Miss Hawaii never missed before COVID-19

Wednesday, May 19th 2021, 12:30 PM HST by Maleko McDonnell

For the first time in its 72-year history, the pandemic canceled the Miss Hawaii Competition in 2020, and the reigning queen served a second year.

KITV4's Maleko McDonnell talks to the Executive Director, who kept the competition moving forward.
Wednesday, May 19th 2021, 12:30 PM HST by Maleko McDonnell

There's a new Miss Hawaii this week, a sign that things are starting to get back to normal around Hawaii. Events of any size might have been unsafe early in the pandemic, and emergency mandates prohibited them.
So, while this small gathering might not seem like a significant feat, it was impossible a year ago.

Blaine Dutro, the new Executive Director of the competition says "We had all of our program books, all printed, all of our candidates were ready, and then the pandemic hit us hard, as everyone knows. We didn't know what to do; we kept pushing our competition back to dates later and later. Then, we finally got word from Nationals."

The competition would be delayed, something Dutro was working towards for a long time. "I got involved with the Miss Hawaii system as a choreographer for another local preliminary. At that particular time, they were looking for festival pageants or competitions to enter the Miss America system. So my grandmother Nancy Ortiz and I started the Miss Latina Hawaii Scholarship Competition." From there, Dutro took over the State Competition in February. He's the latest in a long line of leaders whose job culminates in one goal: to make a Miss Hawaii - become Miss America.

Dutro says "The Miss Hawaii Organization has been in existence since 1948. That's a long time. We've had two Miss America's, Caroline Sapp and Angela Perez Baraquio." The last time Miss Hawaii wore the national crown was 20-years ago, so it's all eyes on Hawaii, but COVID made planning difficult. For one, everyone had to stay on their game for an extra year. "These young ladies had worked hard for two years. They had to put their lives on hold for a year to prepare for this competition and then another year."

And Crowning a new Miss Hawaii meant the last one, crowned in 2019, would have to extend her reign. "Because of this Pandemic, Miss America gave us the option as a state to ask the titleholder if they would serve one more year, and it was really up to the titleholder."

Once they got the green light. The pressure was on. "We literally only had three months to plan this, February, March, and April. From our volunteers to our emcees, from our sponsors, and even our candidates, we all followed COVID-19 procedures. We had to come up with a COVID-19 Plan for every single one of them. We had to sign a covid-19 release form making sure that everyone was accounted for and everybody was taken care of and felt safe because that was our number one priority."

Moving Forward, Dutro reflects on the significance of what everyone accomplished amid a pandemic. "I think that it's important for Hawaii is to really make sure we see the value in people, the value in what they do, and try to get back to at least some sense of normalcy."

The Miss Hawaii Competition airs at 7 PM on May 22nd and 23rd on K-KAI Channel 1050. Good Morning Hawaii Anchors, Lei U'i Kaholokula and Maleko McDonnell, emceed the event.

https://www.kitv.com/story/43921039/miss-hawaii-never-missed-before-covid19