The 2025-26 National Cherry Festival (NCF) Cherry Queen will be coronated on July 4, which prompted The Ticker to wonder what’s become of the more than 90 past Queens.
 
The Queen serves as an ambassador for the festival, the cherry industry, and the Traverse City area. She represents the festival and the region at events across the country “spreading cherry love.”
 
“Farmin’ Carmen,” Carmen Beemer, didn’t come from a farming family. But the Middleville native was always interested in agriculture, and was studying horticulture at Michigan State when she applied to the Queen Program.
 
She was named the 2023 Cherry Queen. “I was really busy. It was my final year (at college),” she says. It meant a lot of late nights and early mornings as she’d drive to and from events and return for classes. “It was helpful I was the Cherry Queen. My professors were understanding.”
 
Today she works as account manager and crop consultant for fruits and vegetables at Gold Coast Sales in Shelby – and keeps busy on Instagram as Farmin’ Carmen.
 
Angela Sayler knows about keeping the Queen busy. As director of the Queen Program, she and the “Queen Team” are responsible for setting up appearances throughout the year and during the festival. “I’ve been involved with the National Cherry Festival now for the last 15 years,” she says; this will be her 8th year as director of the Queen Program. 
 
She’s actually been involved longer than that: Sayler was selected as 2009 Cherry Queen. “I had one of the most memorable years of my life as the National Cherry Queen and made so many wonderful friendships. I knew I wanted to stay involved and help however I could,” she says.
 
Seems it runs in the family. She and Sonya Sayler Gallagher (2013 Queen) are the only sisters to have been named Cherry Festival Queen. Angela says it was at her sister’s insistence that she even applied. “Before my younger sister encouraged me to apply, I had no idea what all went into planning and executing an event of this magnitude.”
 
Sonya knew she always wanted to be in the program. “Growing up, it was my dream. It started at 10 when I met a Cherry Queen,” she says.
 
The sisters are the sixth generation at Sayler Orchards, “so most of our summers around festival time have been spent actually harvesting cherries, still to this day!” says Angela.
 
That tradition continues. Sonya now lives in Hudsonville, but she and her family return each year for harvest and festival time. “We’re packing up to move to the farm and work in July and August, which we love,” she says.
 
Kelli Kaberle Mengebier, Queen in 1998, is now president-elect of the National Cherry Festival Foundation. Next year, as the festival celebrates its 100th birthday, she will serve as president, the first former queen to do so.
 
“Isn’t that so cool? I want more of us,” she says, noting that several other former National Cherry Queens are involved in the program in various capacities. “The Queen’s Committee is full of them.”
 
She says many do indeed come from farming families, and that provides an awareness of the hard work needed to succeed. “Grit is the key. Farming is not easy. There are so many things you can’t control, so many variables.”
 
She was the first queen to go to the Tournament of Roses in California. While there, she and her family attended The Tonight Show. Her dad was a car collector, and they made a connection with noted car enthusiast Jay Leno, and even got to tour his collection. Leno suggested Kelli apply for an internship. She did, landed the gig, and ended up in the television industry in California for several years. She moved back to Traverse City in 2017 and jumped back into the festival.
 
Even those who no longer live here still return to the festival. Kelly Plucinski, Queen in 2003, returns from California, while 2004 Queen Maggie Schneider leaves the Land of 10,000 Lakes to return to the Great Lakes State.
 
Plucinski notes her favorite times were “going to the Pavilions to visit the seniors (when) they had a day care. We’d share music, songs, laughter with all ages. At our core we’re all human. Also Special Cherry Kids Day. It’s so lovely to see people coming together, sharing kindness and humanity.”
 
Being named National Cherry Queen didn’t keep her around here, however. “I moved to California the end of the year of my reign. I wanted to be an actor at 11,” Plucinski says.
 
She is chief content officer at Plate Pros, which provides background footage for films and television shows. She’s also an action actor who can do most of her own stunts, having studied martial arts for 15-plus years. She goes by Kelly Kula professionally, using her mother’s maiden name.
 
Schneider’s enthusiasm for the program goes back to elementary school. “My first experience of the Cherry Festival was as a princess at Willow Hill,” recalls Schneider. “I remember having an absolute blast.”
 
She says the process is unlike what people in Minnesota might think. “They don’t understand. It’s not a pageant – I’d be terrible at that,” she says with a laugh.
 
Instead, it’s about preparing a speech, being poised no matter the situation, and representing the industry. “I ran twice. I was under-prepared (the first time). Painfully so. I wasn’t sure what to expect,” says Schneider.
 
“Most important is to be able to connect, talk to young people, older people, the seniors breakfast, Rotary. You have to be flexible and speak offhand.”
 
What keeps them and others coming back is not celebrating past glories, but maintaining ties to a sisterhood. Plucinski and Schneider, who reigned in consecutive years, became the best of friends. “We text each other almost every day,” says Schneider.