Nine to vie for Homecoming Queen crown
Nine young ladies from area high schools will showcase their charisma, personalities and talents on the Buck Shaffer stage inside the Porterville Memorial Auditorium Saturday as they compete for the crown of Miss Porterville/ Veteran’s Homecoming Queen.
This year marks the 73rd annual pageant, and it is also the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day. Event organizers will be commemorating the occasion during the pageant as well as during this year’s Veterans Day Parade.
The pageant will take place on Saturday, November 3rd at the Porterville Memorial Auditorium. Doors will open at 6 p.m. and the pageant will begin at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free but donations are always welcome. Donations will go to the Veterans Homecoming Committee, who puts on the pageant and the Veterans Day Parade each year.
This year’s pageant is the second under the direction of Emmylou Dowling, who was Homecoming Queen in 2008. She has been working with this year’s contestants over the past several weeks to polish up their stage presence and help with their individual talent performances.
“I’m just really proud of them, and I can’t wait to see them perform at the pageant this Saturday. I know they’re all going to do well,” said Dowling.
In addition to their individual talent performances, the contestants will perform a World War I-themed dance as
a group to the tunes of ‘It's a Long Way to Tipperary” and “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-bag” in honor of the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day.
“The routine is more of a drill or a march than an actual dance, in keeping with the theme of Armistice Day and that time period,” said Dowling. “They've done an amazing job preparing for it and I can't wait for the public to see.”
To participate in the pageant, contestants must be a high school senior girl attending a high school in Porterville school districts with a GPA of 2.0 or higher.
Contestants will be judged in four main categories: her essay (given to the judges prior), her backstage interview (which takes place early afternoon on the same day as the pageant), her poise/personality (which includes an onstage interview), and her talent.