WASHINGTON (AP) – A student from Maine is the new queen of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which winds down this weekend in the nation’s capital.

Emily Little of Mount Desert won the random draw among Cherry Blossom princesses chosen by member organizations of the National Conference of State Societies. Little, a junior nursing student at the University of Maine at Orono, was chosen to represent the state by the Maine State Society of Washington, D.C.

She’s the first Mainer to be queen since Kelley Riordan Horowitz of Livermore Falls in 1990.

But Little says she’s almost more excited to have been elected Miss Congeniality by her fellow princesses from the states and territories.

“We’re very much supportive of each other. It’s not a competition,” Little said.

Little said applying for the Washington event was a natural since she has a scholarship through the Maine society and has been studying community health care issues.

Among her duties as queen are traveling to Japan for about 10 days as a goodwill ambassador and attending next year’s Washington festival.

A parade Saturday is a highlight of the 16-day festival that is Washington’s signature tourist event, honoring the anniversary of 3,000 cherry trees Japan gave to the United States in 1912. The festival began in 1935.

More than 1 million visitors come to Washington each year to admire the blossoming cherry trees and take part in the festival that heralds the arrival of spring in the capital.

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On the Net:

Cherry Blossom Festival: http://www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/

Maine State Society of Washington, D.C: http://www.mainestatesociety.org

AP-ES-04-12-08 0944EDT

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