Miss Purdue 2009

Sunday marked my last Miss Purdue pageant. I have been the director of the program since 2005 and the 2009 program was going to be my last. I love working with the program but its more than a full time job in itself and with my already more than full time job and a baby on the way, its just not going to be possible to do it all anymore. This year I only had 8 contestants which also makes it hard. Numbers are dropping across the country and while I enjoy helping the contestants and the actual production of the show, its a lot of work to only have 8 girls compete. You don't make much money for the program with so few but the work load is still the same! This year, I started meeting with the girls mid-January and we met once a week to rehearse until the pageant yesterday. They all did a really great job and were very impressive on stage. A much closer competition that I expected, especially in the talent area. Since we had so few contestants we were only have to give out three awards and I would have been more than happy to have any of the three as Miss Purdue. In the end, a sophomore named Jackie won. She competed last year and has done a few other locals this year and you could tell she was very focused yesterday. She has a beautiful wardrobe and really let her confidence show on the stage. I was so proud of everyone but Jackie stood out this time and I look forward to getting her ready for the Miss Indiana pageant in June.


It will be hard to leave the pageant behind since I really enjoy the production of it so much. My mom used to take me to the Miss Oshkosh pageant when I was young and I performed as entertainment with my twirling group several times until I was old enough to compete myself. I never really seriously thought I would win but I loved doing it and I loved the ladies that put the program together. Once I moved to Indiana I had no idea that the pageants here were SO competitive but I tried a few before deciding to take over the Purdue program. I think I have put on some good shows and even if we have never had a Miss Indiana I would say we put in a valiant effort each year. Of course there is always more I want to do, but I think I'm ready to pass on the torch to someone else.