Miss Spokane To Be Selected Saturday
(From For the Record, Wednesday, October 25, 1995): Lynne Schuster is executive director of the Miss Spokane Program. Her name was misspelled in a story in Friday’s Weekend entertainment section.
Ever wondered where the contestants for the Miss America Pageant start out?
They begin by competing in small, citywide programs just like the Miss Spokane Scholarship Program, which will be held at the Spokane Falls Community College Music Building at 7:30 Saturday night.
The Miss Spokane Scholarship Program is an official Miss America preliminary. The young woman crowned Miss Spokane will go on to compete in the Miss Washington Program. That winner goes on to compete for the Miss America crown.
On Saturday, 11 young women will vie for the Miss Spokane crown.
A common misconception of the Miss Spokane program and the Miss America program is that they are beauty contests.
“It is not a beauty pageant; it is a scholarship program,” stressed Miss Spokane Executive Director Lynn Shuster. “These young ladies never had that idea in the first place. They know it’s a scholarship program and that’s why they’re in it … they want the scholarships. Every one of them, except for one, is in college.”
All prize money goes toward scholarships; the winner gets $1,000. (The first runner-up gets $500, the second runner-up receives $300, the third runner-up takes $200, and the other seven contestants each are awarded $125.)
The competition resumed seven years ago after a 25-year hiatus. Since then it has dealt out $16,000 in scholarship money.
Like other Miss America preliminaries, the contestants will be judged in four categories: interview, which comprises 30 percent of the score; talent, which is 40 percent of the score; physical fitness in swimsuit and on-stage personality and evening-wear, which combined account for 30 percent of the overall score.
The contestants have been rehearsing since the beginning of August.
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: MISS SPOKANE SCHOLARSHIP ROGRAM Location and time: Spokane Falls Community College Music Building Auditorium, 7:30 p.m. Saturday Tickets: $10 ($11 at the door)