‘Wicked’-ly good evening: Three crowned after tough competition

By Nick Malawskey—Sentinel reporter

nmalawskey@lewistownsentinel.com



LEWISTOWN — Residents and visitors who traveled to the Lewistown High School Saturday night were presented with a “wicked” good production as the area hosted the annual Miss Greater Juniata Valley and Miss Central Pennsylvania competitions, won by Rachel Henry and Lauren Zumpino, respectively.

The show, which started off with an imaginative number featuring former Miss Greater Juniata Valley 2006, Mallory Keith, and Miss Central Pennsylvania 2006, Brittny Sparrow, performing a duet on the song “What Is This Feeling,” from the musical “Wicked,” the theme for the evening.

But the show did not stop there. As host Rocco Pallotto promised the audience “we have an exciting show tonight,” — one that lived up to the MERF Radio DJ’s words.

This year, for the first time, there were two pageant competitions rolled into one, the Miss Greater Juniata Valley competition, from which two crowns were awarded, and the Miss Central Pennsylvania Outstanding Teen pageant, which awarded one crown.

The number of competitors for the titles had increased from the year before, with 20 young women vying for two crowns. The numbers were bolstered with the five girls competing for the teen title.

With such a large field, it was, in the words of one of the former title holders, going to be very hard for the judges to decide who to crown.

By at the end of the evening two stood out, Henry and Zumpino. Former Miss Midstate Outstanding Teen Elana LaQuatra, who last year was named first runner up at the Miss Pennsylvania Outstanding Teen Competition, was crowed Miss Central Pennsylvania Outstanding teen following the competition.

The young women introduced themselves to the crowd during the opening number, each gliding across the stage with their Miss Central Pennsylvania Princess in tow.

Following the opening number, the competition became serious, with the first of the judged competitions, evening wear, beginning.

Each of the crown hopefuls appeared on stage individually, lovely in their formal gowns. Zumpino, in addition to winning her crown, was also awarded the Evening Wear Award in Honor of Miss New York 1943 Dawn Gruenwald.

The evening wear was the first of five on-stage competitions the women competed in. Each competition was scored Olympic style by the judges, with each judge giving them a 1 to 10 score. The highest and lowest scores were then dropped.

The sixth competition, interview, had been completed earlier in the day with the girls discussing with the judges their “platform,” — an area that they feel strongly about.

After the evening wear competition, and while the women were preparing for the first round of talent competitions, Keith, Sparrow, and Miss Central Pennsylvania Outstanding Teen 2006 Calsie Marie Boyd each appeared on the stage to talk about what the year has been like since they received their crowns.

Each spoke about how exciting and busy their past year has been and how they used their crowns to promote community-minded efforts in the area.

Boyd perhaps embodied the spirit of helping others best when she said that over the past year she learned that “one person can make a difference... even if it is making a difference in one person’s life.”

Following their statements Boyd again returned to the stage to perform an interpretive dance, “Where Is Your Heart.” It was the same dance which, at the Miss Pennsylvania Outstanding Teen competition, earned her the award of fourth runner.

Following Boyd’s dance, the first of two groups of talent competition began. Because of the large number of competitors, the girls were broken into two 12-woman groups, with the teen competitors joining the second group.

And while there were several singers and dancers, including a beautiful modern ballet routing by local competitor Jade Marie Gross, the talent competition also opened the door for more eccentric pieces such as an electric violin piece by Courtney Elizabeth Thomas which jumpstarted the talent show, and a dance and jump rope routine by Emily Dawn Cunningham.

Although their talents may have been the most varied, the individual talent award was won by Sarah Timm, for her vocal performance of the song “Girl in 14G.”

Anastasia Elmiger was later awarded the Shannon Lloyd Memorial Scholarship for talent in dance for her jazz dance, “I’ve Got the World on a String,” as well as the non-finalist talent award. Jill Wiley won the teen talent award for her song, “Popular.”

And although there were a few production problems, the show went on, with each of the young women shining her her moment on the stage.

The first of the talent competitions was followed by the teen on-stage question and answered, where the teen’s individually made their way onto the stage and picked a question from a bowl which they then had to answer.

The questions ranged from “What is best about your school?” to “What is the biggest problem facing teens today?”

Each of the girls answered the questions intelligently, showing that they are concerned and aware about issues facing teens today.

Following the teen on-stage question came the Miss competitors’ on-stage interviews, but before they began, the audience was treated to a performance by a well known local singer, Chris Ruble, and the presentation of the teen’s casual wear.

The Miss contestants then entered the stage one at a time and answered questions by Pallotto regarding their platforms.

Sarah Timm, who would later be awarded the Jacqui Yanoshik Memorial Scholarship for her interview, was asked why her platform, “Go RED! — Promoting the American Red Cross in Recruitment and Education for its Dedication to Society” was so important.

Christina Maureen Keegan was awarded the non-finalist talent award for her interview on her platform “Helping Hands: Encouraging Volunteerism.”

Following the interviews, Keith again took the stage to sing “The Wizard and I,” which was followed up by the second half of the talent competition.

The night remained light-hearted throughout the competition, but was not without its tearful moments, such as when Keith, Sparrow and Boyd gave their goodbye speeches before surrendering their crowns.

Sparrow, who spoke first, said that from her days as Miss Central Pennsylvania, she would take “memories that will last a life time.”

“Your year is what you make of it ... grow against all odds,” she said as advice.

Keith said that whoever won would have “an amazing year,” and that she had had “such a phenomenal time,” as Miss Greater Juniata Valley.

Boyd called it “the greatest feeling ever,” being crowned Miss Central Pennsylvania Outstanding Teen.

It was a poignant and tearful moment when Boyd said “thank you Britt and Mallory for being like older sisters to me,” and showing her the ropes in the competitions.

“Just enjoy every moment of it,” Boyd said as advice to whoever would take her crown. “Because it will come to an end all too quickly.”

All too quickly is how the evening ended too, with each of the title holders relinquishing her crown to the woman who would follow in her footsteps

Section: News    Posted: 10/30/2006