PORT TOWNSEND — A computer glitch is being blamed for a yearlong error in which the wrong young woman reigned as Rhododendron Festival queen last year.
Dana Perkins spent the year as Rhody queen, representing Port Townsend and Jefferson County at numerous parades and events until she crowned the 2008 queen earlier this month.
But the 2007 queen should have been Chelsea Benner, a Chimacum High School classmate of Perkins, according to computer data discovered while preparing for this month’s coronation.
Both will go into the books as 2007 co-queens, and Benner will receive the $1,500 scholarship money that accompanies the Rhody title, plus the queen’s regalia.
Perkins will keep her scholarship money, too.
“It was the matrix we used,” said Stacy Richards, festival president.
“Unfortunately, an error in the way the formula was entered into the [computer] program dropped a score.”
While preparing for the 2008 coronation, members of the festival re-examined the 2007 scoring system, which was stored in an Excel computer document.
To their shock, they found an error: The scoring algorithm failed to add in one of Benner’s four judged categories at the March 3, 2007, coronation.
It calculated Benner finishing in fourth place — behind Queen Perkins and Princesses Brianna Rondeau and Katreena Minnihan.
When the correct score added back in, Benner moved to first place, with the other three contestants moving down in the results.
Richards said that after discovering the error, a meeting was held with the festival association board.
“We met, discussed what we needed to do and decided she would be known as co-queen and also given the scholarship and the crown,” Richards said.
No changes are being made to the scholarships or status of the 2007 royalty other than Benner’s elevation to co-queen.
