VOORHEESVILLE — The Hilltowns’ Meaghan Walter is living out one dream and trying to reach another as she serves on the court at the Tulip Festival in Albany.
"It hasn’t hit me yet," Walter said.

Walter, 20, said that women between 18 and 25 years old who want to serve on the tulip court must be nominated. While she recovered from an injury recently, Walter’s mother nominated her to cheer her up.
As a child, she had told her mother, "I want to be one of those girls one day. I want girls to look up to me." Unable to restrain her exuberance, Walter added, "Oh my goodness, this is wonderful."

Walter graduated from Berne-Knox-Westerlo High School and now lives and works in Voorheesville. She is a full-time preschool teacher who studies early childhood education at Hudson Valley Community College part-time.

She said that she has not entered pageants before.
"The most I’ve done is show horses at the Altamont Fair," Walter said. She was nominated, and made a member of the Tulip Court, because of her work in the community, she said.

Walter has taught Sunday School and worked at the food pantry at Westerlo Baptist Church. She helped with blood drives and benefit walks while in high school.
"This isn’t a beauty pageant at all," Walter said about the Tulip Festival Court. "It’s about community service, reaching out to the community, and your intelligence. The experience I’m going to have will benefit me in the future, especially with the children."

The purpose of the court, she said, is to promote Mayor Gerald Jennings’s literacy program.
"Our job is to be ambassadors to the community. We are the mayor’s representatives of literacy. We volunteer our time at events like the Winter Festival and Alive at Five," she said. "Our main job is to reach out to the youth."

A committee will choose a queen from the five Tulip Court members, by determining, through interviews and at receptions, which of them has leadership qualities as well as the ability to work as a team, Walter said.
"I’m extremely happy to be on the court," she said. "If chosen queen, I’d be project manager to many events. I would love to show the girls my ideas." If she were queen, Walter said, she would be "the one the girls come to if they have a problem."

Walter said that the Tulip Festival, which celebrates Albany’s rich Dutch heritage, began Wednesday with tours through Washington Park. Today will be Champagne in the Park, and Friday will be the kick-off party. The court will be there to promote the festival and to greet people.

Walter said that volunteers are still needed for the festival and interested people may call the special-events coordinator at the mayor’s office. Walter will be helping with the children’s events like face-painting, a bouncy ride, and pony rides.

Joan Jett and the Black Hearts will perform Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Jazz trumpeter Chris Botti will perform Sunday at 4:30 p.m. Crafts and art celebrating spring will be available from vendors, and food vendors will be set up throughout the park.

The queen’s coronation will take place Saturday at noon in Washington Park.