This year’s Strawberry Festival court personifies the festival’s theme, “Strawberry Adventure.” From swimming with manta rays to hanging over bridges for a photograph, the court is filled with adventures that help define who they are and who they will become.
Hanna Davis, 18, finds most of her adventures outside.
She enjoys doing anything active, like running, kayaking, hiking and participating in family activities.
Her parents own Hollywood Dance Studio, where she works as a dance teacher and is choreographer for the junior dance team.
She’s also been on the high school’s Explosion! dance team for four years, and as captain of the team for three. They have brought home a state title every year, this year taking second place.
“I’m constantly dancing,” she noted.
Hanna also ran track and field, and is on the National Honor Society.
It might not come as a surprise to learn that she is very passionate about natural movement of the body.
She’s thinking about dual-enrolling at Linn-Benton Community College and Oregon State University to pursue a degree in kinesiology so she can be a physical therapist.
“I’m very interested in how the body works, how it heals itself, and how the different muscles move in the body and how we use them throughout daily life.”
Hanna wants a career that allows her to help people directly in a way that lets the body do what it’s meant to do naturally, she said.
What may come as a surprise, however, is that one of her biggest adventures involved something some might regard as very unnatural for the body. During a recent trip to Six Flags, a water and amusement park in California, she was “determined” to do the Drop Slide.
“You get in the slide and you’re standing in, like, a little incubator, and the floor from under you drops,” she said. “I was only going to do the short one, but when I got up there, my dad convinced me to go up on the really big one, and I was scared out of my life. My heart was pounding and it was the most exhilarating thing. But when I got done with it, it was such an adrenaline rush.”
On Hanna’s bucket list is a trip to Europe.
“There are so many things to see there, and it’s very historical and I really like history.”
Meanwhile, she finds a lot to like about Lebanon, her hometown.
“What I appreciate about Lebanon the most is the closeness of our town, and how we work together to make our town what it is now,” she said.
The recent changes in town came from the community, not just a few groups of people, she noted. She appreciates she can know people who are involved in local businesses and organizations.
“There’s not a big gap between people that are making our town what it is right now and the people who live in it. It’s the people who live in our town who are the ones making our town advance.”