Miss America postpones 100th anniversary pageant until 2021

USA - This year, Miss America was to celebrate its 100th anniversary Now, pageant organizers have decided to move the pageant to 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic. The first Miss America was crowned in 1921 in Atlantic City, but the pageant has since left New Jersey.

In December, Camille Schrier, the former Miss Virginia, was crowned Miss America 2020 at Mohegan Sun Casino & Resort in Uncasville, Connecticut. The pageant had traditionally been a September affair, but the Sewell-based Miss America Organization decided to stick with the winter schedule and had again planned to host a pageant this December.

“For the safety, health and welfare of the enormous community necessary to make the Miss America competition possible, including participants, volunteers, organizers, and fans, the Miss America Board of Directors has unanimously voted in favor of postponing the Miss America 2021 Competition and has advised the 51 qualifying competitions across the country to do so as well”, the organization said in a statement Friday.

Schrier, 24, the reigning titleholder, grew up in Newtown, Pennsylvania and attended the Hun School in Princeton. She won the pageant after performing a science experiment as her talent. Schrier gave a nod to her science background in her own statement about the postponement. She graduated from Virginia Tech with degrees in biochemistry and systems biology and is studying pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Her social impact initiative is Mind Your Meds, through which she talks about prescription drug safety and addiction.

“As Miss America 2020, a large part of my message is that science really is all around us”, Schrier said. “It is imperative that science and safety are at the forefront of our concern during this pandemic year, and it is with that in mind that I applaud the Miss America Organization’s decision to move this year’s competition to 2021.”

(NJ)