I had the best time this evening! I got to spend the night with WV Outstanding Teen’s Executive Director, Jen Gartin, and her husband Del. Although I did not know that Del was a truck driver~ I confessed my freakish love of runaway truck ramps to him and how before I died, I would like to see a truck go up one….even though I know that means they are out of control. "I just want to see if the sand and sticks really will hold the truck up there.” Stupid, I know, but the next time I go up to hide away at the Gartin residence, I get to go on a tractor trailer ride! After being fixed the World Best Morning Omelet by Del Gartin, I headed to the Hagerstown Prime Outlets for some shopping before my evening appearances. After leaving the Prime Outlets, I headed to Shepherdstown, WV for the Miss Grant County Scholarship Pageant, where I would be judging and providing entertainment.
The scholarship pageant had about 40 entries – ages 5-18 – and was put on by a 17 year old girl, Chelsea Hessler, who was only producing this pageant for her senior 4-H project. I couldn’t believe it! It was one of the best and most organized pageants I have ever been a part of. There were production numbers for each age group, commemorating Michael Jackson, and each group competed in four phases of competition – Introduction, Costume/Casual Wear, Evening Gown, On-Stage Interview. At the end, each participant received an award and the winners were crowned.
This was not a Miss America preliminary, but I feel it will soon become one. It was so well put together and promoted all of the right things. Each queen and runner-up received a crown, trophy, and a savings bond of a certain amount. This pageant did not promote beauty, but self-confidence – all the right things a pageant should be based upon.
Chelsea inspired me in many different ways. If she could, at 17, put together a pageant that hosted 40 contestants, gain the scholarship dollars, raise the money to purchase the trophies and crowns, choreograph four different production numbers, provide each girl with a T-shirt for the opening number, obtain the auditorium, decorate and find judges, the least I could do is try harder each day at being the best Miss West Virginia I know how to be. I started out my year with the quote and vision that “People are not going to remember how you looked, or what you said…they are going to remember how you made them feel.” That young lady made me feel inspired and that I could do anything I set my mind to…just like she did.
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