Well, the time has come and I know a *little* more about the sweetheart pageant.
The pageant will be held September 4th, 5th, and 6th (Friday --> Sunday) in Hoopeston, Illinois! If you need any additional information, please feel free to contact me at (209) 735-0300 or jmharvey@ucdavis.edu. I don't expect to have a big cheering section as it IS a few thousand miles away and all!
I found this really great article and I liked what it said, so I am sharing my favorite parts:
Perhaps no major American pageant is so little known to the public as National Sweetheart, but few pageants are so deserving of attention. It's a durable success story, founded on the unselfishness of one small town.
The friendly farming community of Hoopeston, Illinois, has been the home of the National Sweetcorn Festival since early in the 20th century. For the first few decades of this annual September extravaganza, the highlight was the Miss National Sweetcorn Pageant, for local girls. But in the 1940s, the concept changed. The town decided to invite first runners-up from Miss America state preliminaries to compete, and it changed the pageant's name to Miss National Sweetheart. A state's second runner-up could participate if the first runner-up declined.
It was an inspired idea. Being a runner-up is a uniquely uncertain feeling, somewhere between pride and disappointment. Hoopeston, so far from the bright lights of Atlantic City, offered these accomplished young women more honors, more opportunities and more scholarship money.
National Sweetheart is Miss America's charming country cousin, but the two pageants have no official connection. Unlike Miss America, the contest in Hoopeston spends little money on publicity. And it makes few demands on winners, beside having them preside over the festival.
The town doesn't even require winners to come back and crown their successors. Sometimes, Miss National Sweetheart wins her state crown the next year, and she's already competing at the Miss America Pageant by the time her reign ends. So Miss Hoopeston crowns the new winner. Several Miss Americas and numerous state titleholders have been Sweetheart winners.
If you're ever in Hoopeston, and you're a person who likes to talk about the positive side of pageantry, remember to thank the local folks for what they're doing. And don't forget to sample their sweetcorn.
Apparently, California has never won, so my eyes are on the big prize!
