2014 Royal Family Members Share Insights on their Festival Reign

Following is the full text of 2014 Barnum Festival Queen Monica Gorton’s college essay:

“‘The noblest art is that of making others happy.’ Those are the words of the great P.T Barnum, entrepreneur and philanthropist of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Fast forward to May of 2014, I stood among a group of 16 accomplished high school junior girls, anticipating the names of the 2014 Barnum Festival Princess and Queen. The words still echo inside my head, ‘The 2014 Barnum Festival Queen, from Bunnell High School is…Monica Gorton.’ Although I didn’t realize it at the time as I was given a tiara and sash, I was being thrown head first into an experience far greater than myself.

I like to say that my duty as Queen of the Barnum Festival Royal Family was similar to being a Princess at Disney World – wearing a sparkly tiara, swishing around in miles of snow white toile, smiling for hours on end, and waving to crowds of people with my white gloved hands. Although these were part of my journey, they were only the superficial aspects of my life as the Barnum Festival Queen. While most remembered as the creator of  ‘The Greatest Show on Earth,’  P.T. Barnum’s most meaningful achievements center around his commitment and compassion to the people of the city of Bridgeport.  He, who had many blessings, felt it was his duty to give back to the community. My true role as Queen was to carry on his legacy.

As an ambassador of P.T Barnum and the Festival, I participated in many events but the event that was most memorable was The Barnum Festival Road Show. I saw the spark of P.T Barnum’s charity recreated right before my very eyes. It is the mission of the Road Show to bring the joy of the festival to the elderly confined to nursing homes and to disabled children and adults unable to attend Festival events. As a band of lively merrymakers, some festooned as clowns, we sang, danced, and greeted young and old. The memory of holding frail hands wrinkled with age and rocking wheelchairs to give people the sensation that they were dancing too is etched in my mind. It moved me to see that such simple gestures could have such a significant impact, bringing blissful smiles and laughter. I was amazed that some of the children, who were unable to hold their heads up without mechanical support, found some way to ‘dance’ to ‘Zip-A-Dee-Do-Da.’ If only for a moment, we had the power to make their disabilities disappear. Although physically exhausted from two days of visiting 16 facilities, I was buoyed by the knowledge that I had made a difference.

My tiara has begun to dull from a light film of dust and my ball gown is hanging in wait for when I crown the next Barnum Festival Queen, but the words of P.T Barnum will always remain in my heart. ‘In my relationships, career, and as a member of humankind, I hope to master the art of making others happy.'” -Monica Gorton