It took a moment for newly crowned B.C. Ambassador Sarah Simon to realize what had happened at the Merritt Civic Centre Saturday night.

"I stood up a little bit and I sat down. I couldn't process it right away. I was not graceful at all. I couldn't even comprehend it," she says.

After a grueling competition last week, Simon was chosen to form the three-person 2011 B.C. Ambassador team with Paris Sanesh of Kamloops and Freda Zhang of White Rock Saturday.

The trio will spend the next year touring the province, appearing at community events, supporting local ambassador pageants, and generally spreading goodwill in British Columbia. Each ambassador receives a $2,000 scholarship for post-secondary study at the end of her reign.

During the competition, candidates were subjected to a three-hour knowledge exam on British Columbia, delivered speeches on topics of their choosing, and demonstrated their talents to a panel of judges.

They also spoke about their respective hometowns and built display tables to show off the communities.

During the talent portion, Simon played an original composition on the piano. Like most of the candidates, she donned a costume for her community speech. Simon dressed as a cowgirl while she described the sights and sounds of the Nicola Valley. Her display table included star-shaped chocolates with tiny handprints reminiscent of the Merritt Walk of Stars.

Asked where she performed best, Simon replies, "I think I did fairly well in everything. I couldn't say I did one stronger than the other."

She adds that she was not the top scorer in any category, however.

Simon says that until the moment she was named, she had no idea she would win.

Hume agrees. He says, "It could have gone any way. For them to be on that stage is an honour."

Hume explains that head judge Cathy Ingebrigtson selected the rest of the panel of judges from a pool of applicants and vetted them to ensure they were suitable for the job and had no connections to the B.C. Ambassador candidates.

He says, "We have no say in the final outcome. We know it's 100 per cent fair. Each candidate has an equal opportunity."

The last B.C. Ambassador chosen from Merritt was Bailee Allen in 2007. Other past ambassadors from around the Nicola Valley include Courtney Labelle of Logan Lake in 2008. Local Alexandra Edmonds won in 2002 while Merrittonians Christina Klein and Tiffany Rose both won titles in 2000.

This year, two other candidates from the area competed, Joseph Lonsdale of Lower Nicola Indian Band and Becky Taylor of Logan Lake.

Simon says she has only met once with her fellow ambassadors so far to discuss their reign.

"It's all fairly new so we don't have a concrete plan."

However, the ambassadors will be able to promote the causes they want after they have settled in, Hume says.

"Once they come into terms with the new position they have, they'll become very focused on what they want."