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26/08/2018
BY CAROL ROEHM
HOOPESTON – As Hoopeston marks 75 years of the National Sweetcorn Festival during Labor Day weekend this year, one Hoopeston family will celebrate its 75th year of involvement with the National Sweetheart Pageant.
This year’s National Sweetheart Pageant — which started as the Miss Sweetcorn contest in 1939 to crown a local girl as Sweetcorn Queen before officially becoming the National Sweetheart Pageant in 1941 — will see 21 contestants from across the country vying for the title of Miss National Sweetheart.
Reserved seats are $12 for the National Sweetheart Pageant preliminary at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 1, at the Hoopeston Civic Center, and $15 for the National Sweetheart Pageant finals at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 2, at the civic center.
Michelle Crabtree is the co-executive director of the pageant with her husband, Cliff, and they have been involved with the pageant for 25 years. Their daughter, Kate Moore, is the pageant director. Before their involvement, Cliff’s parents, Dolores and the late Odell Crabtree, ran the pageant for 50 years.
“It’s been in my husband’s family for 75 years,” she said. “Dolores just turned 82, and she’s chaperoning this week and the girls just adore her.”
The National Sweetheart Pageant offers contestants many opportunities to earn scholarships and cash awards. Miss National Sweetheart receives a $1,200 scholarship, an in-kind scholarship opportunity from Actors Connection in New York City worth $3,000 and a $300 scholarship from Anderson Funeral Home.
Crabtree said Actors Connection “helps with coaching and interviewing and specializes in TV and commercials.”
The first runner-up receives a $600 scholarship from the Hoopeston Jaycees, a $300 scholarship from Silgan Containers and a $1,500 in-kind scholarship from Actors Connection. The second runner-up receives a $675 scholarship from Hoopeston Jaycees, a $25 cash scholarship from an anonymous donor and a $1,000 in-kind scholarship from Actors Connection.
The third runner-up receives a $375 scholarship from Hoopeston Jaycees, a $25 cash scholarship from Crose Plumbing, Heating and Air, a $750 in-kind scholarship from Actors Connection and a $25 cash scholarship from an anonymous donor. The fourth runner-up receives a $225 scholarship from the Hoopeston Jaycees, a $25 cash scholarship from Anderson Funeral Home, a $25 cash scholarship from Mr. B’s Café, a $500 in-kind scholarship from Actors Connection, a $25 cash scholarship from an anonymous donor and a $25 cash scholarship from Hoopeston Awards and Signs.
Other cash awards include: $125 for congeniality, $150 Pat Musk talent award, $150 Ronnie Reed community service award, $100 John Bitner nonfinalist judges’ award, two $50 Misti Runge Memorial scholarship awards, two $75 STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) awards, and a people’s choice award in which money is collected and then split 50/50 with the contestant and the Feed My Lamb children’s summer food program in Hoopeston.
New cash awards this year include a $50 Bonnie Berglund parade wear award, a $50 directors’ award and a $250 Women in Business cash scholarship for a contestant who is majoring in business or graduated with a business degree.
Eight preliminary awards — two per category — will be given out for swimsuit, interview, evening gown and talent.
The National Sweetheart Pageant has never been affiliated with the Miss America Organization; however, up until 2016 judges from the Miss America circuit were invited to judge the Sweetheart pageant, which followed the rules and judging protocols of Miss America. The idea was to bring national recognition to the Sweetheart pageant, as well as provide a training pageant for contestants who might want to reenter their state’s Miss America competition in future years.
“They have all been just shy of winning their state title, so there’s a bond between them,” Crabtree said of the Sweetheart contestants. “They were always the first runner-up.”
The format of the National Sweetheart Pageant changed in 2016 so that contestants from all across the United States could compete for the title of Miss National Sweetheart. The pageant has been its own pageant but now has new guidelines since 2016 that are similar to the Miss America guidelines.
Nine Sweetheart contestants have gone on to become Miss America. They are: Pam Eldred, Miss America 1970; Rebecca King, Miss America 1974; Grace E. Ward, Miss America 1982; Debrah L. Turner, Miss America 1990; Carolyn Sapp, Miss America 1992; Leanza Cornett, Miss America 1993; Tara Dawn Holland, Miss America 1997; Katie Marie Harman, Miss America 2002; and Caressa Cameron, Miss America 2010.
“Several of them have come back to judge the pageant,” Crabtree said. “Leanza Cornett was the most recent one to come back a couple years ago.”
Crabtree still remembers one Sweetheart contestant, Katie Harman, who was crowned Miss America 2002 the weekend after the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Katie Harman came back and said if it weren’t for the Sweetheart pageant, she would have never won Miss America,” Crabtree said.
“We’re always thrilled to have the pageant, and we will continue to offer this opportunity for as long as we can,” she said. “It’s pretty exciting and pretty rewarding.
“Most of the girls who come to the Sweetheart pageant have just missed winning their state title,” Crabtree said. “We are their Miss America experience.”
IF YOU GO
Reserved seats are $12 for the National Sweetheart Pageant preliminary at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 1, at the Hoopeston Civic Center, and $15 for the National Sweetheart Pageant finals at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 2, at the civic center.
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