Miss Redwood City pageant returns home
Scholarship competition at Fox Feb. 10
By Kathy Schrenk
Staff Reporter
January 29, 2002
For a year, Alison Wood was a local celebrity. She signed autographs, wore a tiara and gracefully waved to admirers from atop parade floats.
Now she's ready to pass on her crown - on home turf.
The competition Feb. 10 at the Fox Theater is something of a homecoming, said pageant Executive Director G.H. Armour.
For decades the competition - which is open to women aged 17 to 24 who live, work or attend school in San Mateo County - has been held at various venues outside the city, including Foothill College, Armour said.
Wood is excited about being part of the pageant's return to Redwood City. "There's something so innocent and sweet about the local pageant," said Wood. "Redwood City... is small enough, you still have a local feel."
Wood, a Spanish teacher at BurIingame High School, got her start in pageants as a student at Fresno State University. A friend talked her into competing. The next thing she knew, she became Miss Clovis.
In 2001, her last year of eligibility, she became Miss Redwood City.
"It was my last year so it was really stressful. I put pressure on myself because it was my last time," Wood said.
But the opportunities that she gained made it worthwhile.
"I've made some really lasting friendships," said Wood. Contestants become close, even though they're all competing for the same crown. "Any time you get together and create a piece of art, you create these familial bonds. That part I love the most."
Plus. she's been able to use the scholarship money for continuing education credits.
For next month's Miss Redwood City pageant. Armour hopes to give $5.000 in scholarships through donations. Some of the scholarship money is distributed to each contestant, she said.
And beyond the money, the young women learn skills such as interviewing. "We consider ourselves a women's mentoring organization," Armour said. "We're trying to turn girls into role models."
Community service is a big part of being in the competition, according to Armour. The judges are looking for women who are intelligent, articulate, charming, physically fit and who have "lots of vibrancy and energy." she said.
Encouraging these qualities helped many young women back in the '60s and '70s blossom, said Donna Badella, who ran many of the Miss Redwood City pageants in those days.
"It's an important program. To watch them grow ... I think at the end of that year they have so much confidence." Badella said. She likened witnessing the transformation of contestants preparing for competition to "watching a rose open up from a bud to a flower."
The Feb. 10 pageant will include autograph signings by Miss California winners from the past four years.
Armour would like to include a historical element to the show by introducing former Miss Redwood City winners. She encourages any former Miss Redwood City who would like to participate to call her at (408) 375-5793
Upcoming events at the Fox
In addition to the Miss Redwood City competition, Fox Theater co-owner John Anagonostou announced other upcoming shows: Jackson Browne, Feb. 27; George Thorogood and the Destroyers, March 17; Bill Cosby, Sept. 7; San Francisco Commedy Competition Finals, Oct. 12; Vienna Boys Choir, Nov. 1; and Itzhak Perlman, Jan. 8, 2003. For. Information or tickets call 369-4119. |
