At one point in most any young girl’s life, she dreams of walking Miss America runaway in Atlantic City, N.J. Some are content to wear tinfoil crowns and imagine how that moment might feel. Others work really hard and earn the opportunity to compete in the annual pageant.
Through my involvement as a Miss America Organization volunteer, I have been fortunate enough to share in a lot of these dream-come-true moments.
And, to be honest, it’s been almost as good as winning myself. This year has been a very special pageant year for me. I have been able to watch three people prepare for a truly life-changing experience.
I’ve known Allison Leigh “Big Al” Alderson since 1994. From the moment I met her, I knew she had the qualities to become Miss America. As I was introduced to her that night at the Miss Milan No-Till Pageant, I told her about my observations. She smiled, thanked me and told me that, in time, she might give it a try.
As our friendship has grown over the years, so has my insistence that she become Miss Tennessee. As long as I live, I will never forget June 19, 1999, and the excitement I felt as I watched Heather Heath place that crown on Allison’s head.
A few weeks ago I attended her Atlantic City send off in Jackson. After showing off her new wardrobe and her talent for the national pageant, Allison thanked everyone who had ever supported her. She added that while wearing her new evening gown, she felt like a real princess. Laughing, she stated that those of us who really knew her, knew she had actually been one for 22 years - or at least had been treated like one.
Several months ago, I became acquainted with a girl from Kansas. She was a Miss Kansas contestant and was in school at Oklahoma City University. We began exchanging email and chatting via AOL’s Internet Messaging system.
Through that I learned a lot about Leah Darby, who I quickly nicknamed Derby Darby when I found out her Miss Kansas title was Miss Derby. When the tornadoes were sweeping through Oklahoma City and the surrounding areas last spring, I suddenly realized how much Leah had grown to mean to me. I frantically sat by the computer that night, hoping to see her log onto the Internet. The relief I felt when she finally signed on at 2 a.m. is truly indescribable.
After Leah won the Miss Kansas title in June, we began emailing a little more often. Through her, I have gotten to know her mom, Sue Darby, and from the both of them I have been able to share in her Miss America preparations even from a few states away. To say it has been special for me is an understatement.
Someone who has overcome depression in her own life, Leah has made that her pageant platform. With this, she hopes to help others find answers, awareness or help. Before Leah left for Miss America, I asked her how she felt about the whole experience.
“I have to say the most profound and rewarding thing I’ve experienced as Miss Kansas, and hope to experience as Miss America, is the steady flow of ‘thank you’s,’ etc. I receive from strangers. It blows my mind when someone walks up to me and feels comfortable enough to tell me about their experience with depression, and/or encourage me about my platform,” Leah told me. “That’s what lets me know that I’m impacting lives, and impacting them positively; it’s what drives me onward in this ‘crusade’ of sorts.
Another contestant I’ve had the opportunity to get to know this summer is Miss New Hampshire Brandee Helbick. After reading about her pageant platform, I emailed Brandee with a couple of questions and from that email we became friends.
Brandee and I chatted online one night for hours about pageant competition and wardrobe - sometimes with me erupting into gales of laughter thinking about giving out clothing tips. Although it’s true that I can’t dress myself at times, I can truly tell others what looks best on them.
Allison and Leah won on their first attempt at their state pageants. For Brandee, it took a bit more time. “Going to the Miss America Pageant is the culmination of five years of hard work,” Brandee told me right before she left for Atlantic City. “It has been an amazing process for me. I have come to know a great deal more about myself and my place in the world.” For Brandee, getting prepared to go to the national pageant was more than eating right and finding the perfect wardrobe.
“Preparing for Miss America is more than just getting into good physical condition and picking out a great wardrobe,” she explained. “It involves a lot of soul searching. You really need to know who you are as a woman and what is important to you.
“Perhaps the most gratifying aspect of my preparation has been developing my platform - educational disabilities awareness,” Brandee added. “It has meant a great deal to me as someone who has physical and educational challenges to have the forum to educate the public about the abilities that people like myself have.”
These are just three of the 51 contestants who are competing for the coveted title. Though I won’t pretend to have an inside edge to next weekend’s outcome, I have a pretty good idea of what will transpire. Allison, Leah and Brandee are winners from what they have achieved and who they are.
I am a winner just by having known them. And a better person because they call me their friend.
/////////////////***************////////////////////Trip was fantastic in spite of looming problems
Describing the last Miss America Pageant of the millennium is best done by modifying the opening line of a Charles Dickens novel -- it truly was the best of times and the worst of times.
Between controversy over pageant rules changes, a casino hotel workers strike and Hurricane Floyd blowing up the coast, potential trouble of all sorts was brewing in Atlantic City.
Around midnight Tuesday, after all this was hitting at once, I even questioned why I had even traveled there. I’d gone there with several objectives in mind: to watch some of my friends compete for the coveted national title and to spend some time with fellow pageant enthusiasts from across the country. Jami Vitale, my friend from Pennsylvania, and her mom, Kathy, picked me up at the Philadelphia airport Tuesday and we “road tripped” over to Atlantic City. After checking into the hotel and securing my press credentials, the games officially began for us.
Tuesday night began the preliminary competition where all 51 contestants are divided into three groups. Each group competed in either swimsuit, talent or evening wear with only the swimsuit and talent winners being announced every night.
Also during Tuesday night’s event, I finally got to see my friends Leah Darby, Miss Kansas; Sue Darby, her mom; Brandee Helbick, Miss New Hampshire; as well as several other people I’d been trying to find since I’d gotten to Atlantic City.
Since the weather outside was dreary on Wednesday and my friend Allison “Big Al” Alderson, Miss Tennessee, had talent rehearsal that morning, the biggest part of the day was spent in Convention Hall itself. While watching the contestants practice, I found a few more of my friends and also met a couple of folks I’d tag real characters.
When my roommate Debi Swarner and I woke up Thursday morning, it was evident Floyd was on his way to see us. From our almost ocean view room we could see the waves had gotten higher and the wind has gotten a lot more fierce.
Where most folks would get a bit nervous, I just got a bit excited about the opportunity to actually see a hurricane in action. I donned my St. Louis Cardinals Starter jacket and University of Kansas cap and hiked over to the rehearsals. The Boardwalk was virtually empty with most people having a bit more sense than to play outside.
During the lunch break, I ran over to Ocean One, the mall that juts out into the Atlantic, to grab a Philly cheesesteak sandwich. After lunch, I decided to go out onto the observation deck of the mall to see what Floyd was doing. The second floor didn’t offer the view I wanted so I climbed the steps to the third floor. Still looking for the right “Kodak moment,” I carefully climbed the steps to the mall roof. That is when I realized Floyd wasn’t in any mood to play with a naive Southerner.
I quickly shot my picture and headed back toward the steps. Well, tried to head back toward the steps is more like it. In that short time, the wind had picked up a lot and was blowing me as if I weighed no more than a Raggedy Ann doll.
For a split-second I was a bit afraid and could see the headline of The Atlantic City Press: “Floyd blows stupid tourist off top of Ocean One.”
I finally got downstairs with little more than my pride injured and decided to go back to Convention Hall to weather the storm. When I got in there, I found my friend Jolie Lindley who I’d met during my first trip to Atlantic City.
Almost as quickly as Floyd blew in, he was history. The sun came out and the rest of the week and weekend was virtually perfect. Friday was the scheduled Community Hall party at Planet Hollywood. CH is a board on the Internet where several of us MAO volunteers hang out from time to time. Many of us have become really good friends and were grateful for the opportunity to get to hang out.
Friday night was the Boardwalk parade where contestants ride by in onvertibles and parade watchers yell, “Show us your shoes.” My feet hurt so badly, I took my shoes off, put them under my friend Wendy’s seat and sat down on the Boardwalk to shoot photos. Every now and then someone would yell “Where are your shoes?” at me trying to be funny.
Saturday, my friend Jack Carr and I ventured off the Boardwalk and over to the Sheraton Hotel where we looked at memorabilia and I had my photo made with the bronze Bert Parks statue that holds a replica of the Miss America crown and plays part of “There She Is” when you try it on for size.
We took the Rose Walk back to the Boardwalk, taking time to read almost every Miss America quote. I took photos of the plaques of the Miss Americas who were connected to me and even had a special photo made just for my friend Tara Dawn Holland, Miss America 1997.
Though I didn’t have Heather French, Miss Kentucky, pegged as the winner, I think she will have a successful year of service. And will be a good Miss America.
The trip home somewhat fell in rhythm with the rest of the trip - I ended up at the wrong lobby, but was assured the bus that I was getting on would get me to the airport in time to catch an earlier flight than I’d originally planned to take. But I didn’t make it. So I ended up sitting in the Philadelphia Airport for six hours.
But it wasn’t all bad. Leah ended up on the bus and since Kansas isn’t quite as close to Mississippi as I’d like for it to be, I was able to spend some quality time with her I might not otherwise have anytime soon.
My photos are all printed and in an album, and I have some things to put into a scrapbook. I bought a few trinkets, but opted to bring most of my money home to help pay for film processing and to get my dog out of “hock.”
My favorite souvenirs, though, aren’t made of paper or cloth. Instead they are the bonds that were made stronger because of the trip. And the memories of watching my friends’ dreams of Miss America competition come true in Atlantic City.
