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28/02/2016
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By Jordan Crook Chronicle Reporter Feb 27, 2016
Miss National Sweetheart Kylee Solberg, of Idaho, is crowned last September at the National Sweetheart Pageant. Recent contract changes with the Miss America Organization prohibit may prohibit contestants and judges in the Miss America Organization from competing. Photo by Jordan Crook
Update: 9:10 p.m. March 2- Organizers of the National Sweetheart Pageant met with the Hoopeston Jaycees to discuss the possible future of the pageant in light of the change in policy on the part of the Miss America Organization.
Pageant Co-Executive Director Michelle Crabtree reported that the groups will be exploring options for ways to present the pageant this Labor Day Weekend over the next month.
"After Wednesday night's meeting, pageant staff and the Hoopeston Jaycees discussed possible options, and will take the next three to four weeks to explore possibilities in hopes of hosting a pageant this Labor Day weekend," Crabtree said in a post on the National Sweetheart Pageant's Facebook page. "Additional information will be made available as decisions are made over the next 30 days."
Crabtree also expressed her appreciation for the support the National Sweetheart Pageant has received in the days since the contract change was announced.
"We want to thank everyone for your continued support," she said.
Original Story:
Organizers and supporters of the National Sweetheart Pageant received heartbreaking news Friday.
Pageant officials said Saturday that a recent contract change on the part of the Miss America Organization has prohibited contestants and judges within the organization from any further involvement in the National Sweetheart Pageant if they want to remain a part of the Miss America Organization.
The National Sweetheart Pageant has been a major event within pageant circles and the Hoopeston community for 72 years and has served as a stepping stone for several future Miss America winners.
While not officially affiliated with the Miss America Organization, the pageant has followed the Miss America Pageant rules and structure and is dependent on participation from the runners-up in the individual state pageants.
The pageant features the runners-up from various state Miss America events and has developed a strong connection with state executive directors and judges throughout the years.
For much of its existence, the National Sweetheart Pageant has been under the direction of members of the Crabtree family, starting with Odell and Dolores Crabtree, who later passed on control of the pageant to her son, Cliff, and his wife, Michelle, the current executive directors who have been involved with the pageant for roughly 20 years.
Obviously this news came as a heartbreaking shock to the pair.
The Crabtrees spoke with The Chronicle afternoon, discussing the situation and explaining how they are moving forward.
“We’re pretty devastated,” Michelle said. “It’s something we’ve been very passionate about and I think it would be a huge loss for the community as well as for the future contestants who would benefit from such a program.”
Cliff said they found about the change from some of the state pageant executive directors they have connected with through the pageant.
“Yesterday, the new contract was sent to all the state ED’s and basically the verbiage basically spells out that you cannot compete at the National Sweetheart Pageant in Hoopeston, Ill. either as a contestant, a judge, an emcee or on staff,” he said.
As of Saturday, Cliff said they hadn’t seen the changes to the contract, having confirmed it about through other directors, and had received no communication from the Miss America Organization as to why these changes were made.
“They’ve not tried to contact us,” he said.
“It took us all by surprise,” Michelle said. “We’re just kind of at a loss for words right now.”
Cliff said this essentially “pulled the rug” from underneath the organizers of the National Sweetheart Pageant.
Cliff and Michelle do plan to petition the Miss America Organization to reconsider its contract change and continue to allow contestants and judges to take part in the National Sweetheart Pageant.
Even so, Cliff said they don’t know how successful this petition will be as the decision seems to have come from the upper ranks of the Miss America Organization.
“We’re going to try to purse that avenue,” he said. “We don’t know that it will happen.”
Overall, Michelle said, they would like an explanation as to what brought the Miss America Organization to this decision.
“We would just like some answers for our own clarity,” she said.
For Callie Lankford, Miss Hoopeston 2009 and 73rd National Sweetcorn Festival Chairwoman, the lack of an open dialogue on the part of the Miss America Organization is frustrating.
“We’d like an open dialogue,” she said. “I want the dialogue to show my position and hear their position because, in the end, I want a partnership, I want to be able to make this work because I’m not ready to let it go. We’ve got 72 years in this and I’m not ready to let it go.”
Lankford said they want to know what the issue is so that it can be addressed, if possible.
Lankford is frustrated with the situation because it seems like the Miss America Organization thinks they are doing something wrong.
“It feels like we might be doing something wrong and I don’t want to feel like we’re doing something wrong, because I know we’re doing everything right,” she said. “I know we’re doing everything we can to make a difference and we’re making changes every year that will benefit the girls and benefit our community and benefit our volunteers.”
Lankford believes this move by the Miss America Organization will hurt the National Sweetheart Pageant and the National Sweetcorn Festival as well as the contestants who might have competed who are now prohibited from doing so.
“It hurts us and I personally believe it will hurt the girls we could have helped in the future,” she said.
Though they don’t know the specific reason for the change, Cliff thought it might have something to do with liability issues and the current litigious nature of society.
He said contestants do have to travel, sometimes quite far, to reach the pageant, so there might be a question of liability regarding any kind of accidents that might take place while traveling to the pageant.
As for the future of the pageant, Michelle said the plan is to meet with the Hoopeston Jaycees, as the pageant is a major part of the National Sweetcorn Festival, Wednesday to discuss the situation and try to decide how to proceed.
“Hopefully, we’ll come up with a direction where we want the National Sweetheart Pageant to be,” she said.
Michelle said the contract change obviously means they can not get contestants from within the Miss America Organization, so they will have to look into outside entities and other options.
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