For the first time in Snow Festival history, a tie between two of the six snow queen candidates resulted in a shared tiara - and one Snow Fest queen is an Incline High School student. On Friday IHS sophomore Casey Canino, representing the high school's leadership class, and Molly McDermott, a junior at North Tahoe High School representing the Tahoe City Rotary Interact, were jointly announced as Snow Festival Queens for 2006.

"I was jumping up and down - it was really cool," Canino said about winning the competition.

Heavy snow appropriately dressed the hair and shoulders of Canino and McDermott as they stood during the coronation ceremony at the Village in Squaw Valley before stepping back from the stage to watch the ensuing fireworks.

Canino and McDermott were selected from six candidates based on their ability to raise funds for a nonprofit of their choice, a personal essay describing extracurricular activities and an interview.

"Casey excelled at them all, she did extremely well," said Karen Willcuts, a snow festival official who helped coordinate the snow queen competition.

Willcuts said collectively the six snow queens raised more than $6,000. Fifty percent of that money goes to the snow festival and 50 percent goes directly back to the nonprofit of the candidate's choice.

"All of the candidates were amazing young women," said Jan Colyer, a snow festival volunteer who also helped organize the contest. "But what impressed me about Casey was that while she was representing Incline Village, she cares about the whole area.

Canino is a resident of Tahoe City, attends Church at the Calvary Chapel in Truckee, and attends school in Incline, where her father, Thomas Canino, teaches English.

"She said she wishes everyone felt like the North Shore and Truckee was one whole community," Coyer said. "A lot of us feel it is important not to isolate our communities."

The leadership class gave Canino a warm round of applause Tuesday morning when leadership teacher Aaron Parsons announced that she had been selected as snow queen.

"I know she did a lot of work for it," said Aislinn Murray, a member of the leadership class. "We haven't ever had a snow queen before."

IHS leadership sponsors school events such as rallies, homecoming and prom. The class is also putting together an educational class on drunk driving.

Next Thursday, March 16, the IHS leadership class is hosting a blood drive. Parsons said the public is encouraged to come by and donate blood.

In addition to sharing honors as this year's Snow Festival Queen, Canino and McDermott also each receive a $500 scholarship from Snow Festival funds.

Canino said she sends a special thanks to those who helped sponsor her candidacy: Mike Menath Insurance Inc., American family Insurance - Brett Charbonneau agency and IHS counselor Alana Brown.