sun and here we are bread standing on the st paul public library steps looking at beautiful rice park and what a spectacular view and a winter night isn't it it is beautiful here snow that came in the middle of the week really made us feel like a winter wonderland here well we have a lot of folks gathering already the parade started about twenty minutes for me or they'll be working their way here this is a fun parade how many of you did at the this torchlight parade before happening this year you know the guards are celebrating one hundred years there was no guard for the first thirty or twenty nine years because they didn't think they needed it and then a boris realized that he better do something to protect his queen and prince this is so they or credit union and dan's been doing some great ads for the new st paul st stadium and for winter carnival it's been a great year how you promote it winter carnival oh thank you so much tom no this is just been such a spectacular year not only being carnival aspire being involved throughout even through the parades and through the community as well you know the royal family last year i'm so proud of them tom you know last year i don't people know about a winter carnival it's a three hundred sixty five day commitment in our royal family last year i'll will say that for tonight but what resupply is what i would just a great run a great community involvement but we really believe in giving back to the community and we've really gone through this hard recession really working with minnesotans through the really tough times for you're done a great come out to the parades and when i was a a street festival princess in two thousand and ten that was my first experience really getting to know the legend characters of the st paul winter carnival and through that experience i had a lot of friends i saw run for queen of the snow then become one student affairs oh that's great you know folks are going to find there's a theme to to winter carnival and all the festivals are over two hundred festivals in minnesota alone and they're what marks festivals that makes them so important  the amount of vala terrorism and you'll see tonight a lot of volunteers you've got a lot of red coats over here these folks are all volunteer and their time it takes a lot of people to put on a parade and to be part of that dan you didn't just start volunteering with the winter carnival  kind of other things have you done yeah you know i've been involved with a number of colleges boards communities you know life is about giving not getting it i really believe what you said tom i mean we're a couple so great about giving back to the community encouraging people in just being a ball out about it in really just building up the communities wherever you go you know what carl we've always said is about building community encouraging people whatever some good fun and good for all it with it to us and we've had a lot of fun this last year for sure to tell them some of the places you been yeah you know we've we've gone to many many senior housing we've really encouraged a lots of that we've gone to a lot of businesses within the st paul minnesota area as well and a lot of daycares young schools junior highs elementary schools again three hundred sixty plus appearances and we really hit the gamut what you say that i was i think we really made the most of our year and we said yes to a lot more appearance requests than we said no to which i think all the royal family should do to really get out there and spread the legend of the same paul winter carnival crystal i think a lot of people here know about the winter carnival but there are a lot of other festivals here in the state of minnesota to talk for a minute about how those work and some of those were fun for you yeah so you know the one thing i realized back in two thousand and ten is that there are so many cities just in the twin cities and surrounding suburbs that celebrate just really unique things about their communities a lot of them are smaller than what we see here at the same poll winter carnival but a lot of them involve the parade a lot of them have ambassadors that represent their city throughout the year you guys are going to see a lot of them as they come through the parade tonight and it's really just a way for communities to be able to come together to celebrate the unique aspects of their communities i really just have a good time there are lots of festivals in and around st paul volunteer ism is is a theme that we all talk about as we go around to the communities if you haven't volunteered we really recommend that you try it it's a great place to to meet people you get into something like a festival and you're with people you wouldn't otherwise be with we tend to hang around with those people we went to school with our neighbors the people we work with and this is a place where you get an opportunity to meet a lot of different people one of the exit we've been amazed to read is a number of this it started but back in eighty six when they started at this festival the year before a reporter from new york came to st paul on the train say paul was a hob in the westward movement and out the railroad card they had a they had an ice palace the indians from the surrounding area came in and set up camp and camp for the entire period of winter carnival participated and have heavily in it we didn't have vulcan then but we had  kong the king of fire and the first king was colonel man ford the so that was great in one nine hundred forty they changed the program and they started choosing a crew of six because they needed help they were winning but they were winning big of them you're going to see a lot of red tonight folks whatever you do don't leave before the parades over at the end of the parade when vulcan comes in they come in with a number of trucks a lot of vulcans walking a lot of fire now they're celebrating one hundred years with the guards we've got a very young boreas this year and i think the chances are very strong this year so i'm i'm pulling for him there's a lot going for him the members of the vulcan crew we have  progeny usually the member with the most children i think we saw some of that propaganda tonight and you know i talked about staying for the overthrow it happened right here on the steps attempted overthrow i'm sorry did overthrow after that we've got a little change th down to the intercontinental hotel for the bulk of victory dance a little more than hyperbole this case or higher over confident you can buy tickets at the door to that event for twenty five dollars it's a huge  a lot of fun we recommend it i think they'll be a little sad this year but i'm still sure they'll have the dance yeah i feel like there regardless of outcome they will feel like party tonight well the you know maybe you could tell us a little bit about your group who's it who's part of the royal family what's the royal family do you know you know the royal family is all about the cold and we're really celebrating the state of minnesota in st paul really throughout the process but our really consists of myself in our lovely queen a we are part here tonight then we have a prime minister who really is the one the keeper of our family who introduces us wherever we go and then as we talked about the important guards the loyal and the royal guards protecting our royal family wherever we go from the vulcans which is from us some of those that really are against the royal family and then we have our four when brothers both from the north east west and south and then they have princesses as well so and then we have a client a kid that will flow with us back and forth and it brings the merry myth of song and we've just had just such a great year as i said two thousand and fifteen was spectacular we then we conduct night is one of our most favorite thing is to recognize a special subject in th year we set a record time and brant fourteen thousand one hundred thirty nine where i want to tell people how you did that yeah you know we did it through a lot of a lot of groups what we did do a big name at the saints ball game so we had some fun there in what they give back to the community back to winter carnival back to their you know all the schools are really special people that really normally don't get a thank you and it's a chance for us to really say thank you to them it's it's really a special time quite frankly  yes we see people and communities unite people as you go around to the various other festivals you know you talked about going to different things but you also there are fifty festivals that i don't know if you make all of them i know you're invited to them and generally a back so literally all these cities we recognize the special people crystal so you are the ocoee queen and there were also you had four princesses that served with you for the young ladies in the office and the audience to think of themselves as princess es what is the process that you guys go to through to to get your rules here yeah so to become a royal lady for the st paul winter carnival all young women have to go through a candidate process and so you go through a couple group interviews you go through a couple all solo interviews and we had to participate in a really fun fashion show use of an application and really what they're looking for young women who can be ambassadors for the city of st paul women who are competent in public speaking who will be able to go up to you know people in a crowd and just really engage with them and so you are part of that process for about two and a half months and then at royal coronation at the end of january they announce them for when princesses and  snows and you really just kind of kick off your year and start really doing all those things that you practice throughout your candidacy and it's a really fun experience to be a candidate if you are twenty one if you are here if you think you would be a really great ambassador for the same paul winter carnival ms city of st paul look at that website come on over sign up talk to any of the people you see and read here tonight they'll tell you all about it it's a it's a great place to be get just a few minutes we're going to have the parade here part of it will see you tonight i think is the royal gone down you just see how beautiful rice park is how beautiful st paul is those of you watching on t v i don't know if you get a good shot of this but right now we can see the flames across the park from the parade as it's coming our way all the that up behind it it's early or this week somebody sent me a picture that must've been taken high above the library that picked up the the rest of the lights downtown and it was just fantastic well folks it looks like we're going to have a parade nice so preparation company in the united states with more than two twenty four million tax returns prepared worldwide with offices in canada australia brazil and india oh yeah and another little to head on down to that the victory dances is a good time with live music and just lots of lots of fun stuff i don't i think you're going to see a great show tonight here tonight you want to miss that you know and i spar that's a pretty new it's really filled in really great support i think we have the pioneer press coming past us at the moment pioneer press is the proud sponsor of the pioneer press treasure hunt this community the winter carnival tradition challenges readers to solve daily clues to find the medallion and went up to really go one the parade always your week oh it's been exciting to you i mean at the same time but it really really good time met a lot of fun people and the volunteers and things that take their time to plan the winter carnival are just amazing but we've got a organization in the world there are one point four million members in two hundred ten countries and geographical areas they perform a valuable service throughout the world the alliance of district five  anywhere you want to go  my see a lot of red out there but you never know we had a great snow day dog brought us a good snowstorm this week a lot of people one winter hey this is minnesota this isn't florida we appreciate our why don't we we don't mind it hanging around till favorite spot the whole twin cities and the landmark towers and this is my favorite spot the whole twin cities i absolutely love this spot and this is the most beautiful time of year right here the earlier this week we had a picture somebody took from above the library where looks like the kids might have something to say about this before the night is through can we can we get a big and what was the difference this year what would what do you think put you over the top i think it's because every year i get a little better and i'm i'm really good right now so this isn't your first rodeo no this is not for my fourth time or congratulations to