Best of Luck to the Miss Northwestern Ohio Program!

Tomorrow night at the Defiance Auditorium the very successful Erica Gelhaus will crown a new Miss Northwestern Ohio. With this title Erica was Second Runner-up to Miss Ohio; her first year at state as Miss Lake Festival she was First Runner-up and then won the National Sweetheart pageant. A few weeks ago she captured her third MAO local crown, Miss Clayland.


[The photo above is from Erica's NWO crowning last year.]

According to the Defiance Crescent News, the women below will compete:

Courtney Monk is a 2008 graduate of Defiance High School, who now attends Anderson University in Indiana.

Alyssa Waldman is also from Defiance.

Abigail Savage is from Hicksville. I believe she is also Miss Hicksville, a community pageant.


Halie Gonwick is a senior at Hicksville High School. I believe she was First Runner-up to Miss Hicksville.




Christina Drake, of Oakwood.

Heather Waterman (of Celina) won the YaYa Sisterhood award at Miss Ohio this summer as Miss Lake Festival. She's a Marketing major at Wright State University who promotes Mentoring and is a vocalist.


Shannon Bash of Findlay is a student at Youngstown State. She’s the sister of Dani Bash, a harpist who was First Runner-up at this pageant last year.

Camille Purdy, from Parma Heights, studied at the Cleveland School of the Arts.

Heather Lindsey of Beaver Creek attends/ed Sinclair Community College; she is a vocalist who has dabbled in multiple systems. She won a Swimsuit Award two years ago at Miss Ohio as Miss Hamilton; she went on to be a Top 15 finalist at Miss Ohio USA and Second Runner-up at Miss Ohio International. Her platform is Big Brothers / Big Sisters.


Jessica Nelson was not listed in the paper, but she is also competing. Jessica studies Pre-Veterinary/Biology at the University of Toledo. Appropriately, her pageant platform is Promoting Pet Health and Safety. She's a vocalist from Delta, I believe.




Since the lovely Lauren Hogan is no longer competing, that means none of last years contestants will be in this pageant. That also means I don't have an inside contact at this pageant, so if you're attending, please comment or text me results and email me pictures!

The Miss Northwestern crew is very supportive of their winner and always put on a great show! Best of luck to everyone!