on Saturday, June 14, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., rain or shine is Family Day and the Children’s Health Fair on The Green. There will be 45 booths with information, activities, such as games to play for prizes, an obstacle course, creative projects to do on-site and take home, such as cow crafts, planting seeds, and making sun bead key chains, suncatchers, window clings and sun visors, and giveaways, like assorted toys, reflective zipper pulls, reusable bags, stickers, etc. Each youngster participating in Family Day will be given a free playground ball or an 18-inch super flying disc to take home. Infants to 12-year-olds will be fitted with free bike helmets while supplies last.

This Sunday, June 15, is the Pet Parade. Children, 12 and under, with decorated bicycles and pets of all types from dogs and cats to horses and lambs will gather for registration and judging at 12:25 p.m. in the Packer Park picnic area behind the Wellsboro Active Living Center (Senior Center) parking lot on Queen Street. At 1:30 p.m., the parade will leave the park, travel up Main Street to The Green for award presentations. Each child entering a pet or a decorated bike has to fill out a registration form to participate in the Pet Parade. Only one pet or one bike per child will be judged. Questions, call the Wellsboro Area Chamber of Commerce office at 570-724-1926.

Every night, Monday, June 16 through Friday, June 20, will be a free concert with different entertainers. Donations are always appreciated.

On Friday, June 20, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday, June 21, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., the annual Arts & Crafts Fair with 80 artisans, 13 of them new, will be on The Green with unique, handcrafted items and 18 vendors will be on the International Street of Foods offering delectable delights

Friday at noon on the Tioga County Courthouse steps is the welcome for last year’s Laurel Queen and the 2025 queen candidates.

At 4:30 p.m. Friday, June 20, Molly’s Boys Jug Band will open the Laurel Queen’s Preview on the Deane Center’s outdoor stage. The 24 queen candidates will be introduced at 5 p.m. and the band will close the event with music.

The Laurel Festival 10K at 9 a.m. and Two-Mile Fun Run at 9:05 a.m. will start events on Saturday, June 21. Registration for both will be from 7:45 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. at Packer Park on Queen Street.

At 2 p.m. will be the Laurel Festival Parade with floats, queens, top-notch drum and bugle corps, bagpipers, high school marching bands, antique vehicles and more.

At Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. coronation ceremony, the 2025 Pennsylvania State Laurel Queen will be crowned.

On Sunday, June 22, at 10:30 a.m., the festival will end with the Union Church Service on The Green.

Miss Central Mountain

Miss Emily Everett is representing Central Mountain High School in Mill Hall and her community as a Pennsylvania Laurel Queen candidate. She is the daughter of Teresa and Robert Everett, of Allison Township.

During her four years of high school, Miss Everett was on the high honor roll or honor roll and was a four-year member of SkillsUSA, a workforce development organization for students, of which she was the president during her senior year.

As a sophomore, junior and senior, Miss Everett was a member of the Rotary Interact Club; the Central Mountain Golf team and Teen Court, which uses actual cases to introduce students to the judicial system.

Miss Everett was inducted into the National Honor Society as a junior and was also a member during her junior and senior year. She was also a member of Wildcat Way, a schoolwide positive behavior support program; became an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) with Lock Haven Emergency Medical Services and was awarded a Lock Haven EMS Scholarship. As a sophomore and junior, she took part in Stop the Bleed, teaching community members how to recognize severe bleeding and what actions to take to bring it under control as well as distributing bleeding control kits community-wide.

As a senior, Miss Everett volunteered in Mrs. Snyder’s kindergarten class. As a freshman, she volunteered as an assistant gymnastics coach at the Lock Haven YMCA.

Miss Everett was employed during all four years of high school as a cart attendant at the Belles Springs Golf Course in Mill Hall. As a sophomore and junior, she was a gymnastics coach at the Lock Haven YMCA. In her senior year, she worked as a patient care technician at Geisinger Jersey Shore Hospital. She enjoys golf and gymnastics.

Following graduation, Miss Everett will continue to work as an Emergency Medical Technician and attend a one-year paramedic program at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. Her career goal is to become a flight paramedic.

Miss Bucktail

Miss Rossella Tarantella is representing Bucktail Area High School and her community as a Pennsylvania Laurel Queen candidate.

She is the daughter of Amanda and Thomas Tarantella, of Renovo.

Her cousin, Aaliyah McGowan, was a Laurel Queen candidate representing Bucktail High School in 2019.

All four years of high school, Miss Tarantella was a varsity football cheerleader and Varsity Club member; a Clinton County Relay for Life volunteer, participating in fundraisers and event setup and cleanup with the Bucktail Medical Center’s Relay for Life Team; and an active member of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church where she volunteers for a variety of community service projects and has been an altar server for the past two years.

As a junior and senior, Miss Tarantella was on honor roll and a Greater Renovo Area Heritage Park Haunted House volunteer.

She was a member of the Yearbook Club as a senior and won the English award as a junior and the Biology award as a sophomore.

Miss Tarantella has frequently been employed as a babysitter as a sophomore, junior and senior. The summer after her sophomore year, she worked as the park supervisor for the Keystone Central School District’s Summer Recreation Program. The summer after her junior year, she did a cosmetology internship with Creative Images Styling Studio in Lock Haven.

She enjoys pontooning, camping, hiking, dance, music, baking and stargazing.

This fall, Miss Tarantella will take her state license test to become a cosmetologist.

Her career goal is to become a cosmetologist and open a hair salon in Renovo, her hometown.