Elizabeth Larsen (Mrs. Washington 2009) and I - Our first day judging the 2010 National American Miss Pageant held at the Marriott Hotel in Anaheim California - home to Disneyland!What an honor it was to be asked to judge a national pageant of this caliber. There must have been at least 1,200 girls competing for National American and All American titles from all across the nation. The pageant is a week long and requires at least 30 judges to cover the various competitions which lead up to the final pageants. In four days I had accumulated approximately 32 hours of judge time.
One of our judges coordinator's, Steve Strosnider, did an amazing job taking care of all the judges. Not only was he informative in training us on what our task was for each competition, but he was very entertaining - one of the funniest guys I have ever met!
Miss Yakima County, Jerrica Fowler, was one of my fellow judges.
Elizabeth and I on our second day of judging.
Finally got to meet the Event Coordinator for the National American Miss Pageant - Janie Lusignan. I was in fantastic company at the Annual National American Miss Thanksgiving Dinner. She is amazing!
Another fellow judge, Mrs. American Dream (Sue Pardu). Sue also has a special needs child. I so enjoyed meeting her - what an inspiration!
Pictured above with the Founder and President of the National American Miss Pageant - Steve Mayes. He also is a former founder of the Miss American Co-ed Pageant which was my first pageant I competed in when I was 16 years old. It was so nice to thank the man who planted the first seed in my journey of pageantry!
On our third day, Elizabeth and I in the Ballroom Lobby of Marriot Anaheim before judging the final pageants of the Princess and Jr. Pre Teen divisions. As you can see the hotel is very festive for the Holidays!
Our last day of judging. Elizabeth in the middle with fellow judges getting ready for interviews in one of the many ballrooms of the Hotel Marriot.
Waiting for interviews to start. In one day I interviewed over 300 girls! Wow, what an experience! I so wish I could have had this opportunity before heading to Mrs. America - I learned so much and would have been the wiser for it :)! Oh well, lets hope this new found wisdom will hopefully help and encourage future Mrs. Washington's!
Saying good bye to one of my favorite fellow judges - Steve Brokaw. His whole family actually takes part every year in helping to make the National American Miss Pageant a success. His wife runs the National American Miss Pageant Store and his daughters enjoy helping out behind the scenes.
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