From “Cherry Queens” to Caring Queens
How Traverse City’s National Cherry Festival Helped Two Queens Achieve Their Dreams of Becoming Nurses
Not every healthcare organization can boast about having two queens on staff—especially cherry queens! Munson Medical Center’s Allie Graziano, RN (NICU) and Danielle Pung, RN (cardiology) know that being the National Cherry Queen is more than just winning a pageant. It's a year-long commitment to serve as an ambassador for all things cherry-related around Northern Michigan. It also comes with a $10,000 scholarship, both of which helped our queens become the nurses they are today.
As young girls growing up in Traverse City, Pung and Graziano both loved the National Cherry Festival. "Every year, you go to the festival, you see the queen, and it makes you want to be just like her, especially as a little girl,” Graziano says. “I started volunteering for the festival in middle school.” Pung has a similar story: “Growing up here, you get to attend the Cherry Festival and meet the Cherry Queen. She's in the parade and an ambassador for all great things from Traverse City ... who doesn’t want to be that person who gets to be the advocate for the community?”
Both Graziano and Pung had their hearts set on entering healthcare at the time of their reign. Pung was graduating from Michigan State University with the initial intent of being a physician assistant, but her time as Cherry Queen changed her trajectory almost immediately. Through a connection at the Cherry Festival, Pung took a chance on a position on Munson Medical Center’s cardiology unit. “In those first couple of weeks of orientation, I saw the impact that these nurses had for all these patients—the education, the support, the love, the care, the collaboration,” says Pung. “Tag-team that with my Cherry Queen experience, and I decided this is exactly what I want to do. Something that supports the community and supports healthcare.”
Graziano decided to run for Cherry Queen during her final year of nursing school. “I was in my final semester and said, ‘I’m doing it. I’m putting everything into running.’ And I knew that if I was going to have the job as queen, I needed to be able to represent everybody in the best way that I could. So, I actually went to farms and learned the most I could to advocate for our farmers and be an ambassador for the Cherry Festival.”
Financially, the festival scholarship also played a huge part in helping bring Pung and Graziano to Munson’s nursing team. “I was able to put myself through nursing school without debt—that would not have been possible without the National Cherry Queen Program,” Pung says. Graziano agrees. “Being Cherry Queen was truly a cherry on top, because it paved the way for me to graduate debt free.”
Additionally, serving as Cherry Queen helped to build skills essential for nursing. “I can talk with almost anyone, and in healthcare, that's crucial to be able to help people understand their situation, understand their medication, and what follow-up means,” Pung explains. “I can confidently do that in my role because that whole year as Cherry Queen, that’s what you’re thrown into."
Graziano agrees that the ability to connect with people in different circumstances is a key takeaway from her reign as Cherry Queen. “As a nurse, you never know what you’re walking into. And as a Cherry Queen, you never really knew either,” she adds. “I am a NICU nurse, so my patients don’t speak. But learning to walk in and be able to communicate with parents of all different walks of life ... that’s huge. And knowing how to make them feel at ease.”
Understandably, both queens strongly recommend participating in the Cherry Queen program. “It's a really cool opportunity in our community, and I think, especially for young girls going into nursing, they should consider the chance to run,” Graziano says. “It opens doors for you that wouldn't be opened otherwise, and it is doable to go to nursing school and balance clinicals and even work as an aide. You can do it all!”
Pung's perspective is similar. She feels that inspiring the next generation of nurses was the best part of her Cherry Queen reign. “I was at the Alpenfest parade and there was this little girl—probably five or six—and she said, ‘I just want to be like you when I grow up, but I won't be able to.’ I was able to say, ‘None of that matters, you can be exactly who you want to be, and I'm going to be so proud of you when you accomplish those goals.’ And to see her face light up and her demeanor completely change... those are the moments that I still carry with me.”
To date, no patients have recognized that they were being taken care of by a former Cherry Queen, but Graziano does sneak in some references to her reign from time to time. “It only comes up when I put babies in full-blown cherry outfits. The parents say, ‘Wow, you must really love cherries!’ And I respond, ‘Oh boy, you wouldn’t believe it.’” Similarly, Pung remains an advocate for cherries and especially their healing powers. “I tell people who have gout, 'You should get tart cherries, there are capsules for it, there are shots'—and people look at me like I’m crazy. My coworkers usually make comments like, ‘Danielle, not everything has to be about cherries.’”