Updates Galore!

Miss West Central Ohio's Teen Pageant

Tonight in Lima at the Allen County Fair a new Miss West Central Ohio's Teen was crowned! Miss Ohio Roberta Camp and Miss West Central Ohio Shannon O'Neill emceed the event and Kelsey Barrett entertained the crowd and crowned her successor.
The results are as follows:

West Central Ohio Teen: Monica Bates, a 15 year old dancer
1st RU: Ashley Heckman, a 12 year old vocalist
2nd RU: Veronica Wende, a 15 year old who sang "Shy"
3rd RU: Emily Werling, a 14 year old opera singer

Talent Award: Monica Bates, she performed a Musical Theatre dance to "So Long Dearie," complete with lip-sinking and gymnastics.

(P.S. Last night Kaylee Piatt won Little Miss Ohio; more about that soon, I promise...)

Best of Luck to Miss Ohio Teen USA!

This Friday, August 24th Miss Teen USA will take place live from Pasadena on NBC. Ohio is being represented by 18 year old Rachel Epperly.















CLICK HERE to get to know Rachel and see video of her preliminary Swimsuit and Evening Gown presentations and CLICK HERE for many more photos of her from Pasadena.






Poignant Pageant Farewells

Elyse Healey [right] placed in the Top 10 this year at Miss Ohio as Miss Greater Cleveland and was Third Runner-up last year as Miss Stark County. Despite her competitive abilities Elyse announced on HER BLOG this week that she will be hanging up her stilettos.

I never got to know Elyse very well, but I certainly empathize with the tiresome struggles of pageantry she describes in her well-written explanation linked above.

I am also sad to report that former contestant, Zaina Marie, has publicly severed her ties with the program due to being rejected as a judge for an upcoming local pageant. Zaina is friends with a well known and wonderful pageant coach here in Ohio and has helped with some mock interviews for contestants, as well as backstage at a few pageants. Although she does not consider herself a coach and would not have been judging women she had ever helped, there was a fear she might discredit the “image of an unbiased judging panel.”

The above information was posted by Zaina on a Miss Ohio (unofficial) message board. Like Elyse, I never really got to know Zaina, but I do know she is loved by many and won several Spirit awards while competing; this was a difficult decision for her and she will be missed.

Fabulous and Crazy!

[Above Left: Miss America Lauren Nelson with Ross the Intern of the Tonight Show; Right: Miss Michigan Kirsten Haglund atop Mackinac Bridge. It's such an amazing picture, I had to share it!]