Manheim Township senior Rachel Hoh, 17, had a word to describe winning the title of Lancaster County's Junior Miss 2009 Saturday night.
"Wow!"
Already Lancaster Optimist Queen, Hoh insisted she was "just trying this out. I barely ever dress up or wear makeup. I'm normally a sloucher."
As Lancaster's Junior Miss, she won a $1,000 scholarship and will compete on the state level in Johnstown in November.
Editor of her school newspaper and section leader of the Township Color Guard, Hoh looked stunning in a beaded black silk sleeveless gown. And like runnersup Rachel Farneth, 16, of Solanco, and Emily Raush, 17, of Penn Manor, she never stopped smiling.
Back locally, after an absence of 10 years, the Lancaster County Junior Miss pageant was resurrected by former Junior Miss competitor Susan Hagen.
"There are more opportunities for guys to excell than gals," Hagen said at Manheim Township Middle School where the county pageant was held. "And with Junior Miss, even if you don't win, you walk away with valuable life experience."
Hagen brought county level competition back with help from her family and friends. Thirteen girls signed on initially, but 10 begged off before Saturday due to "other commitments." Still, Hagen staged both a county pageant and an "at-large" try-out at the school Saturday.
America's Junior Miss almost gave up the pageant ghost in 2005 when no national network volunteered to televise it. It was saved by "Friends of AJM" and found new life as streaming video online.
Begun in the 1920s as a floral show in Mobile, Ala. Junior Miss morphed into a national event in 1958. Contestants qualified on the basis of talent, fitness, poise, self-expression, and scholastic achievement. Past winners include Diane Sawyer, Debra Messing and Deborah Norville.
America's Junior Miss finals were televised on NBC until the mid-1990s when it jumped to the Nashville Network, and then to PAX-TV.
While the audience grew smaller, the scholarship dividends grew bigger — from $10,000 for the winner in the 1960s to $50,000 today.
By 2005, live national coverage had been dropped and the program seemed down for the count and not in a fitness routine way. But a surge of grassroots support kept the show alive to celebrate its 50th anniversary last year with the crowning of Nori Ali of Minnesota as the first Muslim America's Junior Miss.
In Pennsylvania, pageants are held in York and Lawrence counties, while four "at-large" gatherings allow girls from all over the state to try out. That's how Elizabeth Martin, 18, of Ephrata, became Lancaster's Junior Miss 2008 last year. On Saturday, she gave a gold medallion to her successor. "Once girls see how great it is to have this on your resume," Martin said. "Everyone will want to try it."
Marty Crisp is staff writer for the Sunday News. Her e-mail address is mcrisp@lnpnews.com.
