By Sarah Brown
Lebanon Local
Trinity Holden, 18, is the daughter of Chuck and Julie Holden. She has two sisters: Alivia, 16, and Delilah, 5. The family also includes a silver Labrador retriever named Captain and a miniature Aussiedoodle named Morgan.
Trinity remembers meeting Strawberry Princesses when she was little. She was impressed that the “kind and caring” princesses would have conversations with her because adults don’t talk to “youngers” often.
“But they would talk to you and they would listen to you,” she said. “When I was little, I appreciated that.”
And that made her want to be a Strawberry Princess.
When Trinity got the call announcing that she was chosen to serve on the Strawberry Court, she felt like her efforts to be her best self culminated in that one moment. But she also knew it was about more than just being a good person.
“It’s about the community; that was my favorite part,” she said. “You do everything for all these people, and I get to hang out with these girls and I get to meet all these little kids, and you get to make all these connections that you will have for maybe the rest of your life, and I think that’s amazing.”
Though she loves the carnival rides, Trinity said the parade was her favorite part of the Strawberry Festival because it was a family affair, with grandparents, aunts and uncles setting up chairs with her family to watch the floats drive by.
“My personal favorite was the princesses, the classic cars and then the little cars that drive at the very end of the parade,” she said. “My parents were always telling me to sit down in my chair, but I couldn’t help it; I wanted to go out and get the candy.”
It seems candy isn’t the only thing that kept Trinity off her tush because she’s been playing softball since she was 9 years old, and she started volleyball shortly after that. The two sports are central elements in her life; particularly softball, which has earned Trinity a scholarship at Portland State University, where she will begin pursuing a career in the medical field as an orthopedic surgeon. From there, she wants to enroll at a medical college through the Navy or Marines to finish graduate school.
For the last six years she has been playing with the Northwest Bullets, a national softball organization based out of Portland where her team (18U) currently ranks 14th in the nation. The team has taken Trinity across the states, offering her family an opportunity to turn the trips into family vacations.
One trip several years ago in particular stands out to her as a favorite, when the team was scheduled to participate in the annual Colorado Sparkler, a week-long tournament hosting as many as 1,000 teams. That particular year, the tournament was canceled due to rain and hail, but that didn’t ruin the vacation for her.
“It was a favorite memory for me because my family loves thunder and lightning storms, so I was able to enjoy that with my family and with my team,” Trinity said. “We were able to hang out and listen to the rolling thunder.”
Although softball takes up much of Trinity’s time, she reserves her free time for other favorite activities such as weightlifting, bicycling, hiking, reading books about mentality and dancing with her 5-year-old sister.
“My hobby is her,” she said of Delilah. “I play with her as much as I can.”
Trinity loves working with “the littles” at a softball camp for kids, and she feels she can communicate well with children.
“I enjoy little ones because they’re cute and pure, and I love the energy that they bring,” she said. “I like to be able to connect with them and understand them.”
Striving to be her best self, Trinity works on her weightlifting skills and “loves all things plyometrics.” In fact, she figures she’d like to eventually move into CrossFit and compete in a physical fitness competition to see how far she can take herself.
“Anything that has to do with my body I’m very interested in, and that also correlates with how I want to be involved in sports medicine because I really like to take care of my body,” she said.
And the books she reads center around creating a positive mindset because, she said, she believes mentality is just as important as physicality. She uses books about subjects such as confidence, optimism and grit to improve her athletic skills, but also extends it to other areas to live a successful life.
When Trinity heads off to Portland for college, she will always remember her roots.
“I am a small-town girl,” she said. “I love the community. I love where I am and it’s beautiful here and we like to take care of each other.”
She’ll carry the Strawberry Festival in her heart like a family heirloom, and someday, she might pass that tradition down to her own kids.
“Lebanon may be a small town, but we’re bigger and mightier than a lot of people think we are, and I think the Strawberry Festival as a tradition is able to show that for this town, that we are capable of a lot more than what everyone thinks.”
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