Miss Northern Virginia USA and Miss Northern Virginia Teen USA Pageants

This weekend, I had the pleasure to assist my dear friend, Yolanda Makle, with the Northern Virginia USA and Northern Virginia Teen USA pageants. I served as the official registration coordinator.

I could not have thought of a better event in which to kick off my reign as Ms. District of Columbia All American 2011.

Vanessa & Jade traveled with mommy to Herndon for the pageant. The girls were excited about spending time with Yolanda's daughter and her sister in a hotel. On our way to Virginia Vanessa chattered non-stop about the fun she would have sleeping at a hotel, swimming in the pool and getting massages. I had to correct her quickly that there would be no massages. She responded by saying everyone got massages at hotels which I found to be hilarious. That comment proved my daughter has watched too many episodes of Suite Life with Zack & Cody.

Well back to the original blog entry topic...Miss Northern Virginia USA and Miss Teen Northern Virginia USA.

To my joy, the pageant was a reunion of sorts for me to see some of my old pageant buddies. LaQuisha Hall was the auditor of the pageant (the last time I saw her was August of 2009) so I was extremely excited to see her. I also saw Jerri James, Dale Bradshaw and Kyle Haggerty who are long time associates. (Dale even gave me the card to the talent agency in which he operates for Vanessa because he thinks she could do commercial work!) Also after many years of knowing of one another, I met Candice Sample. We became fast friends and I will definately keep in contact with her.

Vanessa and Jade were enamored by the queens in attendance. Their favorite was the exceptionally beautiful Nikki Poteet.

Yolanda organized a great show and had the full support of her family, state team (Steve attended and assisted with interviews) and the tri-state pageant community by way of many reigning royalty supporting the competition. The pageant was as professional as any state competition or small national event.

The judge's had an extremely hard job in selecting the new titleholders because Yolanda was blessed with 14 superb contestants. They were all extremely fit, articulate AND beautiful. Many had previous pageant experience or if a newbie was knowledgable enough to seek outside assistance from a pageant coach.

The most anticipated part of any pageant competition is the crowning of the new titleholder. In addition to the preliminary titles congeniality, photogenic, evening gown and swimsuit awards were announced. The contestants bestowed the congeniality award to Vishaka Ravishanker. Emily Hall was selected most photogenic. Riley Campbell won both the evening gown and swimsuit awards.

At the conclusion of the pageant Riley Copans was crowned Miss Teen Northern Virginia and Emily Hall won the coveted Miss Northern Virginia USA title.