Letter to the Editor

Community supports local pageants

Friday, November 4, 2011

To the editor:

No wonder contestants want to be in the Northeast Arkansas and Lights of the Delta Pageants. The community support that the association and titleholders receive is amazing.

And now, some special groups have stepped in and helped contestants raise their required donation to the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. CMNH is Miss America's philanthropic organization. Each contestant competing in a Miss America Preliminary pageant is required to raise a minimum donation. After being in several pageants, this becomes hard for the contestants.

But the Blytheville Kiwanians, Lions and Tenaris Corporation have helped our contestants. The contestants have asked me to "thank you very much" for this help. Several stated, "We hope we win because being a part of the Blytheville community would be great!"

I'd also like to thank everyone that has is a pageant patron. This is our 30th year to have our pageant in Blytheville, and it has continued to be successful because of the support that we receive every year from our patrons. The Lights of the Delta Pageant was honored as "Open Pageant of the Year" at the Miss Arkansas Pageant in July, and a huge part of that is due to the generosity of the patrons and the Lights of the Delta Board. So, thank you all for this honor. Because of our patrons, we are increasing the amount of scholarships that we give in both pageants this year.

Finally, thank you to Eva Lee Graves for organizing our "sheet sale fundraiser" and to everyone for buying sheets from us. Due to the success of this, the "Grinch" will stay in his cave this year. We're looking forward to great pageants on Nov. 25 and 26 at Blytheville High School and invite you to come see some of the most talented young women in the state.

Marrietta Jerome
Executive director of Northeast Arkansas and Lights of the Delta Scholarship Pageants