Miss Miami Pageant Comes to Overtown

The Miss Miami Scholarship Pageant, an official preliminary to the Miss America pageant, will be held this Sunday at the Historic Lyric Theater in Overtown. For those unfamiliar with this pageant, or scholarship pageants in general, Miss Miami is a local competition whose winners advance to the Miss Florida pageant in July. The winner of that goes on to Miss America and then, most likely, fame and success for the rest of her life. Or at the very least, some scholarship money. Far cry from a little theater in Overtown to the bright lights of Las Vegas, you say? Don’t tell that to last year’s winner Allison Kreiger. After being crowned Miss Miami a year ago, Allison went on to win Miss Florida and just returned from competing for Miss America in January. She will be hosting the event along with an unnamed correspondent from this website.

The Miss Miami competition, as is the case with all local pageants, will begin with a private interview where each contestant will be asked about current events, her platform, and a variety of other issues the judges may deem pertinent. While the audience will never see the interview, it actually accounts for nearly half of a contestant’s score. This may explain the “Why on Earth did she win?” reaction many people have when watching a scholarship pageant for the first time. The actual pageant that you can attend consists of Talent, Lifestyle and Fitness in Swimsuit, and Presence and Poise in Evening Wear competitions. There will be some performances and other surprises thrown in, and the event will conclude with the crowning of Miss Miami and Miss Sun Coast and their runners up. (Should, for any reason, Miss Miami be unable to fulfill her duties….) Each titleholder will receive a $500 scholarship to be used towards her educational goals and will compete at Miss Florida in July.

The Miss America Scholarship Pageant system is the world’s leading provider of scholarship money to young women, last year providing over $45 million in cash and scholarships on the local, state and national levels. The executive director of the pageant is 2001 Miss Florida Kelly Gaudet, who is producing the event for the first time. The Miss Miami pageant begins at 6 PM Sunday, March 11 at the Lyric Theater located at 819 NW 2nd Ave in Miami. If you have never been to one of these events before, I highly suggest you try it as a new life experience. You will be impressed by the intelligence, talent, and heart of the young ladies competing as well as the excitement and class that come with any event in the Miss America system. And who knows, you may be watching the Miss America pageant on TV next January and say “Hey, I saw her back at the Lyric in March. That girl was REALLY good.”

Related Categories: Miami: Local News, About the Author: Matt Meltzer is a featured columnist at Miami Beach 411. See more articles by Matt Meltzer. See more articles by Matt Meltzer Was This Post Helpful? Please Share It With Others! Tweet

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