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Date: 2/1/2023
WEST SPRINGFIELD – For the first time since 2020, the St. Patrick’s Day Committee of West Springfield crowned a new colleen and court at the Colleen Ball on Jan. 28 at the Springfield Country Club.
Emmalee Spear, a senior at Pope Francis Preparatory School, was chosen from a pool of 12 candidates, all of them West Springfield residents. The four runners-up will become the colleen’s court: Kadyn Faith McDonough, Lauren Eleanor Fletcher, Paige Davis and Jillian Elizabeth Stopa.
Each of the 12 contestants had to create a resume that consisted of their educational achievements, projects and volunteer experiences in West Springfield. They were evaluated on their biographies, essays they submitted, interviews with judges and on beauty and poise. Five finalists were then selected to answer a question on stage at the Colleen Ball.
For Spear, much of her effort in volunteer work has been focused on benefiting children in the foster care system. One way she tries to help kids in local foster homes is through an annual foster care supply drive that she created in 2016.
“I started it when I was in middle school because I myself was a foster child and I wanted to give back to the community,” said Spear during the final phase of the contest, in which the final five contestants elaborated on specific volunteer work they had done.
After she had been crowned colleen, Spear said that she had dreamed of the moment since she was 12, when she attended her first contest with her mother.
“I came to my first colleen contest when I was 12 with my mom, and ever since then she would tell me, ‘You’re going to be colleen one day,’” said Spear.
Spear and her court will represent West Springfield in the 70th Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Parade in March, in which she said she hopes to be involved in another “award winning float.”
Spear’s Irish heritage is important to her, but it was something she lost touch with when she had been going through the foster care system as a child. When she was adopted, her family reintroduced her to Irish culture, which she said she was grateful for.
“I fully embraced it, to the max,” said Spear.
Spear is also a member of her school’s Pathways Program, National Honors Society, and a high honors student.
Of the court members, Davis and Stopa are seniors at West Springfield High School, while Fletcher and McDonough are both graduates of West Springfield High School. Both are studying criminal justice and political science at college, with Fletcher at Worcester State University and McDonough at the University of Rhode Island.
Kathleen Rose Beliveau was chosen as West Springfield’s colleen in 2020, and many during the Jan. 28 ceremony noted that thanks to the coronavirus pandemic – which canceled the 2020 and 2021 parades, and the 2021 and 2022 colleen balls – she had become the longest reigning colleen in the history of the West Springfield St. Patrick’s Parade Committee.