Girls in second through sixth grade recently gathered at the Roselle Public Library for tea with a special guest — Grace Biernacki, the 2016 Rose Queen.

“They asked me about my duties as Rose Queen,” the Lake Park High School junior said. “It was so much fun that they looked up to me as the Rose Queen.”

As Biernacki nears the end of her yearlong reign, she’s looking forward to Friday, March 3, when the new queen will be named at the 2017 Rose Queen Scholarship Event.

“It’s going to be sad to not be the Rose Queen anymore, but I’m extremely excited about crowning the new queen,” she said.

The Roselle Rose Queen represents the village in the annual Rose Parade, at the Christmas tree-lighting and at several other events, said Katie Petrucci, one of three scholarship committee members.

Petrucci and the other two committee members, Pam Mitchell and Amy Reuter, are teachers at Benson Primary School in Itasca. Petrucci is a Lake Park alumni.

The Rose Queen receives a $2,000 scholarship that can be used to help cover college expenses, Petrucci said. The first runner-up receives $1,000 and the second runner-up receives $500. A fourth scholarship of $500 is awarded based on academic performance.

The scholarships are funded by the village, donations from area business owners, and from ticket sales for the event, she said.

The pageant is open to girls who are freshmen through seniors and who either live in Roselle or attend Lake Park High School.

On Friday, 22 girls will compete for the scholarship money and the Rose Queen title.

That’s a huge jump from the eight girls who competed last year, and Petricci says it’s the most girls who have participated in the pageant’s recent history.

Before the event, each competitor fills out an application, writes an essay and participates in an interview with the judges.

This year’s four judges include a former Rose Queen, as well as business and community leaders.

“We always have at least two who have judged in the past,” Petrucci said.

The competition has evolved over the years, she said.

Girls once were asked to model sportswear, but that part of the competition has been replaced by a “community connections” segment, where an emcee reads each

girl’s statement about what connects her to Roselle.

“We’re trying to get away from the traditional pageant sense of what it used to be,” Petrucci said. “We’re hoping it’s well received. This is the first time we’re doing that.”

There’s also a talent competition and a segment where competitors are asked to respond to a randomly selected question.

During the formalwear portion of the evening, Petrucci said the girls enter the stage accompanied by an escort who could be anyone close to them — a best friend, a little brother, a boyfriend, a mother.

Biernacki’s escort for the formalwear segment was her aunt, Julie Christiansen, who was undergoing cancer treatment at the time. Biernacki, of Bloomingdale, said she dedicated her self-choreographed lyrical dance during the talent portion of the show to Christiansen.

Getting up in front of a crowd comes easily for Biernacki.

“I’m not typically bothered by stage fright,” she said. “I love speaking. I also am a dancer and I love performing.”

Biernacki said she was thrilled to win the crown last year.

“The thought that I could win Rose Queen made me ecstatic,” she said.

She said she is looking at colleges that range from “COD to a school in Spain. I want to study teaching or journalism.”

Her advice for this year’s contestants is simple:

“There’s nothing more important than being themselves on stage,” she said. “Every single one is a star. Just have fun.”